A few years ago I got (on my vacation) a panicky call from a friend who I knew through local community theater. He was involved in a local production of “Steel Magnolias” and was set to open in days, but the director had gotten a cease and desist order claiming a violation of copyright […]
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HOA Meetings
I know, your HOA meeting is boring, at a bad time, at a bad place, and it is just a bunch of people complaining. Still, there are good reasons to attend these meetings. This article goes into more depth, but the major reason in my opinion is the election of directors. No matter how entrenched […]
Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors
Movies and sitcom episodes have been made about feuding neighbors. One way is so prevalent that it has entered the language of the law. While a landowner has the right to build a fence along her boundary line, that right is not absolute. The “spite fence” is one that is of no beneficial use to […]
Congratulations
Bradley Coxe has been awarded certification as a Top 100 Litigation Lawyer Award for North Carolina by the American Society of Legal Advocates.
Real Estate Closings
New information on our residential real estate closings.
Damages for Non-Compete Clauses
I’ve written before about non-compete clauses, particularly for employment contracts. Basically, the law allows for an agreement in an employment contract or contract for the sale of a business to limit that employee or former employee from competing with their former employer. As long as the competition is reasonably restricted as to how long it […]
New Laws in North Carolina Taking Effect Today–Happy New Year!
New laws in North Carolina for January 1, 2016
Email Meetings
Homeowner Associations and other non-profit corporations are frequently managed by unpaid and part-time executive board members. These folks usually don’t think anything is wrong with circulating emails trying to make a decision, rather than the more tedious and time-consuming work of conducting an actual meeting. However, attempted action done in this manner is not the […]
The Pretty Committee
Many homeowner associations have an architectural review committee or board, whose job it is to oversee the appearance and structure of homeowner’s lots and enforce the declarations and the rules of a planned community. The declarations limit the amount of power the ARC has over each homeowner’s lot. Some are limited only to setbacks and […]
Hodges Coxe Potter & Phillips LLP wins appeal at 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
The appeal involved impact fees assessed by New Hanover County and the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority without legal authority and for water and sewer services that were not furnished or planned to be furnished. 4th Circuit Opinion
But it was the other guy’s fault!
I’ve written before on contributory negligence, but this article does a good job of providing examples and showing how the insurance companies can use this old common law doctrine to deny claims in North Carolina. Periodically, the legislature considers adopting comparative fault, where some responsibility of the incident by the injured person does not completely […]
Motor Vehicle “Accidents”
This article explores why we shouldn’t use the term “accident” in describing every car wreck. Even lawyers for injured people in car crash cases fall prey to using the wrong words and communicate the wrong ideas even if the facts are right. While the defendant in a car wreck may not have intended to hurt […]
50 New North Carolina Laws Have Just Taken Effect
All or portions of nearly 50 laws passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory during this year’s legislative session took effect Thursday. Here’s a look at some of the most significant or interesting changes.
Shut Up and Sit Down
Courtroom lawyers like to talk. It’s a fairly necessary skill when arguing before a judge or jury. The trouble is sometimes a lawyer forgets that talking is just means to an end, not the end itself. Lawyers have to remember they are talking with a purpose. They are talking to persuade a judge or jury […]
4th Circuit Argument
Attorney Bradley Coxe’s argument in Richmond at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.He comes in at the 18:20 mark. His part was actually kind of boring. The judges made most of his points when they drilled the other attorney. http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/OAarchive/mp3/14-1778-20150915.mp3
“Aggressive” Lawyers
I ran across a good article about negotiating tips. While not specific to the legal profession, these ideas are useful in many cases. Every case in North Carolina where one side sues another, there exist times for negotiation. This can be informal between attorneys in addition to a formal mediation. If you are participating in […]
This Land is Your Land; This Land is My Land.
When I was in law school at the University of North Carolina, I remember learning and studying and sweating out an exam question regarding the principle of adverse possession. I also remember thinking there was no way I was ever going to need all this weird real property law in the 20th and the soon […]
DIY Law
My wife wishes I were more “handy.” With a design degree and architectural employment experience, she laments the fact that I don’t have an unlimited general contractor’s license and can’t put up crown molding, or refurbish a kitchen, or install a new shower. Some things, after a free consultation at Lowe’s or Home Depot, I […]
Vega$
Every attorney who tries cases to juries has lost cases they should have won, and won cases they should have lost. One local judge told me once that he figured this out years ago when he was served with a paternity suit one morning and a divorce on the grounds of impotency that same afternoon…and […]
Happy Fourth of July
“Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness […]