I’ve written before about amending the Declarations for a homeowner association. A new case handed down this month by the North Carolina Court of Appeals could make it harder for an HOA to amend the Declarations to their liking. The Linville subdivision in north Raleigh began construction in 2003. As an incentive to builders to […]
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One of the more frustrating things a homeowner association board deals with is unpaid assessments. I’ve written before about how the fees and costs of collecting a valid assessment can greatly exceed the amount of the assessment. Occasionally, a board will try and put social pressure on delinquent owners to pay by publishing lists of […]
Did I eat that?
Occasionally I will get a phone call from a person looking to see if they have a lawsuit for something in their food. I've had people complain about bugs, wood, glass, bone, plastic and other more gruesome things. One locally famous case found a finger. Apart from a certain entertainment value that appeals to my […]
Trade Secrets
The law in North Carolina tends to support the ability of people to work for who they want, and when they want. In most cases, with at-will employment, an employee can leave a job whenever they want to work for another company who may provide them more pay or benefits. On the other hand, the […]
Career Day
A few days ago, I spoke at a local middle school for a careers class. Thanks to some links from the North Carolina Bar Association, I was able to download and print out for the students a mini-mock trial for them to do in class. I had 4 witnesses, 3 lawyers for the plaintiff and […]
Amending Your HOA’s Declarations
In North Carolina, the Declarations (also called restrictive covenants) are the main governing document of a homeowner’s association. While the general statutes of the state remain the ultimate authority, they give a large amount of leeway to a planned community to craft its own governing documents. Usually the Declarations are pulled from a boilerplate set […]
Suing the School
Our kids spend thousands of hours in the public schools of North Carolina. Not only are they on school grounds for classroom work, they participate in a vast amount of after school activities such as cheerleading, baseball, football and other sports. Just like a store or a private residence, negligence can occur from the actions […]
Indemnity, Exculpatory and Hold Harmless
Cropped screenshot of title from the trailer for the film Double Indemnity (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Has this ever happened to you? You are getting ready to race go-karts, rent a truck, scuba dive, or lease a storage unit and the owner hands you a document to sign. Maybe you read over it, maybe you just […]
Florida gets one right.
The Supreme Court of Florida rejected the state legislature’s cap on medical malpractice damages. Essentially they found that the cap discriminated unfairly. A person who was injured by the negligent fault of a doctor or health care provider would have the amount of their actual damages, as determined by a jury, limited. A person damaged […]
Breaking up is Hard to Do.
I have just completed a two and half day trial where I represented one of the owners of a small business. After working together for over ten years, the two parties split up, both professionally and personally. Although the two parties could agree that the business was over and should be dissolved, they had very […]
Insurance Adjusters
After you are involved in a car accident, but before you retain an attorney, you are in a critical and dangerous time. You begin dealing with insurance company representatives in an effort to get compensation for your personal injury or damage to your car or other property. Even the most fair and honest claims representative […]
Two Tenants, One Apartment.
I recently competed a semi-famous one-act play entitled “Box and Cox.” The play is a 19th century farce about two men. Cox works all day as a hatter, and Box works all night as a printer. An enterprising landlord, Mr. Bouncer, decides to rent them the same room without telling them. This works remarkable well, until […]
Should HOAs file liens?
I’ve written before about the lien procedure required when a homeowner’s association is attempting to collect on past due assessments. Some of the HOAs I’ve worked with have annual assessments as low as $50, but still have a handful of people who neglect or refuse to pay. My staff is trained on the process of […]
Who’s in Charge Here?
Most Non-profit corporations, including homeowner associations, have a volunteer, part-time executive board, with a full-time professional manager, management company, or executive director. The relationship between these two parties can get tumultuous. After a large turnover in board membership, the new board members may see the professional manager as a holdover and supporter of the old […]
Insurance for Homeowners and Homeowner Associations
Under Chapter 47C for condominiums and 47F for other planned communities, a homeowner’s association is required to purchase certain types of insurance. In both types of communities, the HOA is required to provide insurance for damage to the common elements of the association. A common element is anything owned by the association, and not an […]
Always On
When you are called to go to court for your own case, or as a witness in somebody else’s case, hopefully your attorney or the attorney calling you has prepared you for your testimony. You should have some idea as to the questions he will ask, the answers you will give, the cross-examination topics […]
Prelitigation Mediation for Homeowner’s Associations
One of the new laws for homeowner associations in North Carolina is a law “encouraging” parties with a dispute with their HOA to try and resolve the dispute before filing a lawsuit. The statute provides for a voluntary prelitigation mediation that is similar to a mediation required in every North Carolina Superior Court case. […]
Preventative Medicine
Once I had to explain to one of my kids why they had to brush their teeth every night. I told them I knew it was a hassle and took up ten minutes that they could use to play Angry Birds, but it was important because they could get cavities and we’d have to go […]
Bicycle Safety
Sometimes, even the safest automobile driver will ignore rules that they wouldn’t think to disobey in a car. However, the law of North Carolina considers a bicycle a “motorized vehicle” and expects a bicycle rider to obey the same rules of the road as an automobile bicycle rider should always go with the flow of […]
Bursts
I had a meeting the other day with a client who was concerned about the status of his lawsuit. We represent him for the death of his father due to medical malpractice. Not surprisingly, he is constantly thinking about his father and his lawsuit, pouring over medical records, doing his own medical research and analyzing […]