News Roundup
The unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia continues to dominate the national news this week. USA Today reports that the high court appeared to be split in a […]
When CRV Is Worse than Revocation
Some felony probationers ordered to serve a period of confinement in response to violation (CRV) wind up spending more time behind bars than they would have if their probation been […]
Who Can Be a Supreme Court Justice?
My daughter came home from elementary school last week with notecards seeking support for her nomination to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. I think that is […]
North Carolina Court of Appeals Issues Ruling on a Strip Search by Law Enforcement Officers
In 2013, I wrote two posts on strip searches by law enforcement officers, which are available here and here. This post discusses the first published North Carolina appellate court strip […]
Three Ways to Lose the Right to Counsel?
In an opinion last week, the court of appeals helpfully summarized the law about how a defendant may lose the right to counsel, and may have recognized a new way […]
News Roundup
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died during the weekend at a hunting ranch in Texas. As the Washington Post reports, his unexpected death has enormous political and legal consequences. […]
Advising a Defendant Who Does Not Speak English of His Implied Consent Rights
I almost missed this one. While I regularly monitor the published opinions of our state’s appellate courts, I generally skip the unpublished decisions. So I initially overlooked the court of […]
Is Entering a Store After Having Been “Trespassed” Chargeable as Felony Breaking or Entering?
In a session that I taught for magistrates, I learned that there is a practice in some districts of charging suspects with felony breaking or entering of a building when […]
Legal Ethics and Social Media
The number of lawyers using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media networks grows daily. So too does the number of lawyers doing foolish and unethical things on those networks. […]
Special Sentencing Rules
Aside from a few notable exceptions (impaired driving, drug trafficking, and first-degree murder), most North Carolina crimes are sentenced under Structured Sentencing. Some crimes have additional sentencing wrinkles—a kind of […]