The feelings of panic and helplessness that overcame us as we watched Hurricane Florence ravage our state have dissipated only slightly as the skies have cleared. The persistent question remains: “How can I help?”
The North Carolina Bar Association and Foundation have several answers to that question. Among them is NC Disaster Legal Services (NC DLS), a collaborative effort to provide immediate pro bono legal assistance to survivors of Hurricane Florence, supported by the North Carolina Bar Association, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association and Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC).
Volunteers who worked with NC DLS following Hurricane Matthew in 2016 keenly understand the powerful ways this program can support victims who are facing legal questions and conundrums they have never been faced with before. After Matthew, nearly 200 North Carolina lawyers volunteered to assist more than 300 storm survivors. The comments of a few of them below attest to the power of this volunteer work.
https://www.ncbarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Florence.jpg8502375NCBARBLOGhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBARBLOG2018-09-18 16:35:002018-09-26 08:19:12Providing Legal Aid To Hurricane Florence Victims Will Help Them -- and You
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00SportsandEntertainmenthttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngSportsandEntertainment2018-09-17 12:58:232018-09-17 22:30:10Items Of Interest: President Trump, the Iranian Nuclear Deal and the FIFA World Cup
In an age of ever-increasing workforce transience, employers often seek ways to incentivize employees to commit to their organization through benefit programs such as relocation expenses, tuition reimbursement, sign-on and/or retention bonuses, and other monetary advances. Employers also spend a considerable amount of time and money training new employees. In an effort to recoup the monies advanced and costs incurred in association with efforts to attract talented workers, Employers often enter into repayment agreements with employees to recoup wages fronted to, or costs incurred on behalf of, employees. Moreover, these repayment agreements routinely contain terms purporting to allow employers to deduct from an employee’s last paycheck upon separation. Whether such provisions comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) may depend upon whether the employee is classified as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements.
Thank you for choosing to be a member of the Paralegal Division. I hope that you find your membership professionally satisfying and that you’ll take advantage of the many member benefits offered by the North Carolina Bar Association. I’m honored to be serving as chair this year alongside a diverse group of paralegals from across the state who are volunteering their time to serve as officers, council members, committee chairs and Section liaisons.
As we commence the 21st year of the Paralegal Division, first, I’d like to thank Immediate Past Chair Debbie Harris for her service last year. We faced several challenges last year as a Division, and she managed each with grace and professionalism. This year is another year of change. We will face all of them together and do our best to keep you informed and educated on the decisions made by the council.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00Paralegalshttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngParalegals2018-09-13 09:15:312018-09-17 14:45:22Welcome to the 2018-2019 Bar Year!
On Aug. 28, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is extending and expanding suspension of its premium processing service for cap-subject H-1B petitions as well as all H-1B petitions filed at the California and Vermont Service Centers. The original suspension applied only to cap-subject H-1B petitions and was set to expire on Sept. 11, 2018. The suspension is now set to expire on Feb. 19, 2019.
So what’s the big deal? Well, for starters, employers will be unable to request premium processing for H-1B change of employer or amended petitions for a change in job or location. This is particularly problematic for those H-1B workers who are hesitant to change employers before having an approval in place or for those who must travel internationally and require a petition approval for visa issuance. With regular processing times averaging five (5) to seven (7) months, H-1B workers are in a Catch-22. They want the security of an approval before moving to a new employer, but it is impractical to think that a new employer will be able to keep a position open for that length of time. To add insult to injury, USCIS only provided two weeks’ notice concerning the extended and expanded suspension. The announcement afforded little time for employers to file or to convert a case to premium processing before the deadline.
The NCBA Health Law Section’s Annual Meeting and CLE Program has a new date and time for 2019. Please plan to join us at the Bar Center in Cary on March 8, 2019. We received great feedback about the extra networking opportunities at our 2018 program, so we are adding a networking breakfast to the 2019 program to give us all more time to catch up with our colleagues from across the state. If you have suggestions for program topics or speakers (or want to volunteer as a speaker), please contact Sarah Crotts at [email protected].
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Custody Modification, COA17-990, Aug. 21, 2018 David W. Shell & Donna Shell v. David Dwayne Shell & Nicole Green Watauga County
A custody order was entered in 2012. Plaintiffs are the paternal grandparents.
Defendant is the father of the children, and Nicole is the mother.
In 2012, Father was granted sole legal and physical custody of the children. Mother was granted visitation. Father lived with Grandparents at the time.
After trial on the Motion to Modify, the trial court reversed custody and granted primary physical custody to Mother.
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While my daughter’s focus is already on the end of 2018 (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas – oh my!), my year of serving as the Intellectual Property Law Section Chair has only just begun. I am very much looking forward to my year as chair, and I encourage all members to reach out with any ideas, suggestions, or questions.
Our CLE Committee Chairs are already in the process of planning our Annual Meeting scheduled for April 5, 2019, in Charlotte. We will be partnering with the Sports & Entertainment Law Section to provide diverse CLE program options. As always, we will have a Section networking event the evening before and invite everyone to join us.
We have also scheduled our Tri-City Lunch event for Feb. 7, 2019, in Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte. The specific meeting and lunch locations are to be determined, but please save the date and plan to join us for either the meeting, lunch, or both.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00IntellectualPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngIntellectualProperty2018-09-10 11:32:582019-01-29 09:28:50We've Only Just Begun …
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.
— T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Business, industry, law, and relationships straddle our oceans more often than not in a world increasingly connected through technology. It is imperative, then, for many young lawyers of the North Carolina Bar Association to build international relationships with attorneys outside of the United States. In an effort to foster these relationships, the NCBA Young Lawyers Division, in partnership with the International Law & Practice Section of the NCBA, will host five fellow young lawyers from Haiti the week of Sept. 10-15.
Not a lot of fun cases over the past couple of months. Most of the cases presented here are about the North Carolina Human Resources Act (HRA) and turn on the minutia of the statutes and regulations. Here are the latest labor and employment cases:
Hunt v. N.C. Dep’t of Pub. Safety, No. COA17-1244 (N.C. Ct. App. June 19, 2018): This case is a reminder that state agencies can run afoul of the details of the HRA and the Administrative Procedures Act too. The genesis of this state employee grievance was whether, in the heat of an argument, Hunt said he quit to another employee, who was not his supervisor. The agency took the position that Hunt did quit, it did not have to consider any grievances on his resignation, and even if it did have to consider his grievance, his grievance was untimely.
The HRA requires an employee to provide his resignation to the “appointing authority.” In this case, that would be “the person or persons who have the power to make personnel decisions.” Since Hunt never told that person he resigned (there was contradictory evidence on whether he even said he quit), the agency’s refusal to allow Hunt to return to work was in effect a discharge. Since the agency discharged Hunt, it had to follow the HRA’s requirement to send Hunt a statement of rights of appeal and consider any appropriate grievance. Since the agency never sent the statement, Hunt’s deadline to appeal the decision was never triggered and his grievance was not barred for not being timely. The court upheld the ALJ’s ruling reinstating Hunt.
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