Crews v. Paysour, 261 N.C. App. 557 (2018) Facts: Plaintiff and Defendants are the parents of a minor child. In 2012, Plaintiff filed an action for custody and child support. A temporary order for child support was entered in August of 2012. The parties were both in medical school at…
Ostanek v. Ostanek, Slip Opinion No. 2021-Ohio-2319 Issues with division of retirement accounts are seemingly springing up all over the place. At heart in most of these cases is a domestic relations order. Those are the orders of court that instruct an entity to, in short, divide the retirement funds.…
NC Court of Appeals (No. COA20-545) Grace DiPrima (“Plaintiff”) and Clifton Benjamin Vann, V (“Defendant”) were the best of friends. Their friendship began in the third grade, and the two stayed friends throughout grade school and beyond. Plaintiff and Defendant attended The Fletcher School (“Fletcher”), an educational institution for…
Gray v. Holliday, COA20-425 (May 2021) (unpublished). In Greensboro, grandparent visitation rights may be awarded if the Court deems it appropriate. This often happens by intervening in the custody battle being fought by the custodial parents. But what happens when one of the parents passes away before the custody issue…
Lunsford v. Teasley, COA20-436 (April 2021) All games have rules. If you want to imagine your civil court case as a game, then the Rules of Civil Procedure is the handbook that tells you how to get started playing the game. And if you happen to break the rules, there…
Unpublished Opinion – No. COA19-566 Carmen Cousin and Terry Cousin were married for seventeen years. They separated in May 2016. Upon separating, Carmen filed a complaint, which included a claim for equitable distribution. Terry then filed an answer, which included a counterclaim for equitable distribution. In the final equitable…
Warren DSS v. Gerrelts, No.COA20-868 (June 2021). This is an oddity of a case. Civil procedure has an interesting quirk called choice of law. It is an intensely fact-driven area of law that is still being actively researched and written about. Just the mere mention of the Erie Doctrine is…
Handerson v. Wittig, No.COA20-924 (July 2021). Modifications to child custody orders require a substantial change in circumstances affecting the welfare of the child. The change in circumstance is the gatekeeper. That alone will not amount to modification; the court still needs to determine if the change in circumstance affects the…
Appeals are very technical. In the last blog, we covered the beginning sections of an appellate brief. There is opportunity to fashion a primer for argument with the presentation of facts and issues. However, be forewarned: omissions of bad facts and argumentative spin on the facts is improper and will…
Appeals are very technical. Last time, we covered the technicalities in a Record on Appeal. Now we address the appellate brief. The Brief is where the case is won or lost. It contains the arguments of counsel on why the appellate court should overturn the court below. As one can…