A year ago, the North Carolina Court of Appeals handed down an opinion in O’Neal v. O’Neal, a small domestic case. The O’Neal opinion keeps me awake at night. When I need to pull an all-nighter, I sometimes re-read a couple of pages, and it shakes me right up. I thought the appellate bar would say something about O’Neal, but it went quiet. Pamela O’Neal moved to recuse the trial judge—historically speaking, an unremarkable occurrence in the North Carolina domestic courts. Pamela first perceived bias at a settlement conference when the trial judge presiding over her case commanded Pamela…
I signed up to teach a CLE about the basics of appellate practice. When I say “the basics,” I am not being modest. I will speak to the practitioners who never ever want to sign up for the username on the Court of Appeals’ website. Ever. The sort of warriors who win their trials the old-fashioned way—before the jury. We will talk about the meaning of “interlocutory,” and where one goes to find the record, and why some of the published opinions are called “unpublished,” and why a “remand” is rarely a good thing. And if I get really…
Time. We have so little of it. We waste so much of it on direct. We do not have to. If you do any work in divorce courts, you are familiar with the excruciatingly dull business of live testimony of needs and expenses. In every support trial, you hear lawyers helping clients read their own affidavits out-loud into the record. Hours are wasted on this unnecessary exchange: Wife’s Lawyer: And turning to page three, line two, what is your monthly water bill? Wife: I am sorry, I do not remember. Wife’s Lawyer (tapping his finger on the page and…
A lot of divorce lawyers have this rule: do not take the case if you are not the first lawyer. Of the “ten signs she’s a problem client,” firing a previous counsel is at the top of the list. And if the client is on her third lawyer—well, that’s like a mark of shame, a regular fleur-de-lis on her shoulder. Personally, I never bought into the hype. I’ve been lawyer number five. It went fine. And why should a client have to stay with the same lawyer? It’s fine to change restaurants, hairdressers, girlfriends, courthouses. Some even change—so help…
Service of process is a thankless task. Ever received a card from a client grateful for your masterful perfection of service? Never happens. But make a mis-step—and you will hear from the client. Or end up on the news—and not in a good way. A case based on bad service of process is like a city built on a volcano. Sooner or later you have to vacate. No service—no jurisdiction. It’s a void order. You may recall Hamilton v. Johnson, a recent opinion by the North Carolina Court of Appeal. The Court vacated a cluster of orders from an…
If any of your cases involve defined benefit plans, you are probably relying on Bishop v. Bishop, 440 S.E.2d 591 (1994)—the North Carolina Court of Appeals’ classic. Bishop has been the divorce practitioners’ staple for almost twenty years. Bishop‘s five step approach has never been officially overruled—or received any negative treatment for that matter. But do not let the Westlaw’s Shepard lull you into a false sense of security. You will want to read the last week’s Court of Appeal’s opinion in Johnson v. Johnson. Although the Johnson Court does not explicitly distinguish Bishop, and even appears to follow Bishop…
I wrote recently about the new law that made family law practitioners’ life much easier because appeals from just about any divorce-related claim are no longer interlocutory. That is all well and good for divorce practitioners, but it does not resolve the matter for every case. Which interlocutory order can be appealed and which can not be appealed is almost never an easy decision. The two-part test itself is easy: Whether a substantial right is affected by the challenged order and whether this substantial right might be lost, prejudiced, or inadequately preserved in the absence of an immediate appeal. The…
To me, applying certain parts of UCCJEA is a little like the LSAT games section. If Mom and Dad entered into an incorporated agreement for child custody in Virginia, then Mom and children moved to North Carolina, then Dad followed to North Carolina, but did not like it in North Carolina and moved to Texas, will the North Carolina court have jurisdiction to modify the Virginia child custody order. What if Dad filed his motion to modify child custody in North Carolina court, it was heard in North Carolina, but then Mom and child left North Carolina and moved…
You cannot ask a trial court to modify its existing orders ‘just because.’ That goes for any order, including child custody orders. Seems like an obvious point, but the Court of Appeals last month had to provide a refresher. In Davis v. Davis, the Court vacated portions of a child custody order that modified an existing order under the guise of “clarification.” Divorce practitioners and trial courts get so comfortable with the practice of changing child custody orders to fit changes in the child’s circumstances that they sometimes forget the core—the trial court has to actually find those substantial…
Barker v. Barker is a case that has significance far beyond family law. Joseph Barker agreed to pay for his daughter’s college bills, so long as she “diligently applied” herself in school. When Joseph received Holly’s college reports, he learned that Holly (a) had finished her Fall 2011 semester with a 1.000 GPA, (b) was on academic probation for the first three semesters of school; and (c) was enrolled in 16.5 hours but earned only 7.5 hours of credit. In the Spring 2011 semester, Holly improved her GPA for a cumulative GPA of 2.000, narrowly escaping academic probation. Not surprisingly,…
There now is a fascinating TV Series about a man whose life lasts forever, which is aptly called Forever. It’s a greatly entertaining show. But I digress. Point here is, contempt purge are not like the TV show. They simply cannot last forever. In Wellons v. White, the Court of Appeals reminded again that a civil contempt order must have a purge that is not “impermissibly vague.” Just as importantly, the purge must be finite, meaning that there should be an end to the punishment. (If you really need something that lasts forever, consider diamonds. Or a permanent injunction.) The…