NorthCarolinaLaw

https://edelsteinpayne.com/personal-injury NC State is Studying Efforts to Reduce Pedestrian Casualties Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jun 17, 2016  (0 Comments) In an effort to reduce the number of pedestrians hit by cars, NC State is working on a study to determine how best to increase driver awareness of pedestrian and bicycle safety. According to an  article  in yesterday's News & Observer, the study is intended to focus on education and enforcement as "factors that might influence driver behaviors so that they actively yield at pedestrians at crosswalks..." According to the article, 2,400 pedestrians are hit by cars each year in North Carolina. Of the 244 such collisions in Raleigh between 2000-2015, nearly half of them were fatal. It is the law in North Carolina that pedestrians have the right of way, though they are required to look both ways before crossing a highway without crosswalks or "hash marks" indicating a crossing.  Our ...

https://edelsteinpayne.com/criminal-defense NC Criminal Defense: Wake County Prosecutor Dismisses Over 100 DWIs Because of Lying Deputy Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Mar 31, 2016 (0 Comments) Citing an inability to rely upon the testimony of a former DWI Task Force member, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has announced that she is dismissing over 100 pending drunk driving criminal offenses. According to the  Raleigh News & Observer , Freeman took the bold action as a result of District Court Judge Jacqueline Brewer "disqualified" former Wake County Deputy Robert Davis after finding that Davis had lied in at least three cases. Although she may not have any choice if Davis was the only witness in the cases, Freeman deserves respect for taking decisive action. Other prosecutors I have encountered over the years might be tempted to string the cases along in hopes of extracting a plea bargain from defendants who may or may not be aware o...

https://edelsteinpayne.com 4th Circuit Establishes Bright Line for when Tazer Use is Reasonable Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jan 20, 2016 (0 Comments) The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has made an important ruling regarding use of force, ruling that the use of a Tazer is only lawful when the person tazed poses "an immediate safety risk." Unfortunately for the plaintiff in the case, mentally-ill Ronald Armstrong, he died during the encounter that led to the lawsuit, and the court ruled that the officers who tazed him five times to get him to let go of a stop sign were immune because the law regarding use of tazers was not clearly established at the time. Fortunately, for the rest of us, it is now clearly established that law enforcement officers may not taze people absent an immediate safety risk. Absent such a risk, an officer using a tazer is using excessive force in violation of an individual's civil rights and may be liable.  The case,  The Est...

www.edelsteinpayne.com/criminal-defense North Carolina Criminal Law: Two Marijuana-related Convictions Reversed by Court of Appeals Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jan 20, 2016 (0 Comments) Criminal convictions make for difficult appeals. Whereas at trial a criminal defendant is supposed to receive the benefit of the doubt, after conviction many of those presumptions evaporate. Drug conviction appeals typically focus on 4th Amendment privacy protections, challenging convictions that were based on evidence the defendant unsuccessfully moved to suppressed because it was discovered by law enforcement only through an unconstitutional intrusion. Criminal appeals challenging the sufficiency of evidence used to convict are even more difficult- basically asking a court to overrule a finding of guilt by the jury by ruling that the evidence presented at trial was not enough to support the conviction, even when viewed in the light most favorable to the state.  This week th...

https://edelsteinpayne.com/criminal-defense NC Criminal Law: Appellate Court Rules Search Warrant Invalid Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jan 13, 2016 (0 Comments) The so-called "war on drugs" is an abject failure. I am particularly interested in defending crimes involving allegations of illegal possession, production, or distribution of controlled substances, especially criminal allegations regarding cannabis. That's one reason I am particularly enthusiastic about last week's ruling in  State v. Allman , in which the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a search warrant for drugs was not valid because it was not supported by probable cause to believe there was drug activity at the residence indicated in the law enforcement application. The New Hanover County deputy sheriff (Bacon) who applied for the warrant knew that drug activity was occurring elsewhere, and extrapolated that information to obtain a warrant to search the home where the suspects liv...

NCpersonalinjurylawyer.com North Carolina Personal Injury: Dense Smoke Causes Car Wrecks in Western Wake County Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Dec 11, 2015  (0 Comments) According to news reports, a burn pile of smoldering mulch Thursday morning in Western Wake County reduced visibility on a nearby highway, resulting in several car wrecks. Apparently, a construction company was burning "slash" material from clearing property for development, after the company couldn't find anyone to take it away on short notice. The company must be relieved that there were no initial reports of injuries, because it seems there is a very real possibility that they would be liable for those injuries- they probably could still be liable for property damage that resulted from the smoke if they are found to have been negligent in the manner they conducted the burn.  Under North Carolina law, a negligent party is culpable for injuries that result from their negligence. To establ...