On the Civil Side

A UNC School of Government Blog

https://civil.sog.unc.edu

  • Learning Together To “Get It Right”

    This entry was contributed by Cheryl Howell on July 31, 2020 at 9:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized.

    **This post was written by Elizabeth Watkins Price, Associate Director of Curriculum and Administration, The North Carolina Judicial College, UNC Chapel Hill School of Government

     

    Since its founding in 2005, the mission of the Judicial College has been to provide “education and training to judicial branch personnel to develop the abilities and values necessary to provide justice.” In the nearly four years that I have been in my role, I’ve consistently encountered a similar dedication to learning and fairness expressed by our clients: the judges, magistrates, clerks, and other court officials of North Carolina. The great news is that the individuals who make up our judiciary are working hard to do incredibly complicated and difficult jobs, and they want to “get it right.” So, when we zoom out and see that the system we’re working in has a disparate impact on different communities, it can be hard to understand how our best efforts aren’t adding up to the creation of the fair and just system we all want to be a part of.

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  • No More Minors in Jails

    This entry was contributed by Jacquelyn Greene on July 28, 2020 at 10:48 am and is filed under Juvenile Law.

    Many people assumed that the implementation of raise the age on December 1, 2019 meant the end of confinement of anyone under 18 in a jail. That was not the case. Even under our new legal framework for juvenile jurisdiction, some youth under 18 still have cases that are handled in criminal court from the very beginning. There is currently no legal mechanism to house these youth in a juvenile detention facility instead of a jail. This changes on August 1, 2020, when Part II of Session law 2020-83 takes effect. Continue Reading

  • Child Custody: Denying Visitation to a Parent in a Case Between Parents

    This entry was contributed by Cheryl Howell on July 8, 2020 at 8:00 am and is filed under Family Law.

    In this previous post, Child Custody: Denying or Significantly Limiting a Parent’s Visitation (March 18, 2016), I wrote about a trial court’s authority to deny ‘reasonable’ visitation to a parent in a child custody proceeding between two parents. I mentioned in that post the conflict between two opinions from the NC Court of Appeals regarding whether a trial court must consider the constitutional rights of a parent before denying that parent reasonable visitation in such cases. Those two conflicting opinions are Moore v. Moore, 160 NC App 569 (2003)(because a complete denial of visitation is ‘tantamount to a termination of parental rights’, the trial court must apply the constitutional analysis set forth in Petersen and Price before reaching a decision about a child’s best interest) and Respess v. Respess, 232 NC App 611 (2014)(the constitutional analysis set forth in Petersen and subsequently clarified by Price v. Howard, 346 NC 68 (1997), applies in cases between a parent and a non-parent and has no application in custody cases between two parents).

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  • Expunction Relief for “Doughnut Hole” Youth

    This entry was contributed by Jacquelyn Greene on June 23, 2020 at 9:32 am and is filed under Juvenile Justice, Juvenile Law.

    Much of the conversation at one of the first Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee meetings I attended centered on “doughnut hole” youth. The meeting participants were discussing the long pause between when raise the age legislation passed in June of 2017 until the time it would take effect in December of 2019. Many 16- and 17-year-old youth would continue to be convicted in criminal court for things that the legislature had already determined should be juvenile offenses for youth their age. Caught in between passage and implementation, these kids were in the “doughnut hole.” The legislature included a remedy for these youth, and many others, in the Second Chance Act (S562) that was ratified on June 17, 2020. Certain misdemeanor and Class H and I felony convictions for offenses committed before raise the age took effect and when the person was 16 or 17, can now be expunged. This new expunction opportunity is available to any person with an existing conviction from the age of 16 or 17 that would now fall under juvenile jurisdiction and not just the young people who were caught in the doughnut hole. Continue Reading

  • Will We See More APS Petitions During COVID-19? What GALs Need to Know

    This entry was contributed by Timothy Heinle on June 17, 2020 at 10:06 am and is filed under Clerks of Superior Court, Guardianship, Uncategorized.

    I previously published on this blog Guardian ad Litem Attorney Challenges in the Era of COVID-19, which explored the complications the current pandemic has posed for Guardians ad Litem (“GALs”) in Chapter 35A incompetency and guardianship proceedings. Given these challenges and other developments, GALs may see an increase in the number of Adult Protective Service (“APS”) petitions being filed under Chapter 108A. This could be good news for GALs and their clients in some situations; however, GALs also need to be aware of the potential risks that could go along with a rise in APS petitions.

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  • The Child Welfare System and Race

    This entry was contributed by Sara DePasquale on June 15, 2020 at 7:49 am and is filed under Child Welfare Law.

    The gravity of the events of recent weeks stemming from the highly publicized killings of several black citizens, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, has led for a call to acknowledge and respond to systemic racism in the United States. Initially, the focus was on the actions of the police, but the call to action has grown, asking Americans to address inequities based on race as a whole within our country. That begs the question, is race a factor in the child welfare system? The answer is yes. Continue Reading

  • Quick Reference Guide to Orders from the Chief Justice and the North Carolina Supreme Court Related to COVID-19

    This entry was contributed by Meredith Smith on June 9, 2020 at 9:05 am and is filed under Clerks of Superior Court, Uncategorized.

     

    *This post has been updated multiple times.  For the most recent version of the chart, scroll to the bottom of the post.

    Since the start of the pandemic, the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Supreme Court have issued a number of directives impacting the court system.  Instead of doing a heavy substantive post today, I thought I would share a quick reference chart I’ve been using to keep track of these directives, their effect based on the most recent order issued, the dates of the order containing each directive, and their expiration date. Continue Reading

  • Expiration and Extension of Federal and State Limits on Foreclosures in North Carolina

    This entry was contributed by Meredith Smith on May 29, 2020 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Foreclosures.

    UPDATE (June 28, 2021):  The federal moratorium on foreclosures and evictions from properties subject to foreclosure is extended for many loans.

    • The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will extend the moratorium on single-family foreclosures and real estate owned evictions through July 31, 2021.
    • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Federal Housing Administration announced an extension of its foreclosure and eviction moratorium through July 31, 2021 related to FHA insured loans.
    • The Department of Veterans Affairs announced an extension of the foreclosure moratorium on VA-guaranteed loans through July 31, 2021.
    • The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an extension of the foreclosure and eviction moratorium for all USDA Single Family Housing direct and guaranteed loans through July 31, 2021.

    A press release issued by the White House on June 24, 2021 indicates that this will be the final extension of the foreclosure moratorium.

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  • Juvenile Justice Pandemic Lessons

    This entry was contributed by Jacquelyn Greene on May 27, 2020 at 10:58 am and is filed under Juvenile Justice.

    The Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee (JJAC) met on May 15th. The meeting began with a presentation from William Lassiter, Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice. While the goal of the presentation was to provide data on trends since implementation of raise the age and the resulting resource needs, the presentation included information and data about juvenile justice system trends during this unprecedented pandemic. The data left me wondering—can changes in juvenile justice system utilization during the pandemic teach us lessons for the functioning of the system outside of a pandemic? Continue Reading

  • Summary Ejectment: Will the CARES Act Solve the Backlog Problem?

    This entry was contributed by Dona Lewandowski on May 14, 2020 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Small Claims Law.

    On June 2 Chief Justice Beasley’s order continuing pending actions – including actions for summary ejectment – will expire. While that expiration date may be extended, it seems more likely that small claims magistrates will once again be hearing cases after that date, albeit under quite different conditions.

    In this post  am going to talk in considerable detail about a new federal law that affects eviction cases in North Carolina (and every other state). This law establishes an eviction moratorium and new notice requirements on two different types of “covered properties:” housing subsidized by participation in a federal assistance program, and housing financed by a federally-backed mortgage loan. Significant questions exist about how these provisions should be applied in North Carolina’s courts.

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