North Carolina will soon have a new law, effective October 1, 2024, that prohibits local governments, state agencies, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch from allowing pornography to be viewed on their networks or devices. The law, found at Section 7 of S.L. 2024-26, establishes a deadline for government employees and officials to delete any pornography from their government devices, creates reporting requirements for unauthorized viewing or attempted viewing of pornography, and requires public agencies (including units of local government and public school units) and the judicial and legislative branches to adopt policies governing the use of their networks and devices. It also contains some important exceptions for employees and officials who might need to view pornography (as that term is defined by this new law) as part of their official duties. Continue Reading
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Change to the Law of Juvenile Jurisdiction and Juvenile Transfer to Superior Court
Session Law 2024-17 enacts changes to the law regarding the scope of original juvenile jurisdiction beginning with offenses committed on or after December 1, 2024. Law changes regarding the existing process to transfer a case from juvenile to superior court will also take effect at that time. Read on for a description of the changes. Continue Reading
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Legislative Changes in Child Welfare: The Short Session
The North Carolina General Assembly made some changes to child welfare laws during this short session. Many of these changes have taken effect and some will be effective by January 1, 2025. All the amendments are important for those of you who practice in this area to be aware of. Continue Reading
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Child Support: Would the result in Green v. Carter be different if the parties were married?
I wrote about the opinion in Green v. Carter, 900 S.E.2d 108 (N.C. App., March 19, 2024), in this post: https://civil.sog.unc.edu/an-unmarried-partner-with-joint-legal-and-physical-custody-is-not-a-parent-and-cannot-be-ordered-to-pay-child-support/ The court of appeals held that the partner of the biological mother of a child (Green) could not be ordered to pay child support, even though she and the mother of the child (Carter) decided to have the child together while they were living together, agreed to the use of artificial insemination with a sperm donor to create the child, and held themselves out as the “parents” of the child for years until their romantic relationship ended. The partner (Green) was granted joint legal and physical custody of the child after a trial court concluded that the biological mother (Carter) had waived her constitutional right to exclusive custody by holding the partner out as the child’s co-parent and by intentionally allowing the partner to develop this parent-like relationship with the child without indicating the relationship was not a permanent one. But when the trial court determined that the partner should pay child support, the court of appeals reversed, citing G.S. 50-13.4 and stating: “[b]ased on long-established North Carolina law, … [a person] cannot be required to pay child support unless she is the child’s mother or father or has agreed formally, in writing, to pay child support.”
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2024 HIPAA Final Rule: The New Attestation Requirement
This post is written by my colleague, Kirsten Leloudis, who works in the area of public health. Her contact information is below.
On June 25, 2024, changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule aimed at supporting reproductive health care privacy went into effect. Last week, I published a blog post about these changes, including the creation of three new types of prohibited uses and disclosures of protected health information (PHI). This post addresses another major change to the law: a new attestation requirement that applies to four types of uses and disclosures when the PHI at issue is “potentially related” to reproductive health care. It’s not just covered entities and business associates that need to understand this new requirement- judicial officials, law enforcement, health oversight agencies, and medical examiners who frequently request PHI to carry out their official duties will likely encounter situations that require them to comply with the new attestation requirement, too. Continue Reading
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Child Advocacy Centers, Child Medical Evaluations, and Multidisciplinary Team Information Sharing: New Law Goes into Effect on July 1
Across North Carolina, there are 55 child advocacy centers (CACs) providing services to children who have experienced maltreatment, including physical or sexual abuse. County departments of social services and local law enforcement agencies often coordinate with CACs to conduct child medical evaluations and forensic interviews in investigations of child maltreatment. On July 1, 2024, a new law goes into effect that regulates CACs, creates new mandatory multidisciplinary teams involving CACs (with statutorily prescribed membership requirements), authorizes information sharing between members of a CAC multidisciplinary team, and provides new confidentiality protections for a child’s CAC records and information. Read on to learn more about how Session Law 2023-96 affects cases referred to a CAC by departments of social services or law enforcement agencies.
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The Court’s Obligation to Determine Disposition in a Delinquency Matter
Is the court bound to order a certain disposition in a delinquency matter when the juvenile and the prosecutor agree to that disposition as part of an agreement? The short answer is no. The Juvenile Code requires the court to engage in certain procedures, to consider certain factors, and to order disposition in accord with certain parameters when developing and ordering a delinquency disposition. The mandates on the court cannot be delegated to the parties and they are not optional. This post describes these mandates and explores the implications for dispositional outcomes that are agreed upon by the juvenile and the prosecutor. Continue Reading
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The School Is Hiring for a Teaching Assistant Professor for Civil Procedure, Trials, and Contested Hearings
I absolutely love my job. As a faculty member at the School of Government, I get to work with smart, dedicated, fun colleagues; focus on a subject area I am passionate about; create wonderful relationships with the professionals I teach; and be part of an institution that has helped North Carolina for more than 90 years. The School of Government is unique; there aren’t other Schools like this in the country. The School provides public service to the state of North Carolina by helping local and state officials do their jobs and do them well. Faculty members do this in three main ways: advising, teaching, and writing. Our philosophy is to provide engaged scholarship, meaning we provide practical resources for regular use by the officials we serve. We are responsive to the issues that professionals identify through our teaching, writing, and advising. Amazingly, we get thanked daily. For teaching, we have the opportunity to create informed, practical programs that not just teach the subject matter but incorporate methodologies to use that can improve practice. For example, I just created and administered a two-day course on termination of parental rights for district court judges, and a focus throughout the course addressed employing trauma-informed practices not just for the families but for the attorneys, judges, clerks, and bailiffs who are in the courtroom during these challenging hearings.
Is this the type of job that sounds like something you, or someone you know, would not only enjoy but would be great at? If so, keep reading. Continue Reading
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Disposition Continuance to Provide for Time in Secure Custody Not Allowed
Are there limits on the court’s ability to continue the dispositional hearing in a delinquency case? The Court of Appeals recently identified one limit In re D.R.F., Jr., ____ N.C.App. _____ (May 7. 2024). The court held that a continuance for the sole purpose of placing the juvenile in secure custody as punishment before disposition is not a valid basis for that continuance and constitutes an abuse of discretion. Continue Reading
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Accidents Happen, But Who’s Responsible? Understanding Vicarious Liability in Negligence Cases
Recently, I had the pleasure of teaching “Introduction to Small Claims Court” to a group of magistrates who turned out to be actors in disguise. The course culminated in a series of mock trials involving summary ejectment, breach of contract, recovery of personal property, conversion, and negligence. While the mock trials provided an entertaining way to review small claims procedure and the substantive law, the negligence case raised some interesting questions on vicarious liability.
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