As a lawyer who is licensed to practice in several states, one question that I initially asked is: “why does the jury selection process in the North Carolina state courts take so long?” The answer lies in the jury questioning and selecting methods used in North Carolina.

THERE ARE 3 MAIN METHODS USED TODAY TO QUESTION POTENTIAL JURORS. (The questioning process is called voir dire).

1. Lawyer Examination (SLOW)

Traditionally the lawyers ask most of the questions to the potential jurors. The judge, following his or her initial remarks and instructions to the jury, simply turns the questioning over to the lawyers and merely rules on objections made during the questioning.

2. Judge Examination (FAST)

The trend in recent years (and the process most commonly used in the federal courts) has been for the judge to ask most of the questions to the potential jurors. The lawyers can merely request in advance that the judge ask certain questions.

3. Hybrid System (MEDIUM)

The third method is a hybrid of the first two. The judge asks preliminary questions of law and determines whether any potential jurors have and biases, etc. that should prevent them from serving. The lawyers then ask additional questions to the potential jurors.

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On August 19, 2014, the North Carolina Court of Appeals released a decision that may significantly affect the non-judicial foreclosure process in the state. The ruling states that a creditor in North Carolina seeking to enforce payment of a promissory note by pursuing foreclosure by power of sale cannot voluntarily dismiss more than one non-judicial foreclosure before being barred from filing additional non-judicial foreclosures on the subject lien. However, the creditor would still have the option of filing a judicial foreclosure after taking voluntary dismissals on two prior non-judicial foreclosures.

The ruling was issued by the appeals court as an outcome of Lifestore Bank’s attempt to file a judicial foreclosure against Mingo Tribal Preservation Trust after voluntarily dismissing a set of two non-judicial foreclosures against Mingo.

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You might be planning a trip to a local farm for a hayride this weekend, but how safe are these rides?

A tragic accident in Maine is just the most recent in a string of fatal hayride accidents that have become all too common. On October 11, a hayride flipped over killing a 17-year-old high school student and injuring over 20 other people.

The accident occurred during a Gauntlet Haunted Hayride at Harvest Hill Farms in Mechanic Falls, Maine. According to initial reports, a mechanical problem with the 1979 Jeep CJ5 that was pulling the hayride trailer caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, sending it down a steep hill and slamming into a tree. Investigators were inspecting the Jeep to determine the exact cause of the malfunction, along with calculating the combined weight of the passengers to determine if overloading of the trailer was a contributing factor.

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It’s hard to believe, but Halloween is here again. Here are some tips to ensure that your kids stay safe while creating some memories that they’ll have for life:

Make sure that the annual pumpkin carving doesn’t end with a trip to the ER. Small children should never be allowed to use a knife to cut the pumpkin. It’s best to let them clean out the pumpkin and draw the face, then you carve out the design that they made. If your kids are older, there are carving kits that come with small saws that work better than knives. The saws reduce the chance of cuts, but you still need to closely supervise them.

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