Mast, Schulz, Mast, Johnson, Wells & Trimyer, P.A.

Update: Child Support Class Action in North Carolina

At a recent hearing, the Honorable Resident Superior Court Judge Tom Lock recently instructed the Clerks of Court in the counties of Johnston, Wayne, Hoke, Durham, and Alamance to review their Termination of Parental Rights files and to provide the information to the court for the purpose of determining whether any of these indvidiuals whose rights have been officially terminated, have paid child support after they were obligated to.

The Attorneys at the Mast Law Firm filed a class action alleging that in numerous counties throughout the state of North Carolina, the North Carolina Child Support Enforcement Center has sought and collected child support from persons who owed no child support at all.

If your parental rights were terminated, and you continued to pay child support, feel free to give me a call at 919-934-6187.

Also see our prior post at http://www.mastlegal.com/mast_schulz_mast_johnson_/2009/04/index.html

Ron Trimyer

Contact your State Senator, NC may finally get rid of contributory negligence

North Carolina is one of only a handful of states that still adhere to this prehistoric notion of "contributory negligence." 

Most individuals may not have heard of or even understand this concept until they are hurt and/or it is too late. Essentially what this means, is that in North Carolina, if you are injured or hurt at the hands of another, and the judge or jury determines that you may have been only 1% at fault in contributing to the occurrence or accident, you are barred from collecting anything.

Take a practical example, you are traveling down interstate highway 70 heading towards the beach... the speed limit is 55 but you are traveling 60 mph.  Someone pulls out to make a right-on-red turn and pulls out in front of you and you do not have nearly enough time to stop and you rear end him, or run off the road. You are hurt, lose time from work, have surgery, have some lingering effects from the accident (no longer able to fish/swim/golf), etc.

The defendant may submit to the jury that if you had not been traveling above the speed limit, then the accident would not have occurred. If the court finds that it did contibute, then you cannot collect anything.

House Bill 813 / Senate Bill 679 seeks to modify that.

Most states have "comparative negligence", which basically means that if someone else hurts or injures you, but you are found to have contributed in some way, then your recovery is only proportionally reduced by the amount of your fault.

So, in the above example, if the court were to find that your "speeding" contributed 10% to the accident, but the main-at-fault-driver was 90% at fault, and you were awarded $50,000.00 for your lost wages, medical expenses, and pain & suffering, then your recovery would only be reduced by 10%, rather than under the current system where you would collect nothing.

An amended version of the Bill has already passed the house and it is now going to the senate.

Please contact your local north carolina senator and tell them that you are in favor of passing Senate Bill 679 entitled an AN ACT TO ENACT THE UNIFORM APPORTIONMENT OF TORT RESPONSIBILITY ACT

You can find your local senator representative by going to http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/members/memberList.pl?sChamber=Senate    or going to

http://capwiz.com/ncatl/directory/statedir.tt?state=NC&lvl=state

If you or someone you know has been hurt or injured due to the acts of another, contact the lawyers at Mast, Schulz, Mast, Johnson, Wells & Trimyer at www.mastschulz.com, or call 919-934-6187. 

Ron Trimyer, ron@mastschulz.com.

DWI s in North Carolina: Interlock devices and recent updates

In Brunson v. Tatum, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that a person who attempts to drive their vehicle, by merely blowing into an interlock device (even without turning the key or starting the car) may violate the terms of their conditional license or limited driving privilege. 

In North Carolina, if you are charged and convicted of Driving While Impaired (Driving under the influence), and you have a high blow .16 on the intoxilyzer or have had multiple dwi's, usually in order to obtain your license or limited driving privilege (work license) you may have to have an "Interlock Device" installed on your vehicle. An interlock device requires that the operator blow into the machine before the ignition will be able to crank start the car. In the case cited above, a North Carolina driver who had a conditional license attempted to start his vehicle after taking some cold medicine, which contained some alcohol, registered some amount of alcohol on the device. Due to that, the driver was unable to start or drive the vehicle. However, because the Interlock Device keeps a record of attempts to blow into the machine, it was apparently reported to the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (NCDMV) and his license was revoked.

Generally, one is prohibited from operating a motor vehicle was subject to an impairing substance which, under case precedent, requires the key in the ignition and/or the engine running. For this person, neither of those points were reached but based upon the decision, anyone who is subject to a restriction with an interlock device would be well advised not to even "attempt" to drive or blow into the interlock device if they have consumed "anything" with alcohol in it (such as mouthwash or Listerine) to avoid the possibility of losing their driving privileges.

In another recent case, State v. Anderson, an intoxicated driver was sitting in he vehicle while it was being towed by another car. The intoxicated driver's engine was off.  The defendant was found guilty because under the statute, a driver is one in actual physical control of a vehicle with the engine running or "in motion."

If you have been charged with Driving While Impaired (DWI) or any other traffic matter, the attorneys here at the Mast Law firm are here to help.