Posts Tagged ‘North Carolina’

$9M alienation of affection award in NC

The defendant wasn’t at trial and didn’t have a lawyer, and plans to appeal; the judgment might as well be for $73 gazillion, as the ex-husband is already in contempt of court for failure to pay spousal support. (Greensboro News-Record March 18 and March 17 via Volokh). We’ve been covering the issue for years, as a click on the tags will reveal.

Alienation of John Edwards’ affections?

Per ABC News, Andrew Young says that Elizabeth Edwards has threatened him with a lawsuit under North Carolina’s law permitting lawsuits against third parties — not limited to paramours — who helped break up a marriage. We’ve been covering the workings of this law for years at Overlawyered, and Ted may have been the first to spot its possible application to the Sen. Edwards squalor-ama. Much more at Death by 1000 Papercuts. (Rewritten somewhat for clarity 1 p.m. Eastern; & welcome Mickey Kaus readers)

N.C. offender arrested for attending church

“In December, North Carolina state legislators barred sex offenders from coming within 300 feet of any place intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors. Three months later, Nichols was arrested at his home after attending Sunday services. He said he was ‘floored’ to learn that he had been picked up because Moncure Baptist Church has a child-care center for families attending services.” [AP/Google] More on sex offender laws: The Economist (“Unjust and ineffective”); Lenore Skenazy (predicate is often teen misconduct with other teens); Radley Balko, Reason (several Georgia offenders told to camp in woods, then told not to); earlier. Related: Oklahoma Citizens for Change.

August 3 roundup

  • On the medicalization of nearly everything: “Bitterness, Compulsive Shopping, and Internet Addiction” [Christopher Lane, Slate]
  • Lawyer representing Sarah Palin to blogger: do you want to be served with our defamation suit at the kindergarten where you help out? [Alaska Report via Rachel Weiner, HuffPo]
  • “The 7 Most Baffling Criminal Defenses (That Sort of Worked)” [Cracked via Popehat]
  • Canada: crash victim gets C$2M, sues deceased lawyer for omitting a defendant who’d have chipped in another C$1.3 million [Calgary Sun]
  • Privacy breach notifications mostly a costly waste of time but do keep lawyers busy [Lee Gomes, Forbes]
  • “News Websites in Texas and Kentucky Invoke Shield Laws for Online Commenters” [Citizen Media Law]
  • North Carolina suit against TVA “a sweet gig for the state’s attorneys” [Wood, Point of Law]
  • Blawg Review #223 is at Scott Greenfield’s [Simple Justice] with another part hosted at the Blawg Review home site itself.

Ex-wife wins $500K in suit against new wife

North Carolina’s alienation of affection law strikes again. [WRAL via Lawyers USA; earlier]

More from commenter “spudbeach”: “I am _sooo_ glad that I live in Wisconsin. Not only are alienation of affection lawsuits not allowed, it is actually illegal to even threaten one! Wisc. Stats. 768.03 makes it illegal to threaten, and 768.07 sets the penalty to $10,000 fine and/or 9 months in jail.” And XRLQ observes that these laws (still on the books in Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah, as well as North Carolina) could impose liability not just on paramours, but on plain old friends or acquaintances who’d encouraged an unhappy spouse to leave a marriage. Yet more: Robinette, 2007 (via); The Briefcase.