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Business Court Assesses Duties to Protect Patient Information Shared Through Electronic Portals

A Durham County class action asks whether “My Chart,” a widely used portal that medical providers use to communicate with patients about test results, conditions, and treatments should more aptly be labeled “Our Chart.”...more

Business Court Expands Potential Duties of Landowners for Torts that Begin on Their Property, but Conclude Elsewhere

That’s what a patron of Northlake Mall and Northlake Commons reportedly asked in an online forum about safety concerns at these Mecklenburg County shopping venues. The plaintiff in Brown v. TM Northlake Mall, LP, 2025 NCBC...more

Ace is the Place for Many Things, but not Always for Proper Rule 4 Service

Ace Hardware was long advertised as “the place with the helpful hardware man,” but even well-stocked aisles of tools and DIY accessories have their limitations. In Pro-Tops, Inc. v. Yuriy Maksimenko, 2025 NCBC 4, it turned...more

A Corporate “One Man Band” Might be a Lonely Road, but the Company is Not Always a Puppet

Matthew Bagley worked for a claims adjustment firm in Louisiana as its claims manager for nearly three years before resigning to, allegedly, improperly compete against his former employer, M.D. Claims Group. In M.D. Claims...more

19th Nervous Breakdown: on the Wrong Side of a Contractual Deadline, You Can’t Always Get What You Want

“[T]ime waits for no one,” sage Rolling Stones advice from 1974, doesn’t appear in Black’s Law Dictionary or result in frequent opinion cites for Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, the keen legal observers who wrote it. But it...more

Seeing the Forest for the Trees, and Protecting it: a “Cap and Trade” Litigation Tale

In the complex world of “cap and trade” emissions regimes, acquiring credits to offset a company’s pollution portfolio requires decision makers to see the forest for the trees. And sometimes to buy the forest....more

Data Breach 101: a Curriculum Spoiler for NC College Students

A letter or three per year, alerting of a data breach at a company with which you’ve interacted, is now par for the course. Hackers, and the companies whose data they seek, are engaged in a near-daily volley of attacks and...more

Court Declines to Undo a Corporate Board’s Vote that a Disgruntled Shareholder Skipped

In a costly episode of Aaron Sorkin’s adage that “decisions are made by those who show up,” the majority shareholder in a pair of family-controlled oil and gas companies learned of about 850,000 reasons why attendance can be...more

Discovery Molehills, Mountains, and a Climbing Guide from the NC Business Court

Sometimes a discovery molehill turns into a mountain (of documents) quicker than you can type the word warehouse. Back in January, in North Carolina ex rel. Stein v. EIDP, Inc., the State raised a discovery dispute regarding...more

Even in an Olympic Year, a “Low Bar” for Intervening Parties can be a Major Hurdle

The road leading away from HCA Healthcare’s 2019 acquisition of the multi-campus Mission Health hospital system in Western North Carolina has been a bumpy ride. HCA has faced suit connected to the transaction alleging it...more

Wide Access for Inspecting LLC’s Records has Narrow, but Crucial, Guideposts

As a matter of business hygiene, North Carolina’s records inspection statute is a bit of an information ATM. But the Business Court recently cautioned that a requester still has to press the right buttons. In Extra Care, LLC...more

A Tax(ing) Return: Sale of Prep Franchises Fails and Remaining Assets Come Back

In a dispute about tax preparation businesses that one member of Compass Tax Services LLC was selling to the entity, precious little was for certain. Even the parties’ agreement lacked clarity about whether Compass Tax, or...more

Business Court Gives Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town in the Sky More Time to Scare up Some Investors

A member seeking to dissolve an LLC which owns a mothballed amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, didn’t have a “ghost of a chance” to close out a struggling, yet functional, company. In McClure v. Ghost Town in...more

Court Looks Closely, but Sees no Whistleblower Story to Support Fired Employee’s Download of Key Documents

More than 500 sequentially accessed files downloaded to a personal thumb drive, and a description in a verified complaint of the purported confidential information and trade secrets implicated, were the key components of the...more

Charlotte’s Contracts to Build Transit System are Inseparable Part of Government Function to Provide Service to Public

The City of Charlotte’s Gold Line Streetcar extension, that brought the system to a 4-mile, 17-stop line, opened to the public in August 2021. But disputes about its construction (and payment for it) that stretched back to...more

A Recipe for Rule 12(b) Failure: Unsavory Complexity, a Pinch of Confusion, and an Overflowing Cup of Acronyms

It turns out there is something more difficult than the financing and development of a luxury retirement community, the long life of which spanned from its initial municipal approval in 2002, through the 2008 financial...more

When Discovery Goes Off Track, can a Pro Se Party Right the Course?

When discovery goes so off the rails that a court declares a party “has stalled the progress” of a case, prejudiced its opponent and “wasted judicial resources,” there’s little doubt the sanctions sure to follow will be...more

A Rule 4 Service Drama: all FedEx, DHL and UPS Delivery Modes are not Created Equal

A counterclaim plaintiff’s claims in a complex trade secret action involving the development of cell-cultured human milk suffered a rather pedestrian fate given the important technological stakes. The counterclaim defendants...more

A Pirate’s Story, it Turns Out, is Worth its Weight in Gold

When Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was discovered off the North Carolina coast in 1996 after a decade of searching, whatever treasure might have been with it when it found a watery grave in 1718 had been...more

JNOV is a Tough Road, but it’s Not a One in a Million Shot

A party seeking to unseat a verdict by JNOV “bears a heavy burden under North Carolina law.” Only a “scintilla of evidence” is needed to support the elements of the prevailing claim. But as the Business Court reminded in...more

Check your Receipts at Summary Judgment: Court Awards Attorney’s Fees Against Party that Pressed on with “Meritless” Claim After...

After a “hotly contested” four-year litigation that resulted in mutual, without prejudice dismissals, the plaintiff in Vitaform, Inc. v. Aeroflow, Inc., 2023 NCBC 76, said it would refile and try again. But first, the...more

A Bitter Dish in the Dessert Industry: Company Pays Litigation Expenses for a Corporate Officer who Won Dismissal of Its...

PreGel America makes and distributes products used in the gelato, ice cream and pastry business. But it alleges a far less than sweet experience with its former CEO, who the company says approved unauthorized personal salary...more

Third Time’s the Charm. Mostly.

Maybe the third time is really only the charm in Baltimore. But at least sometimes a third shot at a sufficiently pled complaint in North Carolina can still carry the day. In Trail Creek Invs., LLC v. Warren Oil Holding Co.,...more

A Publicly Filed Court Document Does Make a Sound, Even if No One is Around to Hear It

When an amended complaint renders the arguments of a motion to dismiss moot, what effect does it have on the public’s ability to view the parties’ filings on the motion? In Karriker v. Harpoon Holdings, L.P., 2023 NCBC 67,...more

When Employees Become Competitors, NC Business Court Keeps a Careful Watch on Disturbances in Marketplace Force

Joshua Langley worked for Autocraft, Inc. for more than five years and rose to have wide access to its business affairs and “substantial responsibility for its overall operations.” While still employed there, he opened LB...more

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