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Practice Areas
We enjoy helping small and medium-sized businesses start and grow. We help our clients choose the best business
entity for them, e.g., incorporation, limited liability company. Many clients choose either a corporation or an
LLC because those two entities give the owners “limited liability,” meaning that a debt or obligation of the business
can only be satisfied from business assets; a claimant could not then come after the owners’ personal assets.
In order for a corporation or LLC to get the benefit of “limited liability,” it is critical
for it to be set up correctly at the beginning. A lawyer can assure that happens. We explain the things clients
need to know to keep the organizational structure of the corporation running well thereafter.
We enjoy helping clients with their ongoing business needs. We welcome clients calling us with questions as the
need arises. The old proverb is true, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Lawyers are less expensive
in helping clients avoid litigation by making good plans and decisions than in litigating a business matter after
something goes badly. However, we also handle business litigation matters.
We assist our business clients in preparing and reviewing contracts, buying or selling a business, purchasing real
property for their business, negotiating leases, drafting employee handbooks, and managing human resource legal issues.
We take pride in being accessible and responsive in our service to our clients.
Our firm represents employers and employees in their respective employment law matters. This diversity gives us the
balanced perspective needed to assess cases realistically when we give our clients advice. Representing both employers
and employees gives us a better understanding of the needs of both. This means our only “agenda” is providing each
client with the best legal representation given the needs of that client’s particular case.
Clients who are employers often call us for assistance in understanding and complying with their legal obligations.
They also seek our advice on handling personnel matters in a way that either reduces the likelihood of litigation, or
should litigation ensue, puts them in the best legal position possible.
Clients who are employees often call us for advice on matters ranging from employment contracts to severance agreements
to discrimination to grievance procedures to wage and hour problems. We assist these clients in understanding and
enforcing their legal rights.
We also represent individuals or companies in negotiating and writing contracts for independent contractor and
subcontractor relationships.
We provide zealous representation for clients involved in litigation matters. While subjects of litigation can be included in
one of the other topics listed (like business litigation or family law litigation), there are many types of lawsuits that do not
neatly fit in one of those “pigeonholes.” For example, our broad ranging experience in litigation includes matters like the
following:
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Boundary Disputes
Contract Disputes
Insurance Disputes
Family Law Litigation |
Residential Construction Litigation
Will Contests and Caveats
Condemnation
Business Litigation |
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Personal Injury and Wrongful Death
When you or one of your family members is injured or killed by someone’s action or inaction, who should bear the burden
of that loss? Frequently injured persons or the family members of deceased individuals find themselves left with an
unexplainable loss, both personally and economically.
Under North Carolina law, victims injured by negligence—which often is the cause of the injury—are entitled to ask for
reimbursement of their medical bills, for time they missed from work due to the injury, for the permanent effects of
their injury, and for pain and suffering. What the insurance company often doesn’t tell the victim is that pain and
suffering damages and permanency damages are available and that they should be a significant part of any personal
injury settlement. Experienced attorneys who have valued many personal injury cases understand how courts usually
calculate damages, and they understand the mindset of the insurance adjustor, who controls the purse strings on the
claim.
If you are the family member of a person who is killed by the negligence or
intentional act of another, you may be entitled to compensation for both economic damages (like loss of financial
support) and non-economic damages (like loss of love, services and companionship). Like personal injury cases there
may be significant pain and suffering damages due to the estate. The insurance companies will not tell you this. You
need an attorney who knows how to value the case and pursue the settlement or verdict to which you are entitled. You
may be entitled to pursue a wrongful death action even if your loved one was killed on the job, apart from Workers'
Compensation.
In personal injury and death cases, unlike may other areas of the law, the injured person finds him or herself with confusing
options and difficult choices regarding the value of certain losses and the means by which those losses are determined.
Attorneys spend their careers learning the nuances of these cases and helping their clients in these cases.
North Carolina Workers’ Compensation law is complex – including forms, statutes and rules governing the rights of
workers injured on the job. Insurance companies use this complexity to their advantage every day in order to prevent
injured workers from obtaining the compensation they are due.
Did you know that, under North Carolina’s Worker’s Compensation law, you are entitled to disability payments while
you are out of work recovering from your injury? Did you know that insurance companies often miscalculate the amount
due the injured worker? Did you know that, at the end of your case, you are entitled to payment for any rating you
received from your treating physician? Did you know that at the end of the case you have a right to choose the manner
of permanent disability compensation that is better for you? Did you know that, before an insurance carrier stops the
payment of benefits to you that you are entitled to a hearing? Did you know that you may have a choice of physicians?
And, finally, without assistance, would you know how to assert your rights in any of
these situations?
The fact is that insurance companies count on a substantial percentage
of claimants handling their own claims, betting that those claims will settle for less or that they can get away with
denying the claim entirely.
Experienced workers’ compensation attorneys can assist you to
prevent your being taken unfair advantage of. You should contact us (experienced attorneys who deal with
insurance adjustors and insurance attorneys every day), to assist you in enforcing your rights and getting the
compensation you are due under the law. Our firm will be pleased to discuss your case in more detail, to determine
how we may assist you.
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