The Copeley Johnson & Groninger Blog: Laws and Lawyers for North Carolinians

Clients of CJG receive $13 million settlement from auto collision - Leto Copeley and Ann Groninger recently settled a personal injury claim for a man who was catastrophically injured after he was rear-ended while stopped in his vehicle. His wife also had claims for loss of consortium. The firm’s client, a critical care nurse, was waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so that he could make a [...]

Workers’ Comp Settlement Deemed Unjust by Appeals Court - The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that an injured worker and his employer cannot independently agree on a settlement if the North Carolina Industrial Commission has gotten involved in the claim, according to the Triangle Business Journal. Danny Allred was injured in a motor vehicle accident while he was employee of Exceptional [...]

Court Upholds Ruling that Employers Must Provide Disabled Employees New Roles - The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from an airline about what accommodations it must make for employees no longer able to perform their current jobs because of a disability. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued United Airlines for failing to make reasonable accommodations for injured workers who were unable to perform [...]

Valerie Johnson Named Chair of NCAJ Workers’ Compensation Section - CJG Partner Valerie Johnson was elected chairperson of the Workers Compensation Section of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ) at the association’s annual conference in Wilmington, June 15-18. The NCAJ is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded to protect people’s rights through professional and community legal education. The group advocates for the rights of the [...]

Equal Pay Act Turns 50, But Women’s Wages Still Lag - On the fiftieth anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, we are still a long way from seeing workplace equality for women and minorities. When the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, American women on average earned 59 cents for every dollar that American men earned. In the five decades since the bill was passed, [...]

Budget Cuts Will Deny Justice To Many - Budget cuts approved by the NC Senate and up for a vote in the NC House of Representatives will directly impact the day-to-day functions of the court, slashing the state’s number of court reporters in half and replacing them with recording equipment. Such a change will likely result in errors in court records, according to [...]

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US Department of Education will investigate charge that UNC-Chapel Hill improperly handled sexual assault claims - On March 1, the Office of Civil Rights of the US Department of Education sent a letter to University Chancellor Holden Thorp stating that it will open an investigation into a complaint made by five women that UNC Chapel Hill administrators have a pattern of failing to handle sexual assault claims properly. The five [...]

Supreme Court Issues Important Decision in Discrimination Case - In Staub v. Proctor Hospital, the US Supreme Court just issued an important unanimous decision in this military-service-based discrimination case. This case concerns the so-called “cat’s paw” theory of liability, under which one supervisor acts with discriminatory intent against the plaintiff, but the plaintiff is actually fired by another supervisor. The case arose under the [...]

Truck Drivers at Increased Risk for Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injuries - Spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury are among the many catastrophic injuries for which American truck drivers are at risk. According to a post by Dr. Michael Choo of Paradigm Outcomes, factors such as fatigue, long hours, highway conditions and difficult-to-maneuver vehicles contribute to truck drivers being at great risk of catastrophic injury on [...]

Valerie Johnson Named Chair of NCAJ Workers’ Compensation Section - CJG Partner Valerie Johnson was elected chairperson of the Workers Compensation Section of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ) at the association’s annual conference in Wilmington, June 15-18. The NCAJ is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded to protect people’s rights through professional and community legal education. The group advocates for the rights of the [...]