Legislative Update June 2013

A few noteworthy bills are in process this session:

S279 updates and clarifies provisions regarding estates, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorneys and other fiduciaries. The bill has been sent to the Governor and if signed, becomes law.

H343 provides a filing fee for third party complaints and changes the wording of the $20 motion fee.  The bill has been referred to committee.

S452 is the most notable change. It increases the filing limit for small claims court to $10,000.00 and for district court to $25,000.00.  The arbitration cap will be increased from $15,000.00 to $25,000.00.   The bill passed a third reading on June 6 and may be on its way to the Governor's desk soon.

H331 will provide a more uniform procedure to enforce homeowner association liens.  The bill is still in committee.

You can read the text of these changes on the NC General Assembly's website http://www.ncleg.net/. Enter the bill number into the search box in the upper right hand corner.

Attention North Carolina Certified Paralegals!

Are you renewing your North Carolina Certified Paralegal soon?  If so you will want to know about a change that just took place. You now must submit your certificate of attendance with your renewal forms.  Do not mail them in before your renewal or they will be returned.  This is a change in that the Bar did not, before now, require you send the certificates with your application.

http://www.nccertifiedparalegal.gov/forms/attendance.pdf

Meet in the Middle

Ever make plans to meet a client, a friend for lunch or have a custody case where the parents live a large distance from each other?  Ever wonder what a good "half-way" point is to meet? Try putting the addresses in the site below and get a meeting location.  You can even tell it find a specific place, like a restaurant, where you can meet.

www.meetways.com

Changes to the NALA CLA/CP

If you will be taking the CLA/CP exam, you will want to know that substantial changes to the test have been made, most notably, effective with the September 2013 testing, the Substantive Law section will consist of questions on the following subjects ONLY: American Legal System, Civil Litigation, Business Organizations and Contracts.  Visit NALA's website for more information. 

http://www.nala.org/exam-desc.aspx

Its a "Wayback Wednesday"!

Its not "paralegal" related but if you grew up in the 80s, you will have fun with these School House Rock memories!

http://mentalfloss.feedsportal.com/c/35119/f/649404/s/2a989b96/l/0Lmentalfloss0N0Carticle0C50A0A180C110Eschoolhouse0Erock0Ehits/story01.htm

Mental Floss: 50 Weird Laws Still on the Books

Enjoy this unusual list of laws still on the books in some States.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/50041/50-weird-laws-still-books

Tax & Tag Together

If you recently received your vehicle registration renewal, you may be thinking the fee increased substantially. It didn't. Starting 2013, when you receive your vehicle registration renewal in the mail, you will also receive your property tax bill.   Both will be due at one time and paid to DMV.  Since the inspection is also still required at the same time, we will all be opening up our checkbooks a little more.

http://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/vehicle/tagtax/

This Paralegal Cooks Too!

My kids are older, 18 and 15.  I don't get the chance to cook a lot, although I enjoy trying new recipes.  It doesn't happen often but I came across this Pillsbury recipe and made it last weekend. It was quick and the kids at it up (and so did the husband).  In fact, we were fighting over leftovers the next night (DON'T EAT ALL OF THAT I WANT MORE!)

Stuffed Crescent Chicken Cobbler Ingredients: 
32 fl oz frozen southern style diced hashbrowns
1 1/4 cups 2% milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
8 bacon slices
1-12 oz can big and flaky crescent rolls 

Heat oven to 350. Spray 13x9 pan. Mix thawed hash browns, milk and soup. Pour into baking dish. Bake 15-20 minutes until bubbly and thick. 

Separate dough into 8 crescents. On wide end of crescent, layer chicken and 1 cup of cheese. Roll up and place over potato mixture, point side down. 

Bake 20-25 minutes until rolls are golden brown. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon. Sprinkle with green onions and/or sour cream if desired.

I don't know about you, but, I like to tweak recipes to my liking. For this one, I omitted the bacon slices and used bacon bits. This is because I don't like bacon with anything but my eggs or BLT. Instead I used bacon bits and put them on half of the pan.

If you like this, let me know! I have a stock of recipes I'd love to start sharing with you.

Are you a Para-Couponer?

I thought I'd blog something different today.  My name is Patti - and I am a paralegal and a couponer!  Here are some of my favorite sites for getting good deals.  I got a Keurig machine for Christmas for $30 off by seeing a post on one of these sites. (I LOVE my Keurig!)

www.mamacheaps.com
http://thekrazycouponlady.com
http://womanfreebies.com
http://www.triadcouponing.com
www.coupons.com

Also be sure find your favorite store and follow them on facebook, twitter, etc. and/or sign up for emails.  You may get "member" only specials or coupons.

New (and Old) Laws Taking Effect

Below is a link to a General Assembly document summarizes laws which took effect recently and which will take effect January 1, 2013. 

The most notable changes are:

revisions to the mechanics lien statute
revisions to laws regarding criminal checks for day care workers
revisions to the expungement laws
revisions to the amount of property that can pass to a spouse and child under the intestate laws
revisions that require a landlord to give the NC State Bar notice of an attorney's default on a lease
revisions to terminate child support if a child enrolls in an early college program
revisions that now include maintenance and utility vehicles as part of the "move over" law
revisions to adoption laws

If you want to see just the changes taking effect Jan 1, go to page 16. I would encourage you to take a look at the entire document as I did.  I found some changes I was not aware of.

I hope you all have a safe and fun new year, whether you go out and celebrate, or do like I do and sleep through it.

(The link to this information has since been deactivated, there is a comprehensive list of all enacted legislation for 2012 here.)