A really hot topic is occupying the city council: to allow food trucks or not to allow food trucks, that is the question. Local restaurants are opposed, but the trucks are really popular and may revive downtown foot traffic. The … Read more

As noted in a previous post, the General Assembly recently enacted S.L. 2011-199 (HB 380), which, effective October 1, 2011, amends the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure (NCRCP) to address issues related to e-discovery in North Carolina state courts. … Read more

The “digital age” has been upon us for many years, but the legal system continues to struggle to keep pace with the fundamental transformation it has caused in the way people communicate and generate and store information. The discovery of … Read more

UPDATED: June 22, 2011. The court withdrew the opinion analyzed below on June 17, 2011. See National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (S.D.N.Y. June 17, 2011). Although the opinion no longer has any precedential value, … Read more

A city resident forwards an e-mail to Councilwoman Leslie Knope. The e-mail accuses certain other city council members of improper conduct. Councilwoman Knope opens the e-mail on her home computer, which is set up to remotely log in to her public … Read more

In my last post I defined metadata and summarized the three cases (in other states) that have addressed whether, and to what extent, metadata is a public record. I concluded that post by asking what we might glean from these … Read more

(Updated March 15, 2010) Is metadata a public record? There is not a clear answer to this question, at least in North Carolina. But that does not mean that public entities should ignore the question. In fact, public officials, particularly … Read more