Britton Law Blog

This year has been unusual so far, with travel restrictions in many places and a drop in gas prices going along with a lack of demand. One would hope that this trend would make it safer and easier to travel by road. This may be the case for some circumstances or places, but threats still remain.

Highway traffic may have dropped as much as half in some areas in North Carolina. Raleigh, for example, sent police to serious car accidents half as much than the same period last year. But the rate of fatal crashes across the Tar Heel State has barely dropped at all.

There's an old saying that oral contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on. This is why anyone engaged in a commercial transaction in North Carolina will probably want terms in writing. But sometimes a contract is not worth the paper it is printed on either.

• When would a contract be invalid?

A contract may not hold up in a North Carolina court if one of the parties was the victim of fraud or was otherwise advised incorrectly in an illegal way. There is also a difference between a contract and an agreement, as a contract has more to do with legal liability to fulfill an obligation or face damages.

• Would any sort of invalid part of a contract invalidate the whole thing?

There are few thrills for a kid that compare with flying down the open road on a bike. In that way, many motorcyclists are like grown-up kids, enjoying the grown-up version of those incredible bicycle rides from their youth. Unfortunately, just like bicyclists, motorcyclists are especially vulnerable to injuries and death when they're involved in an accident with a passenger vehicle of some kind.

A North Carolina driver was recently arrested for an accident that began with her failing to yield the right of way after a motorcycle struck her car just outside Charlotte. The accident occurred on a recent morning when the driver attempted to turn left across South Boulevard and pulled her car into the path of the bike. The force of the strike threw the biker off his ride. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Anyone who was around an aggressive dog as a child can relate that it is terrifying for something so powerful to be near someone so small. An attack by a dog can cause severe injury, permanent disability or even death in certain cases.

Responsibility for domestic animals is complicated in North Carolina because there is no statewide ordinance or law requiring people to leash their pets. The guidance from Raleigh is for cities and other jurisdictions to legislate the issue on their own.