Publications

The bulletin discusses why private companies ask local governments to enter into nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), what local governments should do when companies seek confidential communications with them, and how to negotiate the tension between the need for confidentiality and the law pertaining to public records and open meetings. This bulletin also provides sample contract clauses to...

This bulletin addresses common questions involving potential conflicts of interest with former clients in criminal cases. Focusing on issues that frequently arise in public defender offices, it examines conflicts involving former clients who later become witnesses or victims in current cases, the use of prior convictions for impeachment, and the handling of confidential information from prior...

When North Carolina counties and municipalities impose prohibitions or restrictions during locally declared states of emergency, they have to follow rules governing publication of prohibitions and restriction and the publication of notice that they are being terminated. These publication and termination-notice rules seem straightforward at first glance, but small pieces of the laws provide...

Sales and use taxes constitute a substantial portion of state own-source revenue in North Carolina and across the United States, with their role likely to expand amid reductions in income tax rates. This bulletin examines the exemption of unprepared food from the state sales tax base, a common policy aimed at enhancing tax fairness but one that contributes to a narrowing tax base. Drawing on...