Commercial Litigation Matters

9 Million Dollar Verdict is Top Verdict in North Carolina for 2016 as Reported by Lawyers Weekly! Attorney: James Johnson, Dement Askew Date of Verdict: October 2016 In 2006, North Carolina expert firearms examiner Beth Desmond was asked to examine some bullet fragments and shell casings from a homicide crime scene. The incident occurred in…

On a summer afternoon, Mr. Johnson’s client was mowing the lawn at the residence of a friend house in Raleigh. The property line running along the back of where he was mowing the lawn runs alongside and is adjacent to the back of the yard of a house which was being kept two Pit Bull…

DeMent Askew & Johnson’s client was in his yard filling a birdfeeder with birdseed when he fell and twisted his left leg in an awkward position. He immediately heard a crack and saw that his left ankle was turned in an awkward position. His wife called 911. EMS arrived and transported him to a local…

DeMent Askew’s client had suffered a stroke years ago. She could not speak as a result of the stroke, and she was also confined to a wheelchair. However, she was still very sharp mentally. She was residing in a nursing home because of her physical limitations. One day, a new resident appeared in the nursing…

DeMent Askew & Johnson’s client was driving south on Lake Wheeler Road in Raleigh on her way to work. She was approaching the intersection with Centennial Parkway and was intending to travel straight through the intersection. At the same time, the Defendant was driving a large pick-up truck traveling in a northerly direction on Lake…

Mr. Johnson’s client was driving a Dodge pick-up truck northeasterly on the on-ramp for traffic exiting off of I-485 and onto I-77 north in Charlotte. He was in the process of moving from Georgia to West Virginia and was pulling a U-Haul trailer. He had a full load in the bed of his truck. One…

The deceased was a resident of a North Carolina nursing home. She had recently been sent to a local hospital for an unrelated illness and was recovering well from this prior illness. During this recovery period, she developed an ulcerous wound in and around her sacrum. The nursing home staff failed to timely detect the…

Mr. Johnson’s client was driving north on Capital Blvd., approaching the intersection with Wake Union Church Road. The Defendant was driving south on Capital Blvd in a large SUV owned by a local landscaping company. As our client approached the intersection, the traffic light for her direction of traffic was emitting a steady green light.…

In a unanimous opinion filed on December 18, 2018, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel affirmed the $6.12 Million Dollar jury verdict Mr. Johnson and associate Chynna Smith won on behalf of their client, a former state firearms examiner, Beth Desmond, in her libel case against the Raleigh News & Observer and reporter Mandy Locke.…