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Durham,
North Carolina, The City of Medicine, home to
Duke University, is #3 on the Top Best Places to
live and work in the United States. Not bad for a
small tobacco community on the edge of North
Carolina's Piedmont region. The American Tobacco
Historic District is over a century old and
state-of-the-art.
National
Historic Landmarks in Durham, are the Duke
Homestead and Tobacco Factory, the Bull Durham
Tobacco Factory, Duke University Chapel, and many
Afro-American landmarks such as Pear Street, ('the
black Wall Street'), and
North Carolina Central University.
The beauty and mystery
of the Neuse River from Falls Dam to Pamlico Sound,
the famous Lucky Strike Building, and the raucous
Durham Freeway, bear witness to the vitality of a
city comfortable with its history and its future.
Even Durham's restored parking garage revels in the
natural beauty of 100-year-old pine timbers.
Durham's new baseball
stadium, built for
The Bulls, (named in honor of Bull Durham
Tobacco), is modeled on Baltimore's Camden Yards. It
represents the best in American Baseball, and evokes
Crash Davis' 1948 legend.
Established in 1838,
world renowned
Duke University Medical Center is among the best
Graduate Schools in the United States.
Research Triangle Park, adjacent to Durham, houses 50
percent of
the biotech firms based in North Carolina and is the
largest research facility in the world.
 Duke
University Medical Center (the #4 medical center
in the US),
Durham Regional Hospital, the North Carolina Eye
& Ear Hospital, North Carolina Specialty Hospital,
the
VA Medical Center (in the top 11 percent of all
hospitals nationally), not only serve the local
population well medically, but provide respected
employment and world-class opportunity for
recognition in the medical field.
Durham's higher
educational needs are served by North Carolina Central
University, Durham Technical Community College, as
well as
Duke University. Many other facilities of higher
learning are within a comfortable commute to
neighboring communities such as
Butner, NC,
Cary, NC,
Carrboro, NC,
Chapel Hill, NC,
Fearrington, NC, and
Hillsborough, NC.
Located 20 miles
northwest of
Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina,
Durham enjoys a year-round pleasant
climate
which encourages outdoor activities such as sports,
golfing, picnicking and family barbecues.
In 1999, Durham County
was one of the first three counties in
North Carolina to adopt a
Family Law Court System. The NC Unified Family Court
system creates an environment in which family
related issues, such as divorce and custody issues
could be resolved in a timely manner, which
respected the rights of all family members.
Innovative features of a Unified Family Court
include the assignment of one judge to one family
for all issues, firm trial dates and limited
continuances.
The
Durham Family Court Office is located on the
first floor of the
Judicial
Annex
Building, which is at
201 N. Roxboro Street,
Durham, NC 27701. Cases assigned to Family Court
include juvenile delinquency charges; neglect and
abuse charges; termination of parental rights and
adoptions; domestic violence; child custody and
visitation rights; divorce and related financial
issues like child support, alimony, or equitable
distribution of property; abortion consent waivers,
paternity; involuntary commitments and
guardianships.
The Family Court location for
residents of Wake County is
316 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, NC 27601. The Wake County courts offer
programs designed to help families and children,
which they describe as therapeutic justice, meaning
less time is spent in the courtrooms. For example,
Wake County District Court employs
the N.C. Child Custody and Visitation Mediators act
as an impartial third party to help parents develop
a parenting agreement that will provide the best
possible care for their children.
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