Boyce to get day in court

The judge in Raleigh lawyer Dan Boyce's eight-year-old defamation lawsuit against Attorney General Roy Cooper has set a trial date: May 18, 2009.

The two men opposed each other in the 2000 race for attorney general. Boyce, a Republican, lost, and Democrat Cooper won his first term as the state's top lawyer. Last week he won a third term. During the 2000 campaign, Cooper ran an ad criticizing Boyce and his law firm for seeking a large fee in a class action lawsuit against the state.

Boyce sued for defamation over the ad. He argues that he didn't work on the case highlighted in the ad. His father did. Boyce worked on a similar case. He also points out that his firm didn't exist at the time of the class action case in the ad and that his name was not on the filings. Cooper's lawyers contend that Boyce didn't distinguish between the cases in his campaign.

Boyce's case against Cooper could set a national precedent on whether a candidate can be sued for a campaign commercial.