Ronald Payne
About Ronald Payne
Ronald K. Payne is Of Counsel at the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin, with more than 47 years of legal experience. He joined the firm in 2025 and works out of the Asheville, North Carolina area. His practice includes eminent domain matters, where he has successfully increased a client's easement offer by nearly seven times the original.
Payne earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with honors from North Carolina State University in 1974 and his Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1977.
A former North Carolina Superior Court Judge for 14 years (1995-2008), Payne was appointed by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. and won election in 1996 and re-election in 2004. He presided over major trials including medical malpractice and capital murder cases.
He is admitted to the North Carolina Bar and is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and North Carolina Advocates for Justice.
His honors include the North Carolina Bar Association Citizen Lawyer Award (2023) and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers Outstanding Trial Judge Award (2002).
Proven verdicts and settlements at Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
These results are credited to Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Farrin co-lead counsel Gary Jackson won an $8 million class settlement for roughly 6,500 residents forced from their homes by the 2022 ammonium nitrate fire at the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant, with a separate $4.5 million for affected businesses.
A Johnston County jury awarded $5.1 million to the family of Joan Drake, killed when a driver going 98 mph struck her car as she turned into a Clayton Walmart, after Farrin attorneys Coleman Cowan and Donald Clack tried the case without putting on a single medical bill.
A mother and her two teenage daughters were seriously hurt in an October 2018 head-on crash on North Carolina Highway 49 with a company truck driven by an unlicensed man. After the injury claims were resolved by agreement, a federal court held that the construction company's commercial excess policy covered the accident and that interest was owed on top. The Fourth Circuit affirmed in August 2025, and the family's total recovery reached $2,861,458.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
