Frequently asked questions.

Absolutely, unequivocally YES! You want someone who just does personal injury law, but more than that you want a personal injury lawyer who will be there for you on the small issues and the large.

If you aren't injured, you don't have to. If you ARE injured, you need to make it a priority and get to a doctor ASAP.

Get photos of all vehicles, or know the location of each so your lawyer's investigator can get them. Photos of your vehicle should show all of the exterior damage as well as the interior. A property damage estimate showing the name and address of the facility. Names, addresses, and phone numbers of all witnesses. Location photos, from the perspective of both drivers, taken as soon after the wreck as you can, because locations change, skid marks disappear, and debris gets removed.

Documents showing the value of your vehicle (bill of sale, KBB.com, NADA.com, and similar). All insurance policy declaration pages for your car insurance and for anyone related to you living in your household. The police report or officer exchange slip if you have it (if not, don't worry, most reports are online now). All medical bills, prescription receipts, and receipts for home health care equipment. Photographs showing your injury.

Names, addresses, and phone numbers of family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances who have witnessed how your injury has affected you. Names and addresses of all hospitals and doctors who have treated you because of the injury, and of every medical provider who has seen you in the last 20 years, particularly primary care providers. Copies of your Medicaid or Medicare cards, both sides. Your health insurance card, including all EOBs. Any letters received from any insurance company or its representatives. Items of physical damage (motorcycle helmets, clothing, boots). And if you know it, tell your lawyer whether the patrolman had a unit at the scene taking photos, sketches, or measurements.

Most states have what they call statutes of limitations. These are laws put in place that prescribe the time within which you must file a case in court and serve all responsible parties. In NC, for personal injury, the statute of limitations is generally 3 years. However, if a death is involved, it may change to a 2-year statute of limitations running from the date of death. There are also exceptions for a person under a disability, such as a minor.

The short answer is that in North Carolina, if you are contributorily negligent and your own negligence caused your injury, then NO you cannot recover in NC. The defense must prove this! This is the single most important rule in North Carolina personal injury law, and it is the reason I investigate every case as if the defense is already looking for that 1%.

I learned a long time ago, that if something is too good to be true, then it always is! They are trying to get out cheap before you even know the extent of your injury. With that check will come a general release that they will want you to sign. Do not take it, and consult with a good personal injury lawyer immediately.

This is where both uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage come into play. Both of these coverages are vitally important, and I tell all my clients that they must annually review their own insurance policies to make sure that they have it, and that they have it in adequate limits, which in NC is a maximum of $1 million.

Ultimately your case is worth what a jury is going to give you. Depending on the case and the severity of the injury, it can, by objective standards, be a lot of money, in fact millions.

Simply put, the law allows for fair compensation to be awarded to a person for any past, present, or future injury proximately caused by the negligence of another. That includes: past, present, and future medical expense (hospital, doctor, drugs, and necessary and reasonable treatment); past, present, and future loss of earnings or diminution in earning capacity; past, present, and future pain and suffering, including emotional suffering and loss of enjoyment of life; past, present, and future scars or disfigurement, including inconvenience and hardship caused by handicap; past, present, and future loss of use of a body part; and permanent injury.

It depends on whether you're making an insurance claim or filing a lawsuit. A claim filed with an insurance company is typically settled out of court, and most cases resolve that way. If you cannot settle, then the next step is filing a lawsuit. Either way, you want to make sure that you are fully recovered, or are finished with all your medical care and treatment, before you settle your case.

You file your case in court by filing legal documents called a summons and complaint. The defendant will generally have anywhere from 30-45 days after the filing of the complaint to file his answer. After the Answer is filed, then both parties conduct "discovery," which takes time, months (and sometimes years) depending upon the case.

Yes, and this is where most premises cases are won or lost before they ever reach a jury. Under North Carolina law, a property owner or its insurer isn't automatically responsible just because you were hurt on their property. You have to show the owner had actual notice (they knew about the hazard) or constructive notice (the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it and they should have fixed it). I look for the housekeeping logs, the maintenance schedule, the prior complaints, and the work orders nobody acted on. That is the evidence that turns "I fell" into a case.

It can, and I won't pretend otherwise. If you are contributorily negligent, meaning your own carelessness helped cause the fall, then under NC law you cannot recover, even if the property owner was mostly at fault. The defense knows this, and they will look hard for it: were you looking at your phone, did you ignore a wet floor sign, were you somewhere you weren't supposed to be. That is exactly why I move fast, before the surveillance footage gets erased and before the property owner's insurer has locked in its version of events.

Yes, and it's one of the harder categories I handle, which is exactly why I take them. Airbnb and Vrbo hosts often carry a patchwork of coverage: a homeowner's policy that may exclude short-term rental use, a host protection program from the platform, and sometimes nothing at all that actually applies. I've handled cases involving broken stairs on a Wrightsville Beach rental and other coastal short-term-rental injuries. The property owner and the platform's insurer will move fast to lock in evidence before you can. The first call should be to a lawyer who knows what to preserve, and how, and who understands how these host-and-platform coverage stacks actually work.

Deck collapses are premises cases with an added layer: engineering. Under North Carolina's building code, decks have to meet ledger-attachment, span-table, and lateral-load standards, and along our coast, salt air corrodes hardware years before it looks like a problem to the naked eye. A lot of the decks failing today were built or replaced during the 1995-2010 boom, and the inspection practices from that era don't always hold up to today's scrutiny. When a deck goes down at a rental or a commercial property, I move quickly to get an engineer to the scene before repairs erase the evidence, because that inspection record is often the whole case.

These cases are extremely complex, as they are not simple wreck cases. The laws applicable to cases involving truck accidents involve both state and federal regulations, allowing for negligence claims as well as claims for punitive damages based on malicious or grossly negligent conduct. Potential parties may include, but are not limited to, the driver, the owner, the motor carrier, the safety director for the carrier, the diesel mechanic, the broker, the dispatcher, and the vehicle inspector.

Help yourself physically by getting good doctors and doing all that you can to get better. And hire a really good personal injury lawyer to help you with your case. These cases are much too complicated for you to handle by yourself. Call it a "David and Goliath" situation.

The remedy for a truck crash at common law is a suit for negligence. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, you can sue the motor carrier or employer for the wrongful acts of its driver. However, you must prove an employer/employee relationship, and that the driver was acting within the scope of employment at the time of the crash.

I would not characterize a trucking crash as common on any level, because most are devastating. They wreak havoc on our public roadways and cause mayhem. They cause regular, ordinary people to have their lives change in an instant, and often horribly so.

The short answer is yes. This is governed by 49 C.F.R. Section 383 et al. This statute provides for certain qualifications, training, and certification for commercial driver's licenses, or CDLs, and the operation of CMVs, or commercial motor vehicles.

Yes. Drivers operating a CMV who are ill, fatigued, or who have violated HOS, or hours-of-service, regulations can be held liable under 49 C.F.R. 392 and 395. A driver's driving hours are regulated by these two sections.

It is important to speak to an attorney right away, so that a proper investigation can be done to determine the proper parties to sue. You have both common-law negligence claims and statutory negligence-per-se claims available to hold the driver and others responsible. Those others might include, but are not limited to: the company or employer, the carrier, the lease company, the shipper (improper load), the receiver (who has a just-in-time policy), the trailer manufacturer (underride case), the mechanic, the dispatcher, and others, depending on the nature of the claim and what the investigation turns up.

Just as in any other negligence case, you may have two or three claims. This would include a claim for negligence or negligence per se, requesting compensatory damages for: past, present, and future medical expense; past, present, and future lost wages; past, present, and future pain and suffering, including emotional; past, present, and future scarring and disfigurement; past, present, and future permanent injury; and past, present, and future loss of enjoyment of life. You may also have a claim for punitive damages, damages seeking to punish the wrongdoer for willful, intentional, or reckless conduct.

A truck underride crash occurs when a passenger vehicle crashes into the truck and penetrates beneath, or underrides, the rear or side of the trailer. The top of the car is crushed, or removed altogether, many times resulting in severe injury or death.