An injury attorney in Wilmington who you can actually talk to right after you've been hurt.

For over 36 years I have represented injury victims and their families across eastern North Carolina — never insurance companies, never corporations. My career began in New York City and New Jersey, where I am also admitted to the bar. No estate planning. No business law. No criminal defense. Just personal injury, every day, for one client at a time. When you call my office, you reach the lawyer working your case. There are no associates because I do not have any.

North Carolina is one of only four states that still applies contributory negligence. If the defense proves you were even 1% at fault for the accident, your recovery can be barred. The defense is good at finding that 1%. That rule is the reason every case I take is investigated carefully from day one — witnesses interviewed before memory fades, scene photos pulled before the property changes, medical records assembled before treatment is discounted by an adjuster. The work cannot be done in volume.

The cases I work range from rear-end collisions on Market Street to fractured-neck motorcycle cases, from a slip on an icy hotel entranceway resolved against a national hotel chain to a 57-year-old client with a traumatic brain injury from a missed medical diagnosis. That last case took three years, 14 retained experts, and roughly 32 depositions to resolve in a recovery that pays for lifetime care. Most personal-injury practices will not take that kind of case. I take them when the negligence is clear and the injury is serious.

Consultation is free. No fee unless I win your case. If I cannot help, I will tell you that honestly in the first conversation.

A North Carolina personal-injury recovery is built on three categories. Economic damages cover what can be counted: past, present, and future medical expense, lost income, lost earning capacity, and out-of-pocket costs. Non-economic damages cover what cannot be counted as easily: pain, scarring, loss of the activities that gave the year before the injury its shape, and loss of consortium for a spouse. Punitive damages are rare and reserved for conduct the law treats as willful, intentional, or reckless — drunk driving and grossly negligent commercial trucking are the most common openings.

The 1% problem

NC's contributory-negligence rule sits on top of every personal-injury case in the state. Pair that with the at-fault driver's adjuster calling the day after the accident, offering a friendly number that closes the case before the long-term cost of the injury is even understood, and the early window is the most fragile part of the case. I take more calls in that window than any other, and that is the window I most want you to call in. Anchoring the discussion in the actual rule, in plain English, is the first thing the first call covers.

How long you have

Three years for most personal-injury claims in NC. Two years for wrongful death. Three years for property damage. The deadline is hard. After it passes, the case cannot be filed regardless of how strong the underlying claim is. Witness recollection, scene evidence, and medical records all degrade well before the deadline, so the case should not wait on the clock. Looking at settlement values for similar cases is part of the first conversation, as is checking which of the six NC counties the case will sit in.

If you want to see how this work looks in practice, the case results page collects representative outcomes — client names withheld for privacy — and the about page covers the long version of why this is the only kind of law I have practiced.