NC Personal Injury Case Overview

NC Personal Injury - Litigation (Mediation)

NC Personal Injury Litigation (Mediation) -  NC Personal Injury Cases can be filed in District or Superior Court. For District court cases, mediation is voluntary. If your case is filed in Superior court, mediation is mandatory. The mediation is called a “mediated settlement conference.” Hopefully, you and the defendant can agree on a mediator (a neutral attorney). If you cannot, the court will assign one to your case. If your case settles or does not settle at mediation, the mediator files a report with the court. If you settle, you are done…if not you have to proceed to trial.

NC Personal Injury - Litigation (Discovery Phase)

In the Discovery phase, both sides share information before trial. There are four main ways to pass this information: Request for Admission, Interrogatories, Request for Production of Documents and Depositions. You must respond to the defendant’s requests and they must respond to yours. You are allowed to ask for clarifications of their answers if their meaning is not clear.

For more information visit us at https://www.disabilitylawfirmnc.com/

NC Personal Injury - Starting the Lawsuit

Litigation – Starting the Lawsuit

If you are unwilling to accept the insurance adjuster’s offer, your next move is to file a court case. This is accomplished by filing a complaint in the NC county court in which the accident occurred. Superior courts handle matters in excess of $25,000. Any lower dollar amounts are held in District Court. You do not have to know the exact dollar amount to know where to file. You simply have to allege what is in your best belief. In this case, you are the plaintiff and the at-fault party is the defendant.

In addition to a complaint, you need a civil summons and discovery to get your court case going. After you file your Complaint and pay the $200 filing fee to the Clerk of Court and $30 service fee to the county Sheriff’s office, the sheriffs will attempt to achieve service on your defendant. They have 30 days to serve the Complaint on your defendant. If service is not completed in 30 days, you will have to find a new address, refile the civil summons, and pay the $15 service fee in order to direct the sheriffs to the correct place to attempt to serve your defendant with the Complaint.

After the defendant has been served (essentially meaning that they have been informed that you are suing them) they have 30 days to reply with their defenses to your complaint. Depending on what is in the defendant’s responses you may have to reply to their responses in 30 days.

Deciding to file a court case is not a simple or straightforward matter. A NC Personal Injury Lawyer can help you decide if settling or going to court is right move in your county. Counties in NC can have extremely different demographics, political affiliations and economic classes. These and other factors will affect how a jury will view your claim in your county.

Learn more at Raleigh Personal Injury Lawyers

NC Personal Injury, Settle or Trial? - Part Three

This is the final episode discussing issues with settling or taking your NC Personal Injury case to trial. You can find out more information on the trial process at https://www.disabilitylawfirmnc.com/raleigh-personal-injury-lawyers/#Litigation_-_Starting_the_Lawsuit. 

Litigation – Starting the Lawsuit

If you are unwilling to accept the insurance adjuster’s offer, your next move is to file a court case. This is accomplished by filing a complaint in the NC county court in which the accident occurred. Superior courts handle matters in excess of $25,000. Any lower dollar amounts are held in District Court. You do not have to know the exact dollar amount to know where to file. You simply have to allege what is in your best belief. In this case, you are the plaintiff and the at-fault party is the defendant.

In addition to a complaint, you need a civil summons and discovery to get your court case going. After you file your Complaint and pay the $200 filing fee to the Clerk of Court and $30 service fee to the county Sheriff’s office, the sheriffs will attempt to achieve service on your defendant. They have 30 days to serve the Complaint on your defendant. If service is not completed in 30 days, you will have to find a new address, refile the civil summons, and pay the $15 service fee in order to direct the sheriffs to the correct place to attempt to serve your defendant with the Complaint.

After the defendant has been served (essentially meaning that they have been informed that you are suing them) they have 30 days to reply with their defenses to your complaint. Depending on what is in the defendant’s responses you may have to reply to their responses in 30 days.

Deciding to file a court case is not a simple or straightforward matter. A NC Personal Injury Lawyer can help you decide if settling or going to court is right move in your county. Counties in NC can have extremely different demographics, political affiliations and economic classes. These and other factors will affect how a jury will view your claim in your county.

Litigation – Discovery

In the Discovery phase, both sides share information before trial. There are four main ways to pass this information: Request for Admission, Interrogatories, Request for Production of Documents and Depositions. You must respond to the defendant’s requests and they must respond to yours. You are allowed to ask for clarifications of their answers if their meaning is not clear.

Litigation – Mediation

For District court cases, mediation is voluntary. If your case is filed in Superior court, mediation is mandatory. The mediation is called a “mediated settlement conference.” Hopefully, you and the defendant can agree on a mediator (a neutral attorney). If you cannot, the court will assign one to your case. If your case settles or does not settle at mediation, the mediator files a report with the court. If you settle, you are done…if not you have to proceed to trial.

Ligation- Jury Trial

We have all seen jury trials on television. Fortunately, real life trials are not full of angry judges, attorneys, jurors and clients but trials are complex none the less. Jury selection, motions and postponements are all important aspects of your case that should be discussed with a lawyer.

NC Personal Injury - Settle or Trial?, Part Two

This continuation of our previous podcast discusses issues to consider when deciding to settle a NC Personal Injury case or go to trial. 

Some cases will receive the highest settlement when settling before trial and other cases will have to go all the way to a jury to attain the best recovery.  Also, in NC, after a court case is filed but before trial, the court will order a mediated settlement conference. Many cases settle during this settlement conference, but not all. So, the decision to go to trial should be made with the thought in mind that the case will go to trial.

Read more at NC Personal Injury Lawyers

NC Personal Injury - Settle or Trial?, Part One

If you have been injured in NC by the negligence of another, you may be wondering if you should settle your personal injury claim or proceed to trial. While this podcast cannot answer that question for you, it attempts to explain the pros and cons of each path.

Time, location, expense, stress and maximizing recovery are all factors that should be considered carefully before making a decision to take a NC Personal Injury case to trial. Having a NC Personal Injury Lawyer on your side to give you advice regarding the best course of action will help!

The Bishop Law Firm represents injured clients in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Fayetteville, Smithfield, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Chapel Hill, Roanoke Rapids, Louisburg and other areas in North Carolina. Our firm does not get paid unless you win and we offer free case reviews, (919) 615-3095 . We wish you a speedy recovery!

NC Personal Injury - Paying for Medical Bills

NC is a contributory negligence state which means that if you are even 1% at fault for your car accident, you can not recover your losses. If the accident was not your fault, you can recover the costs of your doctor bills, lost wages and be compensated for your pain and suffering. Punitive damages are rarely awarded. In order for you to recover from NC Personal Injury Litigation, you must file your case in court before the statute of limitations runs out.

After being injured in a car accident that was not your fault, you sought medical care or maybe even an ambulance was called to the accident scene for you. You went to the hospital and/or medical provider’s office, medical tests were ran and perhaps a medication/medical device or physical therapy, etc. was prescribed for the injuries you sustained in the accident.

While trying to recover from your injuries and get back to work, you receive a large medical bill(s) with notices saying that past due amounts can be reported to credit reporting agencies. You begin to feel that you are being punished for someone else’s mistake. What can you do?

Read more NC Personal Injury Lawyers

NC Personal Injury: Health Insurance and Insurance Adjusters

This podcast includes an interview with Jack Keener, Attorney at Law, and Samantha Couch-Moye, Paralegal. Jack and Samantha help The Bishop Law Firm's injured clients.

In this podcast we discussed:

1. Should you use your own health insurance to pay accident related medical bills?  https://www.disabilitylawfirmnc.com/medical-bills-after-a-nc-motor-vehicle-accident/

2. How soon should you file your injury claim with the insurance company?

3. Is there a difference between a injury claim and a property damage claim?

4. How to deal with insurance adjusters and should you do a recorded statement? https://www.disabilitylawfirmnc.com/insurance-adjusters-and-recorded-statements/

Also read NC Personal Injury Lawyers

 

NC Personal Injury: Do I have a case?

Anyone who is injured due to the negligence of another through no fault of their own can potentially have a personal injury case in North Carolina. NC is a contributory negligence state, meaning if the injured person is even 1% at fault, they can not recover on a personal injury case (but see Last Clear Chance Doctrine).

For car accident cases, the officer will sometimes issue a citation to the at-fault party, but not always. In other types of cases, it can be difficult to determine who is at fault and if you have a personal injury claim.

Though work injuries are usually governed under NC Workers’ Compensation, there are specific circumstances under which you can have a personal injury case for injuries you sustained on the job. For example, if you are a delivery driver and get into a motor vehicle collision while performing your job duties (through no fault of your own), you may be eligible for Worker’s Compensation through your employer and may also be entitled to compensation through a injury case against the at-fault driver.

Also, please remember that if there are passengers in your car (including minors) that are injured during an accident, they can also have personal injury claims against the at-fault driver.

Read more about NC Personal Injury Lawyers

The Bishop Law Firm, 8374 Six Forks Rd STE 101, Raleigh, NC  27615  919-615-3095