Vehicle Injury Lawyers
Traffic accidents happen all the time, and most often result in some amount of injury and financial loss. Under North Carolina law, if you have sustained injuries or financial loss from a motor accident that was not your fault, you have the right to recover the damages. These damages tend to at least include easily quantifiable losses like medical bills and wage loss due to injury. They can also include compensation for less concrete aspects such as pain and suffering or to further punish the negligent driver.
In most vehicle accident cases, you would be filing a personal injury claim with the insurance company of the person responsible for the accident. While the insurance adjuster reviewing your claim will likely portray themselves as helpful and friendly, their job is pay out the minimum amount to you. We highly recommend that you hire an experienced personal injury attorney to make sure your rights are protected, and you are compensated fairly and adequately for your losses.
Types of Vehicle Injury Cases
Most vehicle accident personal injury claims involve a person who caused you injury to yourself or property because of their negligence, recklessness, or an intentional act. While in some cases it may seem very clear who was responsible for the crash and injury, including criminal negligence or recklessness cases like DWI accidents, determining who was liable can be complicated. This is especially the case in North Carolina, which is unfortunately a contributory negligence state. Under contributory negligence law, t if the insurance company can show that you were at fault, even in the smallest insignificant degree, they could potentially back out on paying any compensation. This makes it all the more important that you hire a lawyer quickly to prevent yourself from accidently admitting or suggesting any amount of personal liability that could hurt your case. Accident claims that typically involve insurance companies include:
- Collisions resulting from negligence (e.g. failure to yield, not using a blinker)
- Collisions resulting from recklessness (e.g. racing, DWI, excessive speeding, texting while driving)
- Hit and Run (leaving the scene of the incident)
- Bicycle rider or pedestrian injuries
There are also accident claims that can fall under product liability issues, where your vehicle’s safety mechanisms have failed or were defective despite your diligence to have them checked. These kinds of claims require an evaluation of your vehicle, whatever maintenance you’ve had performed on it, among other things. While the approach is different and requires some more expertise on vehicle safety, an experienced lawyer in motor vehicle personal injury claims should have relationships with expert contacts to help evaluate and support your claim.
Vehicle Accidents in a Ride-share or Taxi
Making a personal injury claim for a vehicle accident involving a driver of a ride-share vehicle (e.g. Uber and Lyft) or a taxi is not much different than any other vehicle injury claim. That being said, who is liable for injury caused can get a little more confusing, as there can be a mix of insurance providers involved. For ride-share in particular, the drivers are typically covered under a different set of policies when they are working as drivers (i.e. their ride-share app has them registered in “driver mode”) as opposed to when they are using their vehicle like any other person. In the latter case, the claims should just involve the driver’s regular insurance. In the former case, claims will likely involve contacting the ride-share company and their insurance. An experienced vehicle injury lawyer can help you understand the ride-share’s specific insurance policy and how to get the fairest compensation from them.
Why Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?
The attorneys at Polk Law have handled many car accident personal injury lawsuits and helped clients win excellent settlements. We accomplish this by knowing the ins and outs of tactics insurance companies and any other parties involved in filing these claims. As a personal injury and criminal defense firm, we are experts on criminal traffic proceedings and how criminal proceedings carry into civil ones. We retain relationships with varied experts that may be relevant to your case, such as medical experts, mechanics, law enforcement and vocational experts who can vouch for the various aspects of the damages you have or are facing.
Personal Injury FAQs
As personal injury law, also known as tort law, is handled in civil court, you will need to pursue a lawsuit to seek legal compensation for damages.
Personal injury law gives you the right to attend civil court and seek monetary reward for your pain and suffering, and any losses you might have incurred due to your unfortunate accident.
The law offices of Polk Law have experienced personal injury lawyers who know how to get you the results you deserve. Getting injured due to someone else’s negligence or behavior can be a traumatic experience and we want you to know that you have rights.
Generally speaking, if a person files a personal injury lawsuit against another person or business, then the other party can either decide to settle the matter out of court, or they can choose to take it to trial. In our experience, most people end up settling out of court. This is because a jury trial can sometimes be a lengthy and costly process, and the defendant could end up getting more than what he or she chose to settle for in the first place.
If the defendant chooses to take your civil matter to trial, then the jury selection process would begin before your case would be set for trial. The entire process of a civil jury trial is similar to a criminal jury trial, with the exception that there is no right to a speedy trial since civil cases are not considered criminal cases.
If the accused doesn’t admit fault or chooses not to settle out of court, then yes, evidence will be examined during the civil trial. Regardless of how you think your personal injury case might play out, it is always a good idea to hold on to any evidence you may have obtained, or give it to your attorney.
There are many different types of personal injury cases, some are more generalist while others are very specialized to certain circumstances or liable parties. Some categories are:
- Automobile Injury: Car accidents, due to negligence or otherwise, causing injury
- Defamation: Injury from damage to reputation, finances, and more resulting from false and harmful claims.
- Premise Liability: Injury on a premise due to inadequate safety
- Product Liability: Injury caused by products not meeting safety standards
- Malpractice and Professional Negligence: Any form of professional malpractice that causes injury. Most common are for medical and nursing malpractice, but damages from other professions can be worthy of filing a lawsuit.
If you suspect you have a valid personal injury case, but are not certain,
hen we suggest that you find legal representation immediately. Failing to hire a qualified personal injury attorney can end up causing you to lose any chance of monetary compensation that you deserve. We would also like to remind you that it is best if you do not speak to anyone about this matter besides your attorney, because anything you say or do could be brought back up in civil court.
If you need would like a free consultation, then please feel free to call us at 919-642-1612 or send us an e-mail by visiting our contact page.