The county my office is in, and the county I live in, is Orange County, North Carolina.  The county seat is Hillsborough, but the most famous town in the county is certainly Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina, the oldest state university in the country, which happens to have an OK sports team or two.

If you get a ticket in Orange County, you’re going to be asked to show up in court in either Hillsborough or Chapel Hill.  What do you do?

Well, you can always show up and see what happens.  Most adults are perfectly capable of navigating the system, but is that the wisest thing to do?  That depends…

By hiring an attorney to show up for you:

• You don’t have to go to court (assuming it’s just a speeding ticket or other waivable offense),
• you don’t have to miss work and income (which might be a whole day!),
• you don’t have to deal with the uncertainty and stress of being in court,
• you get the benefit of having an attorney who knows what kind of reduction would be best for you given your charges and your driving record.

What are those benefits worth?  In my opinion, every penny you pay for them, generally.

In Orange County if you have a speeding ticket under 20 mph over the limit and a clean driving record, we can normally get it reduced to a “non-moving violation” which won’t get you any DMV or insurance points.  Do you know if you can get that, how to ask for it, what it’s called?  If not, perhaps you should get an attorney.

If your speeding ticket is worse than that, your need for an attorney is probably greater, as you’ll want to get the best reduction possible in light of the DMV/insurance point consequences, and that will require a thorough and knowledgeable reading of your driving record, something you probably just don’t know how to do.  So you should call an attorney and see what you should expect.

If you have an Orange County North Carolina speeding ticket call an attorney.  Call me!  919-929-2992.

The answer is “almost never,” at least for most North Carolina speeding tickets.

Generally, you don’t want to pay off a speeding ticket because that means you are pleading guilty, and you’ll then get the DMV and insurance points associated with your charge.

The DMV points aren’t a huge deal if you have a good record.  They don’t hurt you until you get 12 in a three year period, then they will revoke your license. But if you have 11, nothing happens.

Insurance points are cumulative, though.  One point increases your auto insurance rates 30% for THREE YEARS.  Two points, 45%; Three points, 60%.  And it gets worse.  So just paying off a ticket/pleading guilty, isn’t normally a good idea.

The only time I would consider it would be under very certain circumstances:

___ you are charged with speeding 10 mph over the limit or less

___ you don’t have any moving violation convictions in the past three years

___ and you know for sure that appearing or having an attorney appear for you in court will not possibly get the matter reduced to a non-moving violation

___ and you know that if you are convicted of a moving violation in the next three years you’ll get those points as well as the insurance points on the one you paid off

Under those circumstances, it might make sense to pay off a speeding ticket.  But unless you can check all of those off, you probably don’t want to just pay it off.

For the best advice call me or another local traffic ticket attorney and we can normally give you a good idea as to what might be your best course of action.

 

If you get a traffic ticket in North Carolina you likely have several thoughts running through your mind:

“What was that cop thinking?”

“How much money do they make out of that speed trap?  This is b^!!%#!^!”

“How is this going to affect my insurance?”

“Will I lose my license?”

“Am I going to have to go to court?”

I can’t help you much with the first two, but the other ones I might be able to tackle:

How is this going to affect my insurance?

Moving violations (a somewhat arbitrary designation given by statute to certain offenses) carry two different kinds of points in North Carolina – DMV and insurance points.  Let’s talk insurance points first.  For every point you receive from a conviction, your auto insurance premiums can increase.  One point raises your rates by 30%.  Two points 45%. Three points 60%.  And it gets higher.  Each conviction, depending on what you are convicted of, can give you multiple points. And in a three year period, they are cumulative, so if you get one point from a conviction, and then 2 points from another a year later, you’re going to have a period with 3 insurance points!  That’s bad news.

So what can an attorney do?  My job would be to get the ticket reduced (or if possible dismissed) so that your insurance points will be either zero, or at least less than what you’d get with the original charge.  Do you know how to do that?  Do you know what offenses give you how many points?  If you don’t, you could probably use an attorney.

Will I lose my license?

Maybe.  It depends on what you are convicted of.  Only certain convictions result in a revocation in North Carolina.  Mostly what we see are convictions of speeding 16 or more mph over the limit in a 55 mph zone or higher, and convictions of driving while license revoked – those can result in a license suspension.

So what can an attorney do?  In the speeding case, we can try to get it reduced to avoid the revocation.  In the driving while license revoked case, that’s a bit more complicated, and may require looking at past convictions to try to clean you up. If you don’t know how to do that, you probably could use an attorney’s help.

 

Am I going to have to go to court?  

            That depends on the charge.  On most speeding charges in North Carolina, a court appearance by the defendant is not necessary.  In cases that are deemed “misdemeanors” (once again, another arbitrary designation, but mostly it’s speeding 16 mph or more over…) it will say on the ticket that your appearance is mandatory.  What that means is someone has to appear for you, which means either you or a licensed attorney representing you can appear in court for you.  In other words, someone has to come to court and take care of it and you can’t just pay it off.  Not that you would ever just pay off a ticket without talking to an attorney first.  That is almost never a good idea.

So what can an attorney do?  We can keep you from taking time out of work, traveling to court, wasting a day (or three? Or more? ) trying to figure out how this process works.  If your time is valuable, you can probably use an attorney.

I hope that information is helpful.  If you have a speeding ticket in North Carolina, call me; maybe I can  help!

Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to say His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his ‘allegiance to

Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah,’ defiantly stating, ‘I think I will not apologize for my actions,’ and told the court ‘I am at war with your country.’

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

Judge Young: ‘Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That’s 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that’s an aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government’s recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bouquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier, you are not—–, you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You’re no warrior. I’ve known warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: ‘You’re no big deal.’

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom’s sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done. The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.

Those of you who know me know I try not to take myself or anything for that matter too seriously.  Life is short, after all.

 

But I think it’s high time we re-think our collective perception of attorneys, particularly personal injury attorneys.

 

Why do people think we are scumbags?  There are probably several reasons, but I think most of it boils down to three things:

 

• We profit from people getting hurt.

1. Just plain not true.  Injuries happen without us, regardless of our profession being in existence or not.  We just help afterward.  In fact we offer a valuable service to injured people.  The logic that you should dislike us because of when we interact with people would also dictate that you dislike doctors, nurses, EMTs, and firefighters.  You don’t see a lot of jokes about them, though, do you?

 

And frankly, we wouldn’t be necessary if insurance companies/defendants did the right thing, so if you’re going to hate on someone, hate on them.   We are not a problem, we are a solution.

 

• We have horrifically distasteful commercials.

1. We are probably guilty on this one.  But why judge us?  First, not all attorney commercials are bad, and we are businesses that need to advertise, too.  Second, there are tons of other industries with bad commericials – do you hate insurance companies? drug makers? ESPN?

 

• Our profession inflates damages for our clients and increases expenses for everyone out there.

Just plain not true, again.  Victims should get paid what they deserve in our system; we just try to make that happen.  If you had a choice between losing a leg and getting $1million, or keeping your legs and getting no money, you would choose keeping your legs, right?

We just try to make sure people get what they are owed. Once again, if insurance companies paid people adequately when they should, there would be no need for us.

 

The McDonalds coffee case is often cited to me as an example of “the system” gone crazy.

Everyone cites this as a ridiculous case where a lady got burned on something that she knew was hot and got millions out of it.  That is not exactly accurate.  The particular restaurant in question was cited for coffee being about 3 times as hot as it needed to be before this incident.  When the coffee spilled on this victim, it fused certain parts of her anatomy together.  Normal coffee wouldn’t do that, and I bet for darn sure if that happened to you, you’d want something out of it.

 

I recently had a call where a defendant, who knew my client, said my client was suspect JUST because he called an attorney.

 

I was somewhat offended to hear that.  Particularly in light of the fact that if this defendant had been more responsible, and had been more inclined to take responsibility for his negligence in the first place, my client wouldn’t have needed me.  So how am I the bad guy in this?

 

And when did we, as a culture, decide that we need to deride people for their chosen profession?  Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we spent less time talking crap about people and more time being responsible for our own actions?  I think so.

 

Think about this:  Do we hate people who stand up to bullies who pick on the little guys?  No.  We applaud them.  So why would you hate personal injury attorneys?

 

Next time you’re thinking about an attorney joke, think of the good we do, and think how things wouldn’t be any better, and would probably be much, much worse, without us.

When a minor (someone under the age of 18) has a civil claim (personal injury, etc.) in North Carolina, and the parties want to settle the claim, generally, it’s not as easy as signing some stuff and being done with it.

Technically, a minor cannot enter into a binding contract under NC law, so they can’t settle their claim.  If a parent/guardian settles a claim for a minor, but when that minor turns 18 they don’t like it, they can come back against the tortfeasor, their insurance company, and their parent/guardian if they don’t have the money or don’t agree on the settlement.  That’s a long-term nightmare that few of us in this business would like to think about.

For relatively lower value claims sometimes we let parents settle these anyway.  The theory is that for smaller claims, it’s just not worth the hassle of doing it a more thorough way (see below) and the chances of anything coming back from the future of-age victim are low.  If we want more finalized settlements for minors, we have to seek judicial approval.

Most of the time, the insurance company offering the settlement makes this distinction; in other words, they draw the line at settlements where they want judicial approval.  For some, it’s $2000 and up, others $5000 and up.  It can vary a great deal between companies.   While we let the insurance companies draw this line, generally, it’s really in everyone’s interest to get this done.  So how do you do it?  Glad you asked!

Remember when we discussed that the minor can’t enter into a contract?  Well, on that same theory, a minor can’t authorize someone to file suit either.  So first you need to have a Guardian ad Litem appointed by the clerk of court in the county you plan on filing your lawsuit.  Then you get to file your lawsuit, with the authority of the Guardian ad Litem.  After that, the GAL and the attorney representing them (if any) is free to deal with the insurance company’s attorney to resolve the case and have a hearing before a judge to approve the settlement.  In that instance, when the settlement is approved by a judge, the minor will not be able to come back on anyone, and everyone is as safe as they can be (but are any of us ever really safe?).

There are TONS of issues that come up when handling these.  Most people don’t realize that a minor’s injury claim and the parent’s claim for the minor’s treatment costs are separate, and have different statutes of limitations, so you have to watch that.  Also, if the minor is a Medicaid recipient, you’ll have to be worried about paying Medicaid back for treatment out of the settlement, AND structuring the settlement in a way to avoid hurting their Medicaid eligibility.  Special Needs Trusts can be useful in these situations, as well.

Interesting stuff, huh?  Aren’t you glad you aren’t an attorney?  Thanks for joining me again.  I hope you learned something useful.

The law surrounding this subject area is a great example of why people hate the law, and as a consequence, lawyers.

In order to prove a slip and fall claim in NC, or premises liability claim in general in NC, you have to show the following:

• Existence of a dangerous condition
• Owner (or person in control) was aware of it OR by exercise of reasonable care SHOULD have been aware of it.
• Owner failed to warn victim
• Victim was hurt as a result

Contrary to popular belief an injury on someone’s property does not automatically create liability on the part of the owner/person in control of the property!  You must show negligence of some kind – that the dangerous condition was known of or should have been known of and there should have been a warning about it.

That isn’t horrible to me.  I find it quite reasonable, actually.

For example if I come to your house and fall in a sink hole you had NO idea was there, should you be responsible for that? Clearly not.  You didn’t know it of the danger, and by the exercise of reasonable care you probably wouldn’t have known about it, so how could you have warned me?

The problem that this creates in NC is a result of another law combining with this: North Carolina recognizes Contributory Negligence.

Contrib – remember my past video on that? Blog entry?  Anyway, they are there…

Contributory Negligence (we in the business call it “contrib”) means the injured person gets NOTHING from the at-fault party as long as jury/judge find that the injured person was even the least bit responsible for causing his own injury.

How do they (insurance companies) prove contrib?

Well, Contrib is seen as a failure to exercise reasonable care for your own safety.

The first hurdle in a premises liability claim is proving the owner was aware of the dangerous condition.

This is mostly proven by demonstrating that the condition was so darn obvious they should have known about it by exercising reasonable care.

See where this is going?

If you are successful in doing that, you help them prove that it was so darn obvious YOU should have known about it by exercising reasonable care for yourself!

For example, you slip in a puddle of juice spilled at the grocery store.  There is no evidence that an employee spilled it or when it was spilled.  Your only hope to establish liability is to show that it was so obvious they should have done something about it.  Hooray, when you prove that, you also help to bolster their defense that it was so obvious that you should have noticed it yourself.

It may not be as simple as that, of course.  Every case is different, and that example above can be improved drastically by several different variables.

 

But you can see that as a result of this little twist in the law slip and fall claims are notoriously difficult in our state, and as a result, most attorneys don’t take them.

They are difficult, but NOT impossible. I have had great success with a few claims and I’ve not done too badly with many others.

So if you have a slip and fall claim in NC, call me to discuss it.

Thanks for joining me again.  I hope you learned something useful.