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Burden of Proof in Civil Claims in North Carolina (particularly auto accident claims)

Written by jeffreyhoward on . Posted in North Carolina Law Blog.

Greetings, law fans! This little blog post is about the Burden of Proof in North Carolina civil claims (more particularly, auto injury claims).  This one is interesting because it has a few layers.

First, what does “burden of proof” mean in general?

Second, what is our burden of proof in NC personal injury law?

There is no Black’s Law Dictionary entry for Burden of Proof in general, so let me summarize…

Having the “burden of proof” means it is one parties’ responsibility to prove his case; it is not the other party’s responsibility to disprove the claimant’s case.

In NC injury law, as in most civil cases in America, the plaintiff (that’s the person who says he was injured by the other guy) has the burden of proof.  This means that means the plaintiff has to prove he was injured and is owed by the other guy.  The other guy (the defendant) has no burden of proof (in general), and if the plaintiff fails to meet his burden of proof, the defendant cannot be found liable.

Easy enough right? But what is our burden of proof in NC civil claims?  In other words, how  to we meet that burden of proving our case?   It is a standard known as “preponderance of evidence.”  Here’s a little snippet of the standard definition:

Black’s Law Dictionary: “as standard of proof in civil cases, is evidence which is of greater weight or more convincing than the evidence which is offered in opposition to it…”

 

In typical BLD fashion, that just makes it more confusing, right?

Let me break it down:

In order to prove your case, you must present evidence that beats any evidence against it.  By how much must it beat the other evidence?  Just a smidge!  The “greater weight” referred to in Black’s is just that…greater weight.  As long as you beat the other guy’s evidence by a smidge, a hair, a nose, or whatever you want to call it – as long as it is greater, you can win.  Later in BLD’s three paragraph definition, it states: “It is that degree of proof which is more probable than not.”  Now THAT makes it more clear!

EXAMPLE

  • You have to prove your injury was caused by the defendant’s negligence
  • Your doctor has to testify, generally, as to his opinion of that causation.
  • In order for you to have a chance, the doc has to state that it is his opinion that it is “more likely than not” that your injury was caused by your accident.
  • The doc DOES NOT have to say that it is was definitively caused by the accident

 

This issue hangs up a lot of people, because they see crime shows and they hear, “beyond a shadow of a doubt” as a measuring stick.  WE ONLY USE THAT STANDARD IN CRIMINAL CASES; WE DO NOT USE THAT STANDARD IN CIVIL CASES.

This is how OJ was able to be acquitted of the criminal charge of killing those folks, but found liable civilly for killing them; there was a different (lower) burden of proof for the civil claim which was more easily met.

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

 

North Carolina Traffic Tickets – Consequences of Missing The Court Date

Written by jeffreyhoward on . Posted in North Carolina Law Blog.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it: Someone gets a traffic ticket, they shove in the glove compartment with a, “I’ll take care of that later,” and they completely forget about it.  The next  thing they know they are in jail, owing hundreds of dollars to the court.  How can this happen?

People often think that missing their court date for a traffic ticket isn’t a big deal… “it’s only a traffic ticket!”  But that’s not the right way to look at it.  Yes, a traffic ticket isn’t like a first degree murder charge, I agree, but it can have a huge impact on your life.  Even if it’s just speeding, not handling the charge correctly can be costly at best, but missing your court date altogether can do you a great deal of harm.  Here’s what happens in most counties in North Carolina when you miss your court date for your traffic ticket:

If the ticket is an Infraction (a lower severity charge, defined more accurately by statute but too much for this post) then the ticket goes in what is called the “20 day drawer.”  That means you have 20 days to get this ticket back on the calendar.  If you don’t, then the clerk’s office will notify DMV of your failure to appear (FTA).  Once you have that FTA, you are assessed a $200 fine, in addition to whatever cost of court/fine you’re going to have to pay when you eventually handle the ticket. Arguably worse is that DMV will revoke your license indefinitely if you don’t handle it by a date they deem as your deadline.  Yep, even a seat belt ticket can get your license revoked if you don’t handle it correctly.  So a ticket that might have cost you about $210 will end up costing you at least $410, and maybe more.

If the ticket is a Misdemeanor (worse than an Infraction…speeding greater than 15 mph over the limit is a Misdemeanor!) then, depending on the county, it may go in the 20 day drawer as above, or you might get the FTA placed on it immediately, AND the court might issue a warrant for your arrest.  Yes, they will send law enforcement out to find you and bring you to jail for missing your court date.  And yes, you then have to deal with that extra fine, too.

Parenthetically, what often happens in these situations is the person who missed their court date also hasn’t updated their address with DMV, so when DMV sends their warning letter about the FTA and impending revocation, the person doesn’t get it!  So they continue to forget about the ticket, are driving on a revoked license, and then they get pulled over again.  Driving With Licensed Revoked (DWLR) is a Class 2 Misdemeanor in North Carolina, and you can go to jail for it.  In the business, we call this snowballing, because what starts out as an easy ticket to handle starts rolling down the hill and turns into a much bigger and more dangerous problem, just like the snowballs rolling downhill turn into snowboulders in cartoons.

In addition to costing your more in fines, and revoking your license, the cost of getting help can increase, too.  Often times, attorneys have to charge you more than they would have on a current ticket because they have to do more work to help dig you out of help because of the likely extra trips to court.

This can happen to you!  If you have an Orange County, Alamance County, Durham County, Wake County, or Chatham County ticket, and you don’t want to go to court (or forget to go to court!) you need someone to help.  Call me at 919-929-2992 or 888-929-5241 and I’ll be glad to help.  Don’t let a little problem turn into a big one.  Call me now if you have a ticket!