That is an AMBITIOUS title for a blog post. How could anyone possibly hope to teach anyone how to do that in such a limited format? The truth is I don’t think you can teach this in a blog post.
What you should take away from that is this: Handling your own injury claim isn’t like changing your oil or installing a new plunger in your toilet. You can’t hope to watch a Youtube video and be able to do it with reasonable skill in 15 minutes. Handling an injury claim takes knowledge of the law, legal procedure, insurance regulations, and standard practices, and it can vary significantly state by state.
So why would you try to handle your own case? The stakes are too high, and if you’re injured you’re already at a deficit, so is now the time to try to learn a new, highly-specialized skill? I don’t think so.
If you have an injury claim in North Carolina, call me. 919-929-2992.
I generally tell motor vehicle accident personal injury clients to avoid making statements with the at-fault insurance company. They aren’t the worst thing in the world, they’re just part of the routine. But it’s also true that everything you say can be used against you by the carrier to avoid paying you fairly, so you have to be extra careful.
Whether I’m involved in the statement or not, the best rule for you to follow is this: The best answers are always Yes, No, or I don’t know. This is the YNIDK Rule.
What I mean by that is that the best answer is the simplest answer. If you can answer with one word or phrase, particularly Yes, No, or I don’t know, you don’t give the adjuster a lot to grab on to. You see, what they’re hoping you’ll do is what most people do…ramble on until you say something that gives them something to work with (that’s bad for you) and then they get you to explore that. When you just say Yes, No, or I don’t know, you limit that sort of fodder. Many of the questions asked won’t put you in a position to answer this way, but when you can, you should.
Remember, you don’t have to know everything. It’s OK to say you don’t know. Don’t feel bad.
Of course, you should avoid doing this on your own, and having a lawyer is crucial. Call me for help. 919-929-2992.
Physical injuries are the most common form of damages in personal injury claims arising out of motor vehicle accidents in North Carolina. It seems obvious…there’s a lot of force involved in these impacts, bodies are fragile, and people get hurt. As a victim you’re entitled to monetary damages for these injuries.
Psychological injuries can result from auto accidents as well. Anxiety, depression, PTSD amongst other maladies can come about in these claims. These can be compensable, but in North Carolina you have to have a health care provider diagnose you with a psychological injury and relate it to your auto accident in order to have a hope of recovering for that sort of injury.
The upshot is this: If you think you’ve suffered a psychological injury as the result of an automobile accident in North Carolina, get thee to thine health care professional immediately to discuss a potential diagnosis. This is crucial to the effective presentation of your claim.
Of course, you might need a lawyer’s help, so call me: 919-929-2992.
In NC, there is no formula to define how much money you should get for pain and suffering from an accident claim. It is totally up to a jury. Or if you’re negotiating, it’s up to the adjuster evaluating your case. This means that you’ll want to be as persuasive as you can be to make the adjuster worry about how much a jury might give you. This is why I counsel clients to keep a pain journal from the day of the accident moving forward until they have nothing left to write – either because it’s all better or because it’s never going to change.
Keeping a consistent pain journal, documenting your pain and suffering and how your injuries affect your day to day routine helps to pain the picture of your suffering and therefore more accurately portray your experience, which should garner you more consideration from a jury (or adjuster).
Documenting in your pain journal is crucial. This can play a huge role into how much you should get for pain and suffering. So do it!
The best practices for keeping your journal would be to write an entry every day. Start with the day of the accident and move forward. Each day write about 1) what hurts, 2) how badly it hurts and 3) how it affects your daily activities. This may seem time-consuming but it can make all the difference in helping the adjuster and maybe a jury better understand how this accident and injuries have affected you. Keep up with this until you have nothing left to say.
Have you ever been driving down the road and the car behind you seems insane and aggressive?
What do you do?
First, don’t panic.
Second, don’t react emotionally. Carefully, and with a signal, get out of his way if you can.
You want to get away from this person, but do so safely. You don’t want to speed and then end up getting a ticket yourself. Most of the time cops aren’t going to stop you for going 9 over, but it can happen. And believe me, this happens a lot. Don’t let someone else’s driving force you into getting a ticket. Stay calm, get out of there way, and move on safely with your day.
Just obey the rules of the road, don’t react emotionally, and you should be fine.
In theory, anyone who went to medical school can give medical advice about any medical condition.
In theory.
The reality is that the practice of medicine is so specialized and detailed nowadays that you are best served talking about your heart with a cardiologist, your brain with a neurologist, etc.
The practice of law is similar, though not nearly as regulated. Yes, most attorneys know a little about a lot. We all went to law school and learned tons of stuff about tons of stuff. But in practice, we tend to be better at the fields that we focus on. In some cases that particular practice area is regulated enough by the bar that they have a Specialization Test that you can take (click here for a list of those particular practice areas) to be able to call yourself a “specialist” in that area. But for the most part, practice areas aren’t regulated by the bar, so as attorneys, we can all technically give advice on any practice area.
But should we?
The way I practice law is very simple: If I know about it, I’ll talk about it. If I don’t know about it, I don’t talk about it.
Here’s what I do: I handle injury cases. I also handle traffic tickets, but frankly, I only handle those to increase my client base for marketing so as to get more injury cases. The overwhelming majority of cases I handle are motor vehicle accident injury claims. And I’ve handled A LOT of them since I started in 2001. I also handle dog bite claims, slip and falls, and pharmacy negligence cases. So when you call me to ask about your injury claim, there’s a darn good chance I’ve dealt with it or know how to quickly find out how to deal with it. By the way, there is no NC Bar Specialty in personal injury law. There is one in Worker’s Compensation, though, so if you’re looking for one of those, click here.
If, however, you have a question about something other than those areas (injuries or traffic tickets) I’m going to tell you either whom to call to get help or that I flat out just don’t know. If it’s outside of my bailiwick, I don’t want to take the chance of messing up your case and costing you money and making you worse off than you were before you got my advice. That is anathema to me.
My focus is on handling a few types of cases well and getting good results for my clients. My focus is not on handling tons of cases in a mediocre manner.
So think about this: When you look at an attorney’s website and s/he’s got 14 different practice areas listed there, what do you think their focus is? Do they really have one? If they have a focus, is it getting good results for you, or is it on getting as much business as possible?
Here’s the point: It’s easier to be good at a few things than it is to be good at many. When you’re looking to hire an attorney, keep that in mind.
For years there has been this belief that lawsuits are out of control and those greedy trial lawyers are ruining life and everything for everyone in pursuit of gain through frivolous lawsuits.
I am a lawyer and, though I can appreciate your hesitance to be believe me considering the source, I can tell you this is simply not true.
Most people like to point to the infamous “hot coffee” lawsuit as the prime example of litigious insanity. They’ll tell you all about how coffee is hot and everyone should know that and you shouldn’t get millions if you burn yourself.
But most people don’t know the reality of this case. See the link above. Here are some salient facts:
there was testimony that McDonalds kept their coffee dangerously hot, above industry standards, and did this despite reports of many serious injuries before this suit was brought
the plaintiff here suffered burns requiring skin grafts in places you don’t want to think about.
the plaintiff here attempted to settle the case for $20,000 (what she had to pay back for health care costs) and McDonalds offered her $800
despite the jury of her peers giving her $160,000 and then $2.7 million in punitive damages, after appeals and a settlement agreement, she ended up with less than $500,000
None of these facts point to runaway trial lawyers making up facts. But the gaslighting of the public with regard to this case DOES point to some hideous brainwashing by corporate America to make you, the public, think that it’s those greedy trial lawyers ruining everything for you, the common man.
The reality is that, in our society, it’s us greedy trial lawyers that stand protect you, the consumer, from the multi-billion dollar companies that would gladly bury you and your family if it helped their bottom line.
Think about that the next time you think lawyers are the problem.
For a guy who doesn’t handle property damage claims, I get a lot of questions about them.
This is probably the most popular, and the answer isn’t simple, but let’s start with the easiest part.
IF you have rental car coverage as part of your OWN auto insurance policy, then your insurance can/will pay for a rental. This coverage will have restrictions (normally a dollar amount/day as well as a 30 day limit). That’s better than not getting one, so use it if you must.
The less simple answer becomes necessary when you don’t have rental coverage as part of your policy. When someone else causes an accident, they are in theory responsible for all consequential damages of their negligence. It seems obvious that a rental car for the victim (assuming their vehicle is damaged enough to need prolonged repairs or is a total loss) would be consequential and therefore compensable. True. BUT the other insurance company doesn’t HAVE to provide a rental for you. Technically, you’re on the hook for that up front, and then you can go after them for reimbursement. But insurance companies realize they’re likely to pay for it later, so they have used their superior bargaining power to get better rates when they arrange for a rental. As a result, the at-fault carrier will often (but not always) go ahead and set you up with a rental car when the need arises.
Of course, that’s not forever. You have a duty to mitigate your damages, which means you can’t keep that rental forever while you dilly dally shopping for a new car. And if your repairs start to take too long, you might hear some chirping.
Like I said above, I don’t handle property damage claims, but when I represent you in your injury claim, I’ll give you all the free advice in the world on how to handle property damage matters. Call me! 919-929-2992.
If you’re injured in an accident, why would you waste your time trying to figure out how to do my job? Don’t have you have enough to do already? You’re injured, you’re trying to get better, getting treatment, still trying to work and take care of your family. Why would you try to add learning to be a lawyer to all of that? That’s hard when you’re not injured, so why try now?
If you’ve been injured in an accident in North Carolina I can probably help you. It doesn’t matter where you are in relation to my office; I handle claims throughout the state.
Call me now to talk about how I can take this burden off of your shoulders while you focus on what’s important, which is you getting back to your normal life.
This picture has nothing to do with anything, but it’s dope, huh?
If you have a speeding or traffic ticket in Orange County, North Carolina, you could probably use some help. You don’t want to waste your own time sitting in court all day, and you don’t want to risk getting an outcome that gives you higher insurance rates, or even worse, revokes your driver’s license. Hire an attorney in Orange County to help with that ticket. It just so happens I know a good one!
I’ve been doing traffic tickets in Orange County since 2001. My office is in Chapel Hill, the blue heaven part of Orange County, and I’m a local. I live here, I work here, I went to college here, I play here. When you call, you get me, not an assistant or associate. Let me help you through this and mitigate the consequences of your ticket.
