Uninsured Motorists in North Carolina.

You’re driving down the street, abiding by all the rules and driving safely, when WHAM!!!! You are hit by another car.  Once you realize that all occupants are safe, you discover that the other motorist doesn’t have insurance; or worse: they have fled the scene.  Now what do you do?  Who pays for the damage?

The first step is to file an uninsured motorist’s claim with your insurance company.  Yes, as odd as it sounds, you must file the claim against your insurance company as though your insurance company was insuring the driver that hit you.  If you insurance company decides that it will not settle the case, then you must file a lawsuit.

Under North Carolina law, every insurance policy sold within the state must include a provision that every insurance policy is subject to “a provision that the insurer shall be bound by a final judgment taken by the insured against an uninsured motorist if the insurer has been served with a copy of summons, complaint or other process in the action against the uninsured motorist by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, or in any manner provided by law” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-279.21.  This means that you must sue the uninsured motorist that hit you, and also serve your own insurance company to make them a party to the lawsuit.

 As if you are in bizarro-world, once you have served your own insurance company will then step in and defend the uninsured person that crashed into you- yes, that is correct.  Your insurance company will defend the irresponsible driver who didn’t have insurance and crashed into you.  At this point, they will pay a lawyer to do everything possible to prevent you from recovering  from this collision.

Uninsured motorist litigation in North Carolina is a very technical and complicated area of law.  At our office, we handle these matters to ensure that our clients recover what is owed to them as a result of someone else’s negligence.  Please feel free to call our office at 919-321-6569 to set up a free case evaluation, or just email us at Help@Kisala-law.com.  We represent people all throughout the state of North Carolina.  It has been my experience that my office has been consistently able to obtain larger amounts for our clients than any of the previous offer made by the insurance company without an attorney involved because of our ability to negotiate as well as litigate if necessary.  In my experience, even after paying for the representation, my clients end up in better financial position than they were in before they hired us.

Damages from slip and fall

Can I sue or be compensated for pain and suffering, medical bills, and loss of wages for 3 months?

Chapel Hill, NC

Question: Jan.26th 2013 I fell down my stairs at the property I am renting from. I slipped so I grabbed the handrail to try and stop the fall but the handrail broke and cause me to break my leg and tear tendons and ligaments in my ankle, needed surgery on the ankle. I will be out of work for three months and doctors are not positive if things will be normal again. I in turn let the landlord know about my fall and the handrail and it took two weeks to come fix it after I had mentioned it a few times throughout that two week period. 

Answer: The answer is maybe. And the answer lies in the facts that are specific to your situation (which are not listed in your question). As a general rule under North Carolina law a landlord is responsible for a known dangerous condition. What or what is not a quote known dangerous condition" depends on the facts of your particular situation. There may also be insurance involved. Once liability is established then generally the responsible party will be liable for all reasonable damages incurred as a result of the acts that created such liability.

I would be happy to meet with you to discuss your case.  We are a local firm with Carolina. We have offices in Durham and Chapel Hill and have been successful in helping our clients recover the full value of their claim throughout the state of North.  We have assisted our clients in recovering damage to property lost wages rental car expenses pain-and-suffering and medical expenses. If you are reading this and have any question about your case, please give our office a call toll-free at 1-888-297-8618 or 919-321-6569, or on the web at www.Kisala-law.com. We will be happy to help you value your claim with our free, no obligation case evaluation. One big advantage we have is that we handle cases regularly enough to properly a value cases, and in cases where insurance company just won't pay the amount due, we have the ability and know-how to bring this case to court for resolution.

I was hit by another driver and their insurance company is offering me an amount that I think is too low; do I have to take it?

This blog is for the purpose of offering general legal advice to the public, answering questions received, and providing useful information for people dealing with the aftermath of a car crash or other injury.  THIS IS NOT SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE, AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED ON FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL LEGAL SITUATION.  THIS INFORMATION RELATES EXCLUSIVELY TO NORTH CAROLINA, the only state in which I am licensed to practice law.  As with most things in law, every situation and case is unique, and if you have ANY doubt, please consult myself or another attorney.  If you have a legal question you would like to have answered, please email it to Help@Kisala-law.com, but do NOT include specifics of your case (ie- names of people or parties).  Finally, no question submitted creates an attorney-client relationship, unless there is a signed agreement otherwise.  For more information about traffic matters and a full listing of services provided by our office, please visit us at http:/http://www.kisala-law.com/traffic.html

 

I was hit by another driver and their insurance company is offering me an amount that I think is too low; do I have to take it?

 

No, absolutely not! Our office gets this question a lot and frankly there's a lot of misinformation out there. Under North Carolina law, drivers are responsible for any damage that they cause to other individuals, motorists, or property when they set out on the public roads. Because of this, all motorists are required to either carry liability insurance were be self-insured. Liability insurance is required to pay for any damage you may cause accidentally while on the public roads. When you or your property are injured due to the fault of another driver, that driver is responsible for repairing any damages caused to and “making you whole to the condition you are in before the accident".

This is where liability insurance comes in to play. Generally it is in in insurance company's best interest to resolve any claims against their insured for as little money as possible. In my experience the process usually goes something like this: a person is involved in an accident caused by the insured driver. The person who is injured will usually suffer some property damage as well as injury. The injuries suffered vary widely depending on the particular facts of the accident. The injured person will then contact the insurance company in an attempt to resolve the matter on their own, and the insurance company will open a claim. Once the damages are tallied, the injured person then submits everything to the insurance company, who respond with an offer of what they are willing to pay. From what I have seen in the cases I deal with, the initial offer from an insurance company to a person without a lawyer is typically somewhere between 20% and 35% of the actual case value. I have also observed that adjusters will tell the injured parties all sort of misinformation. Some of the statements I see frequently are: “we won't pay for a rental car"; “we don't pay for missed work"; “we won't pay for new parts, we will only pay for used parts", “we only think the value is XXXXX”, etc.  These statements frequently lead the injured party to believe that the offer made by the adjuster is their only option; however that is not the law.

We have been successful in helping our clients recover the full value of their claim throughout the state of North Carolina. We have offices in Durham and Chapel Hill, and represent clients in car accidents throughout the state of North Carolina.  We have assisted our clients in recovering damage to property lost wages rental car expenses pain-and-suffering and medical expenses. If you are reading this and have any question about your case, please give our office a call toll-free at 1-888-297-8618 or 919-321-6569, or on the web at www.Kisala-law.com. We will be happy to help you value your claim with our free, no obligation case evaluation. One big advantage we have is that we handle cases regularly enough to properly a value cases, and in cases where insurance company just won't pay the amount due, we have the ability and know-how to bring this case to court for resolution.