What Should I Do After a Car Accident?

In the chaotic few minutes after cars crash, your actions are going to affect how clearly the events will be understood later. Evidence gathering after a collision in North Carolina should begin with protecting yourself and capturing what the scene shows. more Evidence Gathering After a Collision in North Carolina Here's a quick rundown of what you'll be wanting to collect: Video and pictures Witness info Law enforcement info Driver, car, and insurance details Personal memories Video and Pictures As soon as you've taken care of things like calling the police or moving vehicles out of traffic, take pictures and a short video of the scene. Be sure to get images from several angles, and include where each vehicle ended up. Get any skid marks or debris on the road, traffic signs or signals nearby, and images that show the surrounding weather and lighting conditions. Get close-ups of the damage to every vehicle involved, the car license plates, and any visible injuries on people. Take these pics before anyone starts cleaning up or moving things around. A short video walkthrough can also help show spatial relationships between vehicles and the road layout. Witness Info Talk with anyone who saw what happened and ask them for their names and phone numbers. Ask if they'd be willing to give a statement to law enforcement or to a lawyer, and write down all your contacts in a notebook or an app on your phone right away. In the moment, you think you'll remember everything, but once the adrenaline fades, things tend to get a little hazy. Law Enforcement Info If law enforcement responds, ask for the officer's name and badge number along with the report number. Your police report is a valuable piece of evidence. This official document will record important facts and also if any citations were issued or statements taken. Request a copy once the report is available. Driver, Car, and Insurance Details Get all important information from the other driver or drivers (and give yours willingly). Make sure to get: Full names Addresses Phone numbers Driver's license numbers Insurance company and policy details All vehicle information (make, model, color, license #) Photograph their insurance card and license if they're ok with it allow it. If not, don't try to force it: just jot it all down. Personal Memories As soon as you're up to it after the accident, and while the details are fresh, jot down your own observations in writing. Include the exact time and location of the accident, the direction everyone was traveling as best you remember, what the weather, roads, and traffic were like, and anything else you noticed just before impact. The evidence you collect at the scene of an accident will make a big difference to the strength of your car accident claim, and a lawyer can help you use all of it well. Book a free consultation with us today at David & Associates. We serve all of NC from our offices in Wilmington, Jacksonville, Clinton, Supply, Wallace, and Whiteville.

If you've been in a crash, you likely have a lot going on right now, and it's easy to get distracted and let too much time pass. If you go too long, you could lose your right to bring a claim under North Carolina law. Talk to a car accident lawyer as soon as you can after the crash to make sure you don't miss the deadlines. more Time Limit for Filing Your Lawsuit in North Carolina You generally have three years from the date of the car accident to file a lawsuit. The clock usually starts on the day the accident happened, though there are some rare exceptions. If you don't bring the claim in three years, you'll likely lose the right to seek compensation through the courts. Insurance companies know this rule well and may try to drag things out until time runs out, so it's important to talk to a lawyer as soon as you can and track everything right from the start. You don't want to realize too late that your chance to recover medical bills, lost wages, or other costs has slipped away. Exceptions and Changes to the Deadline Late Discovery of Injuries If your injuries weren't obvious right away, the deadline might start on the date when you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the issue. Courts look at what a typical person in your situation would have known to make this decision. However, most claims are still limited to a max of ten years from the last act that caused the problem. Wrongful Death If your case is wrongful death because you've lost a loved one in a car accident, you have just two years from the date of death to bring an action. Government Employee If the at-fault driver was a government employee or the crash involved a government vehicle, your timeline is the same, but there are extra rules and hoops to jump through. Your case will be heard by the Industrial Commission rather than go through the courts, and you have to start by filing an affidavit with them. Incapacitation If you were under eighteen at the time of the accident, the three-year clock generally doesn't start running until you turn eighteen. This is because children are considered "incapacitated" in terms of the law; they cannot bring a legal claim on their own. If you were incapacitated for a time – such as if you were in a coma after the accident – the clock usually doesn't start running until you regain capacity. Fraud and Flight Some situations pause or "toll" the statute of limitations. If the at-fault driver leaves the state to avoid responsibility, the clock will usually stop until they return. If they've committed fraud or concealed facts to avoid their responsibilities, then again, the clock will probably start running when the fraud is discovered. You'll need to talk with a lawyer about this, however, and how to prove it. Talk to a Car Accident Lawyer Today If you're dealing with a crash, don't wait until the last minute to figure out your next steps. Contact David and Associates Injury Attorneys in Wilmington, NC today to request a free consultation on your case. We also have offices in Clinton, Jacksonville, Supply, Wallace, and Whiteville.

After a car wreck, you have the right to bring a claim to recover whatever losses you've experienced as a result of that wreck, so long as you bear no fault for the accident. A North Carolina car accident attorney can help you calculate all the types of compensation you can claim for and go to bat for you against the insurance company to make sure your settlement is fair. more From a North Carolina Car Accident Attorney: Compensation You Can Recover After a Car Accident Your Economic Losses The first type of compensation you can request is reimbursement for all your economic losses. This would include all your medical bills first and foremost. You should get compensation not only for treatment that you had at the scene or immediately after the accident, but also for any medications, follow up treatments or surgeries, and physical therapy. Your economic losses might also include property that was damaged in the accident, most notably your vehicle. Your economic losses will also include anything that you lost in terms of income. You should receive compensation for your lost wages if you had to miss work due to an injury, and your compensation here should take into account the full value of your income. For example, if you were working towards an end of your bonus and have now become ineligible, so long as you can show that you were on track to get the bonus, you may be able to claim for this loss, as well. Your Non-Economic Losses Non-economic classes are those intangibles that are often referred to as "pain-and-suffering." This would include not just compensation for your pain, but also for your mental anguish and distress and any loss of enjoyment in life that you've experienced. These can be tricky to calculate, and it's important to work with a lawyer who can help you claim for everything you are owed here and show you how to prove the true level of your suffering. Because it's not possible to put a dollar amount on something like pain, these damages are typically calculated by multiplying the total of your economic damages by a number between one and five, depending on how serious your injuries were. If your injuries were minor and healed quickly, you would multiply by one. If you had catastrophic injuries that required multiple surgeries and which have altered your life forever, you would likely multiply by five. Everything else comes somewhere in between. Punitive Damages Punitive damages are quite rare, and your lawyer is the only one who will be able to tell you whether it's appropriate for you to ask for them. These damages don't compensate you for anything. They just punish the responsible party to send a message, both of them and to society in general. They are usually only applied when someone was being recklessly negligent or if they hurt you on purpose. For help in fully calculating what you are owed after a car accident, contact David and Associates Injury Attorneys in Wilmington, Whiteville, Clinton, Supply, Jacksonville, or Wallace, NC.