If you have suffered a car crash in Charlotte, North Carolina, you can seek compensatory damages to cover your crash-related losses with the help of a Charlotte car accident lawyer. Your claim for damages must meet various legal requirements set forth in North Carolina’s personal injury laws. It is important to be well informed about these laws as this will help you prevent any legal mistakes when preparing and filing your claim.
If you fail to meet some or all of these requirements, your claim may face rejection. Even in the best-case scenario, mistakes in your claim may lead an insurer or a court to reduce the amount of compensation you receive. To save you from such an eventuality, here are the key personal injury laws that apply in Charlotte and across North Carolina.
Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations is the legal time period during which you must file a claim for damages. Different states have different statutes of limitations for personal injury cases. In North Carolina, the statute of limitations is set at three years. This means that you have three years from the date of the accident to file a claim for compensation.
This bar on the time period during which you can file a claim serves many purposes. It ensures that the relevant evidence and facts are not lost by the time the claim is filed. It also saves the legal system from building up a backlog of old claims.
It is important to note that this time period does not apply to a car insurance claim you may want to file after an accident. When filing with an insurer, it is imperative to file a claim at the earliest, preferably within days or weeks depending on the insurance company.
Contributory Negligence
Fault is a key consideration in any personal injury claim, including car accident claims. In a given car accident, one or more parties may be found negligent. The fault is then allocated to all the negligent parties based on their degree of negligence.
North Carolina is one of the few states that follow a strict contributory negligence rule. According to this rule, you are not legally entitled to recover any compensation whatsoever if you are found negligent in a crash. Even if your percentage of negligence is very small, you will be barred from recovering damages.
To better understand this rule, here is an example. Suppose you were traveling 47 mph in a 40 mph zone. Another driver ran a red light and hit your vehicle. Now the negligence and fault of the other driver is obvious. However, a jury may find that you were also negligent in driving over the posted limit. Even if you are found 5% negligent and the other driver 95% negligent, you will not be entitled to any damages.
Auto Insurance
When driving on the roads of North Carolina, drivers are required to meet certain minimum auto insurance requirements. These are as follows:
- A minimum of $30,000 coverage per person for bodily injury
- A minimum of $60,000 coverage for total bodily injury in crashes involving injuries to two or more persons
- A minimum of $25,000 coverage per accident for property damage
How a Charlotte Auto Accident Lawyer Can Help You?
Some of the most important laws that apply to car accident claims in North Carolina have been detailed above. However, there are other legal requirements that also need to be considered in such claims. On your own, you may be hard-pressed to meet these requirements and prevent mistakes. With the help of a qualified attorney, the task becomes a lot easier. A good attorney helps you file the claim in time, seek the amount of compensation you deserve, and counter any lowball offers from the insurers.
Finding a Reliable Auto Accident Attorney in Charlotte NC
When choosing a lawyer to help you with your North Carolina auto accident claim, it is important to make the right choice. Here at Ted A. Greve & Associates, our Charlotte car accident lawyers have been working with car accident victims for a long time. Our attorneys aim at helping you seek the maximum amount of compensation that you qualify for. We also counter any allegations of liability that the other party may bring up in order to reject your claim. Call us today for a free consultative session with our attorneys and discuss your case with us.
