In North Carolina, the first investigation of any motor vehicle crash is by the police. In order to assist their investigation, they use a special form published by the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles—“Crash Report Form DMV-349.” The form, also known as the crash report, accident report, or police report, is an essential piece […]
I will occasionally get questions from friends, acquaintances, at a dial a lawyer day, or online at www.avvo.com, who want to know what they should settle for in a small to medium car wreck or personal injury. These casual, cocktail party questions are difficult. Sometimes these folks have already retained an attorney and are looking […]
Our kids spend thousands of hours in the public schools of North Carolina. Not only are they on school grounds for classroom work, they participate in a vast amount of after school activities such as cheerleading, baseball, football and other sports. Just like a store or a private residence, negligence can occur from the actions […]
After you are involved in a car accident, but before you retain an attorney, you are in a critical and dangerous time. You begin dealing with insurance company representatives in an effort to get compensation for your personal injury or damage to your car or other property. Even the most fair and honest claims representative […]
Sometimes, even the safest automobile driver will ignore rules that they wouldn’t think to disobey in a car. However, the law of North Carolina considers a bicycle a “motorized vehicle” and expects a bicycle rider to obey the same rules of the road as an automobile bicycle rider should always go with the flow of […]
A lot of times it is easier as an attorney to obtain a personal injury or medical malpractice settlement from a defendant or an insurance company that it is to actually give that money to a client. One of the most common hurdles that an attorney and his client has to jump over is the […]
“Every dog gets one bite,” is a bit of homey legal wisdom that is often repeated by laypersons and even lawyers, but it is not entirely true in the state of North Carolina. The first way a person can recover from a dog bite or attack is under a negligence theory. Legally, a dog attack […]
Please check out this infographic, courtesy of Compliance and Safety on automobile safety. The best way to win a personal injury lawsuit, is to never have to file one. Featured By: C&S Blog –Bradley A. Coxe is a practicing attorney in Wilmington, NC with Hodges & Coxe PC who specializes in Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Homeowner's Associations, […]
In North Carolina, damages for personal injury involve several different kinds of damages. First are the hard damages or “specials” as some call them. These are the damages where the amounts are usually easy to determine. As long as medical bills and lost hours at work can be shown to be caused by the negligence […]
The night of Valentine’s Day, I heard a loud boom outside my house. I thought a tree had fallen or a transformer blew. About five minutes later, at least five police cars came streaming now the street. Looking a few houses down, I saw a horrific wreck where an SUV had wrapped itself around a […]
There has been a lot of justifiable backlash over “zero tolerance” policies for weapons at schools. The tale of the cub scout proud of his pocket knife with fork and spoon has prompted many people to cry out “where is the common sense of these school officials?” My practice really isn’t geared to this type […]
The following is an excerpt of an article written for paralegals and attorneys by Steven Glass, a retired personal injury attorney from Florence, South Carolina, concerning the lack of attention that attorneys, and their clients, sometimes pay to the client’s treating physicians. Mr. Glass points out that the attorneys should be aware of their client’s […]
Just recently the family and I loaded up the Family Truckster and headed north past Richmond, Washington (which some in my family refer to as "Occupied Virginia"), Philadelphia, New York, and finally to Old Lyme, Connecticut to visit for a few weeks, members of my wife's family. From the time we left my driveway to […]
If you have ever been in a car accident in North Carolina, you may have been shocked at the amount of mail you suddenly get. One of my clients recently got into an accident and brought into my office stacks of letters and documents from attorneys, some hundreds of miles away, asking to represent her […]
The North Carolina Legislature is set to debate a new bill to end contributory negligence and adopt the Uniform Apportionment of Tort Responsibility Act This is a pretty big deal in North Carolina and will impact a lot of people in years and decades to come and its flying under the radar of most […]
You might think that a recession and downturn in the economy have nothing to do with car and motorcycle accidents. After all, you have to stop at a red light and yield to oncoming traffic whether or not you have money in your bank account. However, while a driver who is cutting back on expenses […]
After my last post and the video that followed, I got a few follow-up responses about the infamous “McDonald’s coffee” case that the video touched on. I thought I’d give you a little bit more of the facts: Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson's car when […]
I wrote earlier about medical malpractice cases in North Carolina and why they are so difficult to start and win. Briefly, there are special procedures in North Carolina to make sure that medical malpractice cases that are brought in the courts have merit. Aside from those special restrictions, in every civil case in North Carolina, there are […]
The tragic accident that occurred at a New York Wal-Mart certainly gave another meaning to “Black Friday.” According to CNN, lawsuits are being filed for customers injured in the stampede. I can’t comment on their chances in New York, but, had the accident taken place in North Carolina, they certainly would have a claim worth […]