Video: Motor Vehicle Collisions

R. Kent: North Carolina has a lot of quirky laws about liability. We have a rule called contributory negligence. We’re one of only three states in the whole country that have this. This says that, if you are the least bit at fault for the accident, you recover nothing. We oftentimes hear of insurance companies calling persons who have been injured. Believe me, they’re not calling to help you. They’re calling to gather information to help defeat your claim or lower the amount of money they wish to pay you.

Jon: A claim for automobile insurance can really depend upon what type of accident somebody’s involved in. If the other driver has liability insurance and enough, we go through the normal process of litigation through a courtroom. If the other driver doesn’t have insurance or it’s a hit-and-run driver or doesn’t have enough insurance, then we have the option of going through an arbitration process. This is often more cost-effective than going through a courtroom, though sometimes you still may want to put a case in the courtroom for strategic reasons.

Paige: If you get hit by an uninsured driver or a hit-and-run driver, your own insurance policy will cover that event.

R. Kent: This happens more frequently than you would like to think. About 15% of the people on the road in North Carolina did not have insurance.

Jon: It’s coverage that’s not fault-based, so it doesn’t affect our client’s insurance premiums. Ultimately we don’t want to leave our clients uncompensated for damages that they’ve incurred.