North Carolina Single Vehicle Accidents Attorney

Following a car accident, a victim may pursue an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit against all drivers who contributed to causing the collision. In the situation of a single-vehicle crash, it may not be as straightforward as assuming that the driver of the vehicle caused the accident. An entity like a government agency or the manufacturer of the car or one of its parts may be responsible instead. Also, even if the case involves nothing more than driver error, it is critical to understand how to access all available insurance coverage to maximize the victims’ net compensation from their personal injury settlement. Further, insurance adjusters often lowball victims in these cases because the passenger is usually a friend or family member of the at-fault driver. Their logic is that they believe the victim would not want to sue the driver. Our firm stands ready to validate your threat of suit. We will protect your relationship with the driver and likely collect fair payment through a settlement without court involvement. Our firm’s presence will show the adjuster that you will not accept anything less than full payment for all injuries and losses. Further, for your peace of mind, please know that our efforts pursuing maximum compensation from your driver’s insurance company will not cause any harm to your driver’s coverage or any further increase in their auto insurance rates. At Nagle & Associates, Raleigh car accident attorney Carl Nagle helps victims throughout North Carolina secure maximum payment for all injuries and costs associated with a wreck.

Based on his previous experience as an insurance claims adjuster and a lawyer for insurance companies, Carl Nagle uses his inside knowledge of insurance tactics to shape his advocacy. The result has been a series of notable successes on behalf of motor vehicle collision victims in Raleigh, Wilmington, Asheville, Winston-Salem, and other areas. Our firm has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for our clients.

Important Extra Coverage Benefit for Single-Vehicle Accident Victims

If you are an injured passenger in the at-fault vehicle, you may be able to collect extra benefits from your own car insurance policy and also from all other family-owned car insurance policies in your household. This benefit arises from the NC insurance laws which allow stacking of underinsured (UIM) motorist benefits. The rule is this – if you are injured as a guest passenger in the at-fault vehicle, and if your injury claims are sufficient to motivate the insurance carrier to offer you the limits of coverage available on their bodily injury liability coverage, and if there is UIM coverage on the at-fault driver’s policy and other policies for you and other family members, then you can stack the UIM coverage on the at-fault driver’s policy with your own household coverage. In many cases, this allows you to collect money from UIM in your household even though your own UIM limits are equal to or below the liability coverage limit on the at-fault driver’s liability insurance coverage. If you were injured while riding as a guest passenger in the at-fault vehicle, simply call our office and we will explain exactly how this process works.

Taking Legal Action after a Single-Vehicle Accident

While single-vehicle accidents involve only one car, other individuals or entities may be responsible for causing the crash. There are a variety of situations in which it may be appropriate to bring a legal claim after suffering injuries in this type of wreck. For example, if a governmental agency failed to properly maintain the road where the accident occurred, and this led a driver to lose control of their car and crash into a tree, that driver may be able to sue the governmental agency in charge of maintaining the road.

Defective auto parts may also result in a single-vehicle accident, and this may support a claim based on product liability, negligence, or both. For example, victims of tire defects that cause a crash have a legal right to recover compensation for the harm that they have suffered. Brake failure and steering failure may also lead to accidents. However, one frequently used defense in any case involving a victim of a single-vehicle accident is contributory negligence.

North Carolina’s contributory negligence law is strict, precluding an injured person from recovering damages at all if they partly caused the accident. In a case arising from a poorly maintained road, a governmental agency may argue that the driver should have recognized the hazard and used more caution or reduced speed in response to the road. Here, it would be important for the driver to not only prove that the bad road conditions directly caused the accident but also establish that they were not at all negligent in their own conduct. A knowledgeable car crash attorney can help make a persuasive argument that a reasonable driver would have acted as the plaintiff acted in the same situation.

Enlist a Car Accident Attorney in the Raleigh Area to Protect Your Rights

Victims of single-vehicle collisions can rely on the experience of Raleigh car accident lawyer Carl Nagle to assert their rights. At Nagle & Associates, we subscribe to the belief that victims should receive the maximum compensation available under the law. We work to increase the amounts awarded to our clients by making sure to substantiate claims for future as well as past and present damages, and we also charge only one-quarter of any settlement amount, leaving more for a victim and their family. With seven offices across the state, we have helped injured individuals in Raleigh, Asheville, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Hickory, Charlotte, and other cities throughout Forsyth, Wake, Guilford, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Catawba, and Cumberland Counties. Call our office today at (800) 411-1583 or contact us online to learn more about how an experienced NC car accident lawyer Carl Nagle can assist you.