Car Accident Attorney in Charlotte

Car Accident Attorneys Serving Mecklenburg County

Suppose someone pulled out in front of you and you hit them. You were doing five over when it happened, and you braked a second later than you theoretically could have. In most states those two facts would cost you a percentage of your settlement. In North Carolina they can cost you everything. This is one of a few states left where any share of fault, however small, bars you from recovering a dollar. If you were recently involved in an accident, you can count on the fact that the other driver’s insurer is looking for that 1% of fault.

DeCurtins Law Office handles car accident claims in Charlotte, from rear-end and intersection collisions to hit-and-run and uninsured driver cases. From the day you retain us, we become the carrier's point of contact, pull the crash report, gather medical records as treatment continues, and value the claim so the adjuster's first offer is not the only number in the room. 

Before you take an adjuster's call, make one to our team. A car accident attorney in Charlotte can explain what that recorded statement can cost you. Call (704) 313-1131 or contact us online to get started today.

The 1% Rule: How North Carolina Fault Law Can End Your Claim

In North Carolina, being 1% at fault for your own wreck does not reduce your claim the same ratio. It ends the claim completely. This rule is called contributory negligence, and only a handful of states still use it. 

It is worth mentioning that this rule has several exceptions. The last clear chance doctrine can preserve a claim where the other driver had a final opportunity to avoid the collision and failed to take it. Gross negligence is another: when the other driver's conduct goes past ordinary carelessness, your share of fault stops working as a defense. Age matters too. A child under 7 cannot be contributorily negligent at all, and between 7 and 14 the presumption runs in the child's favor.

That rule is why the adjuster's call matters more here than almost anywhere else. Recorded statements are built on leading questions, and the answer they want is small: that you did not see the other car, or that you might have been going a little fast. Either answer gives them the contributory negligence argument they are looking for. Once they have it, the adjuster starts valuing your claim as if that argument has already succeeded.

You are not required to give a statement to the other driver's insurance company at all. Your own insurer is different: your policy requires cooperation with them, which is one reason it helps to know which company is on the line before you say anything.

Once you retain us, our team takes those calls. The adjuster's questions come to this office, we decide what gets answered in writing, and the question that could end your claim never reaches you. That single change often does more for the value of a claim than anything that happens later.

Recovering Lost Wages Following a Car Accident

Telling an adjuster you missed three weeks of work proves nothing. What you earn has to be documented, and how hard that is depends on how you get paid. For example, a salaried employee produces a pay stub, and the number is settled. On the other hand, a server working for tips, a contractor whose income swings month to month, or a rideshare driver splitting hours across two apps must first establish what a normal month actually looks like. 

Several records can help you determine this figure, including: 

• Federal and state tax returns
• Employer wage verification letters
• Pay stubs and direct deposit histories
• 1099 forms and client invoices
• Platform earnings statements for gig work
• Physician work restriction notes

Paid time off counts as a loss, too. If your employer kept paying you out of vacation or sick days while you were healing, you effectively covered your own lost wages, and no adjuster will bring that up on their own.

The wages you have already missed are usually the smaller figure. The larger one is what an injury takes from the rest of your working life. If you cannot return to the job you had, or cannot do it for as many years as you planned, we can bring in economists to put a dollar figure on the difference.