Experienced Farmville Car Accident Lawyers On Your Side
Located eight miles west of Greenville, Farmville has been a Tree City USA community for over 36 years. With a population of just over 4,600, this town sponsors annual events such as A Taste of Farmville, Hometown Halloween, and the Farmville Dogwood Festival. This small city is home to the Farmville Historic District and the Benjamin May-Lewis House (found on the National Register of Historic Places). The city motto is “Honoring Our Past, Shaping Our Future.”
It might be hard to envision shaping your future after suffering injuries in a car crash caused by someone else. Along with the normal stresses of everyday life, you may have substantial medical bills to pay, be experiencing chronic pain and other symptoms, and be unable to go to work to get a paycheck. A Farmville car accident attorney can’t turn back the clock and prevent this all from happening. However, an experienced can help you move forward by representing you in a car accident claim.
Negligence Leads to Car Accidents
Negligence occurs when someone fails to use the degree of care that would ordinarily be used by a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances. Various forms of driver negligence often cause car accidents. In 2019, Pitt County had 6,121 reported crashes, 16 fatalities, and 2,890 injuries. Many of these accidents are attributable to one or more of the following negligent actions:
- Inattentive or distracted driving
- Texting while driving
- Talking on cell phone
- Exceeding the legal speed limit
- Lane violations
- Failure to yield the right of way
- Following too close to another vehicle
- Driving while drunk or under the influence of drugs
By hiring a Farmville car accident lawyer, you can seek compensation from the person or parties liable for your injuries. Your attorney will investigate your accident to determine who could be at fault and what sources of compensation exist.
North Carolina’s Statute of Limitations
It’s critical to contact a knowledgeable Farmville car accident attorney as soon as possible after your accident. The law imposes a statute of limitations or deadline to file a lawsuit for an injury. The statute of limitations in North Carolina is three years. If your lawsuit isn’t filed within three years of the date of your accident, you will lose the right to recover money for your damages. That said, you should not wait to retain an attorney to start your claim, as doing so could result in the loss or destruction of important evidence. The most advisable course of action is to contact an experienced attorney as soon as you can.
What Can a Farmville Car Accident Attorney Do for You?
You may be wondering what the point of retaining an attorney after a car accident is, especially if the other party is not disputing that he or she was at fault for the accident. While it is understandable to consider handing your case on your own, you should keep in mind that insurance companies stay in business by paying out as little as possible on every claim they process, and they handle car accident claims on a daily basis. As a result, you are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to negotiating a fair settlement offer and getting the compensation that you deserve under North Carolina law.
Insurance adjusters are trained to settle cases for as little as they can and use various techniques to accomplish this goal. Some of the tactics that insurance company representatives may use when trying to settle your claim for less than it is worth include:
- Making a settlement offer before you have had a chance to speak to a lawyer
- Waiting until you are under significant financial stress to make an offer
- Starting with an unreasonably low initial offer to make subsequent offers seem generous
- Misrepresenting the damages to which you are entitled (for example, suggesting that you are not entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering)
- Indicating that you should not talk to a lawyer before settling your claim
- Pressuring you to provide a recorded statement in order to try to get you to say something that could justify a lower settlement offer
- Requesting an overly broad authorization into your medical records in order to find anything they could use to characterize your injuries as a pre-existing condition
These are just a few of the ways an adjuster may try and settle your case for less than you should receive. An attorney familiar with insurance company tactics can make sure that you are on an even playing field when it comes to negotiation and that you do not walk away from compensation to which you are legally entitled. You only get one chance to settle your case, and it is next to impossible to obtain additional compensation once you have signed a settlement agreement. For this reason, you should never accept a car accident settlement offer before you have had a chance to discuss your case with an experienced lawyer.
Don’t Wait to Contact an Experienced Farmville Car Accident Lawyer
While many injured individuals put off reaching out to a Farmville car accident lawyer believing that they have plenty of time, that their injuries will heal, or the insurance company will do the right thing, you shouldn’t wait. Valuable evidence that can help your claim could be lost or damaged.
At the Ricci Law Firm Injury Lawyers, we take all of our cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you will never have to pay up front for our help and that we will only charge legal fees if we win your case.
Don’t procrastinate when it comes to your legal rights and options after being injured in a collision. Call us today at (252) 777-2222 or fill out the online contact form to schedule your free consultation.
We serve our Farmville clients at our Greenville office. Take US-264 E to Strantonsburg Road, and you will find us on the right, south of Vidant Medical Center and east of the Courtyard by Marriot.