Recent Blog Posts

Student Critically Injured in Bicycle Accident

Greenville Personal Injury Attorney — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:25:00 GMT

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a college student was critically injured when his bicycle was hit by a vehicle. Both individuals involved were North Carolina State students. They were traveling in opposite directions when the car turned left onto a service road; he collided with the cyclist, sending him crashing into car, shattering the windshield. The cyclist was taken to WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh where State police say he is still in a critical condition. The vehicle's driver, R.E.C., was tested for alcohol consumption and the results showed that he was at 0.12% BAC, well over the legal limit of 0.08%.

Bicycle accidents are often devastating as cyclists have little protection against a fast-moving vehicle. They are also more at risk of serious injury because motorists often fail to see them. Either due to alcohol consumption, distraction, or reckless driving, they fail to look out for pedestrians and cyclists that may also be on the road. If you or a family member were injured in a bicycle accident, please contact a Greenville personal injury lawyer from the Burch Law Office. We have years of experience in these types of cases and will fight to get you the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries. Contact a Greenville bicycle accident lawyer today to learn more.

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Amtrak Dismissed

Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:29:00 GMT

A Cary woman who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after her husband was killed at a railroad crossing recently had her case dismissed from court. Her husband, Jack Milton Daniels, was killed on June 9, 2009 when he drove onto the crossing in Raleigh near Hillsborough and Royal streets and his car was hit by the Amtrak train.

Nanette Daniels, his wife, filed a complaint seeking $450,000 in damages from National Railroad Passenger Corp., Amtrak's parent company and from CSX Transportation Inc., which owns and maintains the rail line. The law suit argued that the safety arms malfunctioned and trapped Jack Daniels in the middle of the crossing, but police reported that the 60-year-old man ignored the flashing signal at the crossing and appeared to stop his car in the middle.

The lawsuit was dropped by Federal Judge Terrence Boyle after finding that Nanette Daniels lacked capacity to sue under North Carolina law because she is not the administrator of his estate. North Carolina has specific laws regarding wrongful death claims throughout the state, and many times victims will try to file for lawsuits without a full understanding of these laws. If you have lost someone in a wrongful death incident, a Greeneville personal injury lawyer can help you file for a claim and seek compensation. With an intimate understand of North Carolina's laws and regulations, the legal team at Burch Law Office has the experience you need for your personal injury case. Contact a Greenville wrongful death attorney at our office today.

Litigating your automobile accident

Burch Law Office — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:42:00 GMT

Greenville personal injury lawyer Timothy Burch guides accident victims through the claims process quickly and effectively. Your claim typically starts off with an adjuster at the at-fault driver's insurance company. All of your medical records and bills are needed to determine what is fair compensation for you under the law. The timing is affected by how long it takes your injury to heal and for you to return to your normal activities of daily living. Once you feel that your health is restored, the negotiations begin with the insurance company. If an agreement cannot be made with the adjuster, then your only recourse is to have your Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer Timothy Burch file your lawsuit and let a jury of 12 men and women from our community decide what fair compensation would be for your injuries. Sometimes, the simple filing of the lawsuit can encourage better offers from the insurance company. Other times, the parties are able to resolve their differences by sitting down across from one another at a table during the mediation process. If the case does not resolve at mediation, then it simply must be decided by a jury. If you, a friend, or family member has been involved in an accident, call Greenville Personal Injury Attorney Timothy Burch and get the process started for litigating your claim against the insurance company.

Laws on Personal Injury Cases Have Changed

Burch Law Office — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:13:00 GMT

Citizens of North Carolina have lost valuable rights starting October 1, 2011. The worst part of these recent changes is that the public won't know about the harm until enough people get worked over by the new system and that may take years of injustice after injustice until the word finally gets out that the new system is not fair to the responsible consumer.

If you have purchased health insurance or medical payments coverage on your automobile policy, then you are paying premiums for benefits that the person who causes the harm gets to use. For example, if a drunk driver causes a bad collision and you end up in the hospital for months like one of my clients, your health insurance and your medical payments coverage is used to benefit the drunk driver. Even though you were responsible and purchased the insurance for you and your family, with money from your paycheck, the drunk driver's insurance company is only responsible for the unpaid amount of the bills.

How do you think this affects the negotiations between insurance adjuster and attorney over fair compensation for your injuries? Instead of having to pay the entire policy limit for a serious injury, the auto insurance company may get away with paying only a limited part of the policy limit because the bills have been paid by health insurance or through a client's med pay coverage. So your health insurance becomes the primary payer for bills that ought to be the responsibility of the drink driver's auto policy.

Can you imagine how much less auto insurance companies will pay out over a year to injured parties across the state of North Carolina? Do you think you will see a reduction in your auto insurance rates to reflect the certainty that less money will be paid out to injured people? Absolutely not. North Carolina consumers will continue to get scammed out of higher auto insurance premiums for less coverage. We are now in a system where the irresponsible among us, those who choose not to have health insurance and to have no medical payments coverage on their auto policy, will make a better recovery for their injuries caused by the drunk driver's actions than will the responsible citizens of North Carolina.

I can tell you from many years of experience as a trial attorney and advocate for the injured, that the insurance companies will use this new system to make even worse offers than are being currently made and which will leave the injured person with less than adequate recovery. Unfortunately, until word gets out from one undercompensated family to another and until enough North Carolinians are shafted by insurance companies, we will be stuck with this system. At some point, enough people will be harmed and sensibility will return to Raleigh and to our state legislators. Until then, it will be even more important than it has ever been to have an experiencedGreenville personal injury lawyer like Timothy E. Burch and Burch Law Office in Greenville, North Carolina on your side to document your claim and maximize the recovery available to you as the injured person. Contact us today!

Welcome to Our Greenville Personal Injury Blog

Greenville Personal Injury Attorney — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:20:00 GMT

Our attorneys are pleased to announce the launch of our Greenville Personal Injury Blog with and RSS feed here