Personal injury
Representation for people hurt through someone else’s negligence, handled on a contingency basis. No fee unless there is a recovery.
Answers to the questions people actually ask.
Plain answers on North Carolina law, written by the firm. Start where your question sits.
- Brain injuryTraumatic Brain Injury, also referred to as TBI, is a life changing event that will…
- Car accidentsThe Law Offices of David P. Sheehan is an aggressive personal injury law firm that…
- Defective medical devicesIf you have been the victim of a defective medical device or have fallen victim to the…
- Dog bitesBeing attacked by a dog can be a horrific experience that most likely will change you or…
- Nursing home neglectThere comes a time in everyone’s life when we must place our loved ones in the care of…
- Playground injuriesAs parents, we attempt to protect our children from anything and everything that may…
- Premises liabilityPremises liability is the theory that an individual or entity is responsible for the…
- Product liabilityIts safe to say that every single person within the United States has purchased or used…
- Spinal injuryEven if minor, a Spinal Injury can be a devastating accident that will change your life…
- Truck accidentsNorth Carolina is home to a one of the largest Interstate systems in the United States.…
- Workers' compensationUnlike strong unionized States that protect the rights of workers, North Carolina’s…
- Wrongful deathIf you are the close relative of a loved one who is recently deceased due to the…
North Carolina is one of a small number of states that still applies contributory negligence, which means that being found even slightly at fault can bar recovery entirely. That single rule makes early handling matter more here than in most states — what gets said to an adjuster in the first week can decide the case.
If you have been injured, the most useful thing you can do is talk to someone before giving a recorded statement.
What the engagement covers
Car accidents
Liability, not the size of the medical bill, usually decides a collision claim. The work is the crash investigation, the recorded-statement problem, the causation record, and the uninsured and underinsured layers, which can hold more coverage than the at-fault policy. Written notice of a tentative settlement to the underinsured carrier starts a thirty-day period under G.S. 20-279.21(b)(4): the carrier must advance that amount or lose its approval and subrogation rights.
Truck accidents
A commercial carrier is regulated in ways a private driver is not. Driver qualification files, hours-of-service logs, maintenance records and engine control module data all exist, and all of it can be overwritten on ordinary retention schedules. The first step is usually a preservation letter. Liability may reach past the driver to the carrier, the broker, and whoever loaded the trailer.
Wrongful death
Under G.S. 28A-18-2 the claim belongs to the estate and is brought by the personal representative, not by relatives individually. What is recovered passes under the Intestate Succession Act, so a will does not control who receives it. Recoverable losses include medical and funeral expenses, the deceased person's pain and suffering, and the income, services and companionship the family lost.
Workers’ compensation
Claims run through the Industrial Commission rather than the courts, the Act being the exclusive remedy against an employer. Written notice of the accident should reach the employer within thirty days under G.S. 97-22, though the Commission may excuse late notice where there is reasonable excuse and no prejudice; the claim must be filed within two years of the accident under G.S. 97-24. Contributory negligence is no defense here.
Premises liability and slip and fall
North Carolina no longer sorts lawful visitors into invitees and licensees; an owner or occupier owes reasonable care to everyone lawfully on the property, with trespassers still treated separately. The contested question is usually notice — whether the business created the hazard or it had been there long enough that reasonable inspection should have found it. Ask early for inspection logs, sweep sheets and camera footage before retention periods run.
Nursing home neglect
Neglect cases are built out of the facility's own paperwork: the care plan, staffing sheets, turning and repositioning records, the weight log, incident reports and state survey deficiencies. Pressure injuries, falls and dehydration each leave a documentary trail there. Where a corporate operator sets staffing levels from outside the building, the claim may reach past the home itself. Request the complete chart, including the electronic audit trail, in writing.
Product liability
A design claim under G.S. 99B-6 requires proof that the manufacturer acted unreasonably in designing the product and that this proximately caused the harm, plus either an unreasonable failure to adopt a safer, feasible alternative design or a design so unreasonable that a reasonable person aware of the facts would not use it. A twelve-year statute of repose runs from initial purchase for use or consumption. Preserve the product unaltered.
Defective medical devices
How the implant reached the market shapes much of the case. Devices approved through the FDA's full premarket route carry broad federal pre-emption; devices cleared on the faster substantial-equivalence route generally do not. Recall notices, adverse event reports and the operative note identifying the exact lot are the starting materials. Damages usually center on the revision surgery and the recovery that follows.
Dog bites
Liability turns largely on what the owner knew. G.S. 67-4.4 makes the owner of a dangerous dog strictly liable, but G.S. 67-4.1 defines that term narrowly: apart from a dog that without provocation has killed or severely injured someone, it generally requires a prior determination by the local animal control authority. Without one, the claim rests on the animal's history and on rules about dogs running at large.
Brain injury
The injury visible on imaging is rarely the whole of it. Mild traumatic brain injury often produces no CT finding at all, while deficits in memory, executive function, temper and fatigue show up mainly in daily life. Neuropsychological testing, treating-provider records and statements from people who knew the client before the injury give those deficits a measurable form, alongside a vocational assessment of lost earning capacity.
Spinal injury
Valuation here is mostly about the rest of a life. A life care plan prices attendant care, equipment replacement cycles, home and vehicle modification and repeat surgery; a vocational assessment and an economist convert lost work into present value. Where degenerative changes already appeared on earlier imaging, causation is the harder issue, so collect the full set of prior films and treatment records at the outset.
Playground injuries
Where the equipment sits on public land — a City of Charlotte park, a Mecklenburg County recreation site — governmental immunity applies unless the body has purchased liability insurance, and then only to the extent that policy indemnifies it. Private operators face ordinary negligence. The factual questions repeat: fall surfacing depth, entrapment gaps, equipment spacing, the standards current at installation, and the maintenance log.
Common questions
What does contributory negligence mean for my case?
North Carolina is one of the few states where being found even partly at fault can bar recovery completely. It makes the early facts — statements, photographs, witnesses — unusually decisive, and it is the main reason not to talk to the other side’s adjuster before you have spoken to a lawyer.
How long do I have to file?
There is a deadline, it varies by claim type, and it is shorter than most people assume. Some claims involving government entities carry much shorter notice requirements. Call and find out where yours stands rather than estimating.
What does it cost?
Nothing up front. Personal injury work is handled on contingency, so the fee comes out of a recovery. If there is no recovery there is no fee.
The insurance company already made an offer. Should I take it?
Get it reviewed first. Early offers arrive before the full cost of an injury is known, and accepting one usually closes the claim permanently.
People injured through another party’s negligence, and families pursuing a wrongful death claim.
Contingency. No fee unless there is a recovery.
A scoped call on what this actually needs, before anything is drafted.
Book a consultation or call (704) 222-4752