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Video Summary
Victims of impaired driving accidents in North Carolina face a unique legal landscape that combines traditional personal injury claims with focused civil litigation strategies. While proving fault remains essential, these cases allow for the pursuit of punitive damages designed to penalize the offender and maximize the injured party’s financial recovery. Effective representation often requires a legal team capable of navigating both civil and criminal courts, ensuring that evidence from DUI prosecutions is leveraged to strengthen the victim’s claim. Attorneys also investigate additional insurance coverages and potential “dram shop” liability, which holds establishments responsible for over-serving alcohol. Because critical evidence and witnesses can vanish quickly, legal professionals emphasize the necessity of immediate action to preserve the integrity of the case. Ultimately, in-depth knowledge of insurance defense tactics and criminal procedure is vital for securing the highest possible compensation for those harmed by drunk drivers.
Transcription of the Video
Clarke: Jeff, I’d like to talk to you for a minute about drunk driving and impaired driving kind of offenses, cases where people have consumed alcohol or drugs or prescription medication or something like that, and it has affected their ability to operate a motor vehicle, and then someone is injured as a consequence. First, how are those kinds of cases the same as other types of motor vehicle accidents?
Jeff: Well, we still have to prove that the other driver was at fault. We still have to make sure our clients are taken care of physically, financially, and emotionally, that we are receiving the right treatment, that we are securing them the right kind of care, and that we are collecting evidence and looking for insurance coverage. All of those things that would be in a normal case are still in this case.
Clarke: How are these cases different from other types of motor vehicle accidents?
Jeff: Well, there are additional coverages we can pursue, additional punitive damages, which are designed to punish the offender for driving drunk and also to send a signal to society that we don’t want other people doing this to others in the community. Don’t drive drunk, or this may happen to you financially. A lot of times, the punitive damages can be larger than the regular case, so we have to go out and try to find extra coverage and try to stack policies on top, and that becomes complicated. Drunk driving cases are sort of their own category of cases.
Clarke: When many people think of drunk driving cases or impaired driving cases, they are thinking of it from a criminal perspective. But we are talking about it from a civil perspective, trying to compensate the victim instead of the drunk driver or the impaired driver going to jail or on probation. However, many of our lawyers have extensive experience in Criminal Court as well; they’ve been to criminal court and dealt with DWI and impaired driving. Why is that important?
Jeff: Well, we want to track those criminal cases with our investigative team that has former law enforcement experience. They have been officers who have arrested people for DUIs or impaired driving, so they can talk to the DAs and talk to the officers and track these things through the court. Also, we may not be the ones prosecuting the criminal cases; that is the district attorney’s office, but we can also provide guidance and help our clients through those processes. We have been in the Criminal Court and military court to assist our clients as those criminal cases are going on, and that helps build damages in our case and makes sure we can prove the other person is at fault.
Clarke: We have dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of cases where we’ve contacted either criminal defense attorneys or the District Attorney’s office and provided additional evidence, provided additional resources, or prepared a person to testify. This was very helpful in terms of our civil case of maximizing the compensation for the injured person.
Clarke: What should a person injured in a motor vehicle accident as a consequence of impaired or drunk driving look for in a law firm?
Jeff: You want someone with experience, someone who has dealt with these kinds of cases, someone who has criminal court experience like our lawyers do. You want someone who knows how to find coverages, which becomes tricky, and that becomes complicated. You want someone who has done that hundreds of thousands of times, as we have. You also want lawyers who have done Insurance Defense work in the past, which many of our lawyers have done. The insurance companies know that we know how to handle these cases, and so we can pursue maximum compensation for our clients.
Clarke: In addition, many times we are looking at the place where a person would serve the alcohol in a dram shop. If the damages are sufficient, we may be looking at the bar or restaurant that served this alcohol because they may be responsible for some or all of these damages, and we can pursue them for punitive damages as well. Should a person wait and see or call immediately?
Jeff: They should call immediately because the criminal case is going on, and we need to be involved early on. Evidence disappears from the scene; we want our investigative team on the case immediately. The insurance companies are working these things from day one, so we need to be working these things from day one and building the case for our clients.
Clarke: Witnesses disappear. It is helpful that we entered early because we were able to see the witnesses and talk to them, secure statements, and obtain contact information. If you have been injured in an accident that results from someone’s impaired driving or drunk driving, then call us; we will answer your questions and make sure your case commences correctly to make sure that you receive maximum compensation.