New Hanover County · Cape Fear
A Wilmington Injury Attorney Who Comes to You
If a crash in Wilmington left you hurt, call me first. We begin with a call or a video meeting. From there I can come to you, meeting at a Wilmington house, an apartment or another New Hanover County place you name. The two of us settle in that meeting if we will work together.
The firm's single office sits in Graham, and the distance to the coast changes nothing about how a Wilmington client starts with me. My admission in North Carolina dates from 1998, and this page is about what sets a crash inside Wilmington apart.
The sections below sort out whose report covers your crash, how the Wilmington Police Department divides crash work, where a New Hanover County case is heard, the bridge and interchange projects that shape city traffic, how Wilmington compares with Jacksonville and Leland, and the order of the first steps.
01
Which agency wrote the report on your Wilmington crash?
A crash on a Wilmington city street is most likely a Wilmington Police Department case. City police are the likely responders inside a city that has a department, by the account of a first sergeant with the State Highway Patrol in an interview NCDPS published, and he placed a crash beyond the city line with the Patrol.
UNCW runs its own force, the UNC Wilmington Police Department, and crash reports for collisions on university property go into that department's online Crash Report Database. For a campus crash, that database is where the report sits.
| Where the crash happened | Agency named on an official page | Where the report is kept |
|---|---|---|
| A Wilmington city street | Wilmington Police Department | WPD Records and Wilmington's online Police to Citizen site |
| UNCW property | UNC Wilmington Police Department | UNCW Crash Report Database |
| Past the Wilmington city line | State Highway Patrol, typically, per NCDPS | The Patrol and the NCDMV |
Write down the street, the closest cross street and whether you were on UNCW property. That detail tells you which agency holds the report.
For a Patrol report on a road outside Wilmington, the Cape Fear region page lays out the Troop B steps.
02
The WPD Traffic Unit takes every fatal Wilmington crash
The Wilmington Police Department Traffic Unit is responsible for investigating all fatal crashes in the city, along with police-related and pursuit-related crashes, according to the department's Traffic page. Several crash reconstructionists in that unit bring reconstruction software and tools to the scene.
Crashes with property damage go to different people. The department has six civilian crash investigators that handle vehicle crashes resulting in property damage, and the city credits them with more than 1,500 crash investigations each year.
A fatal crash inside Wilmington
The Traffic Unit investigates, and its reconstructionists work the scene with their own tools.
A property damage crash in Wilmington
The department gives this work to its civilian crash investigators so officers stay free for other calls.
The Traffic page does not say which unit takes an injury crash that nobody died in. The officer name and department lines on the state crash form answer that for your own report.
The report names the officer and the department, and that settles who investigated your crash.
Where a Wilmington crash was fatal, the family's claim under North Carolina law gets its own treatment on the wrongful death page.
03
New Hanover County Courthouse on Princess Street and District 6
Where a Wilmington injury suit is heard depends on where the people in it live, not on the street where the vehicles met. The City of Wilmington states that it lies in New Hanover County, whose courthouse the Judicial Branch lists on Princess Street.
| Courthouse for New Hanover County | Address the Judicial Branch lists | Superior Court district | District Court district |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hanover County Courthouse | 316 Princess St, Wilmington, NC 28401 | District 6 | District 6 |
G.S. 1-82 ties venue to residence, so the case may be tried where at least one plaintiff or at least one defendant lived when the suit was filed. When a driver or passenger in a Wilmington crash lives in New Hanover County, that residence makes New Hanover County, with its courthouse on Princess Street, a proper venue, whether the resident is suing or being sued.
The $25,000 line between New Hanover's two trial divisions
G.S. 7A-243 assigns a New Hanover County civil claim worth $25,000 or less to District Court as the proper division, and a claim above that figure to Superior Court, except where another part of the same Article provides otherwise. The Judicial Branch lists New Hanover County in Superior Court District 6 and District Court District 6 under the district lines in effect since January 1, 2024.
Exception. If the only defendant is an out-of-state driver and the injured person lives in Wilmington, G.S. 1-82 narrows venue to the plaintiff's own county, New Hanover. Where no party resides in North Carolina at all, G.S. 1-82 lets the plaintiff choose the county, naming it in the opening summons and complaint.
04
The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and the College Road interchange plan
The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge carries U.S. 17, U.S. 76 and U.S. 421 across the Cape Fear River between Brunswick and New Hanover counties, and NCDOT says the corridor carries trucks moving freight to and from the Port of Wilmington. NCDOT describes the present bridge as a four-lane steel vertical-lift bridge built in 1969 and lists its replacement as project HB-0039.
In Wilmington, NCDOT project U-5792 proposes to turn the at-grade intersection of N.C. 132, which is College Road, and U.S. 74, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, into an interchange. NCDOT's project timeline lists construction for summer 2029 and notes that future dates are subject to change.
| Road in or around Wilmington | Route number NCDOT uses | What the NCDOT page says |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Fear Memorial Bridge | U.S. 17/U.S. 76/U.S. 421 | Replacement in planning and development, project HB-0039 |
| College Road | N.C. 132 | Widening from a two-lane section to a three-lane section in each direction, per U-5792 |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway | U.S. 74 | A flyover from eastbound MLK Jr. Parkway to northbound College Road |
| Market Street | U.S. 17 Business | Widening between Middle Sound Loop Road and Marsh Oaks Drive, contract awarded in 2019 |
Recording the bridge, the ramp or the intersection by name helps match your crash to the right report later. For a crash with a freight truck on its way to or from the port, the federal rules for commercial carriers come up under truck accident claims.
05
Wilmington beside Jacksonville and Leland in size and crash counts
The U.S. Census Bureau puts Wilmington's July 1, 2025 population at 126,809. In the same V2025 estimates, Jacksonville stands at 72,732 and Leland at 35,731.
| Place | Census V2025 residents | Reported crashes, 2023 through 2025 | Fatal crashes | Non-fatal injury crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington city | 126,809 | 15,397 | 39 | 3,395 |
| Jacksonville city | 72,732 | 7,233 | 22 | 1,240 |
| Leland town | 35,731 | 2,321 | 7 | 298 |
NCDOT's 2025 city ranking, the one limited to places of 10,000 or more, supplies those crash columns and states that it rests on all reported crashes between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025. Each crash column counts crashes and not people, and the document never explains which crashes it credits to Wilmington.
Wilmington carries about twice the crash count of Jacksonville over the same three years. None of that speaks to fault in any one Wilmington crash.
The Wilmington crash statistics page breaks these figures down further and adds the New Hanover County numbers.
06
Your first steps after a Wilmington crash, in order
After a Wilmington crash, you and I speak by phone or over video before anything else, and meeting face to face comes second. Graham being far from the coast leaves that order the same.
Call 336-221-8900 from Wilmington
That first talk can be a regular call or a video link. Callers from Wilmington who prefer Spanish can speak with Lorena Meza, the firm's paralegal who speaks Spanish.
Watch Police to Citizen for the WPD report
Wilmington's Records section gives a 5 to 7 business day window for posting, and says crash reports may run behind it.
Meet in person in New Hanover County
After that talk, I can come to you. Whether we work together gets decided when we sit down somewhere in New Hanover County.
The Records section of the department answers at 910.343.3640 if the report has not posted. The visit itself is described under how it works, the Wilmington crash report page lists the request route at each agency that writes Wilmington reports, and a meeting request goes to the contact page.
Questions
Common questions
Does the Wilmington Police Department investigate a crash at UNCW?
Not for a crash on UNCW property. UNCW's Records Request page directs anyone wanting a report on a university-property crash to the campus police department's Crash Report Database. That database takes any one of four search entries, a report number, a crash date, a driver's name or a street name.
Is a crash on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge a Wilmington crash?
NCDOT calls it the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in Wilmington and says it crosses the river between Brunswick and New Hanover counties. NCDOT's page does not say where on the span one county ends, so note your direction of travel and the closer end of the bridge.
How many officers does the Wilmington Police Department have?
The City of Wilmington's 2025 overview lists 279 sworn officers, two stations and CALEA accreditation for the department. The same overview counts 156,010 calls for service in fiscal year 2024 and does not break that figure out by crash calls.
About the attorney
Julian Doby, attorney since 1998
Julian Doby has been admitted to practice in North Carolina since 1998, North Carolina State Bar No. 25407, and he represents injured people across the state. His one office is at 110 W. Elm Street in Graham. He meets clients across the state after a first conversation by phone or video.
More about JulianSources and verification (19)
- NCDPS, Safety Scoop, Season 4, Episode 2, SHP Answers Top Questions from Motorists (transcript), verified October 18, 2026.
- UNC Wilmington, University Police, Records Request, verified October 18, 2026.
- UNC Wilmington Police Department, Crash Report Database, verified October 18, 2026.
- City of Wilmington, Wilmington Police Department, Administrative Services Bureau (Records), verified October 18, 2026.
- City of Wilmington, Wilmington Police Department, Special Operations, Traffic, verified October 18, 2026.
- City of Wilmington, City of Wilmington 2025 overview (FY24-25), verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDMV, Crash Report Form DMV-349 (Rev. 4/2018), verified October 18, 2026.
- N.C. Gen. Stat. 1-82, venue, ncleg.gov, verified October 18, 2026.
- N.C. Gen. Stat. 7A-243, proper division by amount in controversy, ncleg.gov, verified October 18, 2026.
- North Carolina Judicial Branch, New Hanover County (districts as realigned January 1, 2024), verified October 18, 2026.
- North Carolina Judicial Branch, New Hanover County Courthouse, verified October 18, 2026.
- North Carolina Judicial Branch, Court locations, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT, Cape Fear Memorial Bridge Replacement (page timestamp September 16, 2026), verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT public input page, U-5792: N.C. 132 (College Road) and MLK Jr. Parkway, Wilmington, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT press release, New Hanover County Construction Project Awarded (Market Street, U.S. 17 Business), February 27, 2019, verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Wilmington city, North Carolina, Population estimates, July 1, 2025, (V2025), verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Jacksonville city, North Carolina, V2025, verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Leland town, North Carolina, V2025, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT Traffic Safety, 2025 Ranking of Cities with Populations of 10,000 or More (crashes January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025), verified October 18, 2026.
Hurt in Wilmington? Talk first. Then I can come to you.
Call or send a visit request. We start by phone or video.