A wreck on a beach trip or a mountain drive leaves the injured person with a crash report in one county and a home in another. North Carolina law sorts the report and the lawsuit by separate rules, and the county of the wreck decides only one of them. The sections below start with a table of where each piece lives and end with how a first meeting works when the wreck happened far from home.
Where the report, the lawsuit and the insurance claim each live
The location of a North Carolina wreck decides which agency writes the crash report. It does not decide where the lawsuit is filed or which company handles the insurance claim.
| What | Where it lives | The rule behind it |
|---|---|---|
| The crash report | The agency that investigated, and the NCDMV once a local agency forwards its copy | G.S. 20-166.1(a) and (e) |
| The lawsuit | A county where a plaintiff or a defendant resides when the suit begins | G.S. 1-82 |
| Moving the lawsuit | Consent of the parties or an order of the court | G.S. 1-83 |
| The insurance claim | Your own insurance company, and the other driver's company when that driver is responsible | NC Department of Insurance, After an Accident |
| Legal papers for an out-of-state driver | The North Carolina Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, as that driver's agent | G.S. 1-105 |
| The deadline | The same state statutes in every county | G.S. 1-52(5) and (16), G.S. 1-53(4) |
The insurance claim has no courthouse at all. The North Carolina Department of Insurance tells drivers to contact their own agent or insurance company after an accident, and to contact the other driver's agent or company as well when that person is responsible for the damages.
Write down the county of the wreck and the agency named on the officer's paperwork. Those two details tell you where the report is kept and which county goes on a state report request.
Which agency wrote the report on a wreck far from home?
Under G.S. 20-166.1(a), a wreck inside a city or town is reported to the police department of that city or town. Outside a city or town the statute names the State Highway Patrol or the sheriff's office or other qualified rural police.
Inside a city or town limit
G.S. 20-166.1 makes the city or town police department the agency the driver notifies and the agency that investigates. A beach town with its own police department fills that role inside its limits.
Outside every city and town limit
The State Highway Patrol or the sheriff's office or other qualified rural police fills that role. A mountain road outside any town limit falls on this side.
G.S. 20-166.1(e) gives the investigating officer 24 hours from the wreck to make a written report. A local agency that receives the report then has 10 days to forward it to the Division of Motor Vehicles.
For a wreck inside Wilmington, the Wilmington crash report page sets out the city police route and the separate university police database. I would start with the agency name on the paperwork before calling anyone, because that one line sends you to the right office.
Exception. On the Blue Ridge Parkway, National Park Service law enforcement rangers investigate wrecks. The Parkway's Driving Safety page says those rangers investigate an average of 200 accidents each year, and the Asheville crash report page covers Parkway reports near Asheville.
Ordering the state's copy of the report from home
Individuals order the state copy of a crash report from the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles by mail or at a counter. The NCDMV Crash Reports page says individuals cannot order one online. For someone who lives at the other end of the state, the mailed form TR-67A is the route that does not require a trip.
Use the crash county on the TR-67A
Form TR-67A asks for the county of the crash. That is the county where the wreck happened, not the county where you live.
Write a $6.50 check to NCDMV
G.S. 20-42(b) sets the fee for an accident report at six dollars and fifty cents. The form says to make checks payable to NCDMV and does not take cash by mail.
Mail it to the Crash Reports Unit in Raleigh
The form's address is Traffic Records Branch, Crash Reports Unit, 3106 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27697-3106.
Allow 10 business days after it arrives
The NCDMV asks for 10 business days from receipt to process a mailed request.
For a wreck worked by a city police department or a sheriff's office, the state copy exists only after that agency sends it on. A request mailed in the first days after the wreck can reach Raleigh ahead of the report, and the how it works page covers the in-person counters.
G.S. 1-82 puts the lawsuit where a party lives
G.S. 1-82, titled Venue in all other cases, is the North Carolina statute that sends a civil action to the county where the plaintiffs or the defendants or any of them reside when it begins. The county of the wreck is a proper venue only when someone in the case lives there.
A Guilford County driver hurt in New Hanover County
A Guilford County resident hurt in New Hanover County by a New Hanover resident has two proper venues under G.S. 1-82. The Judicial Branch lists the Guilford County Courthouse at 201 South Eugene Street in Greensboro and the New Hanover County Courthouse at 316 Princess Street in Wilmington.
A Mecklenburg driver hurt in Buncombe County by a company truck
When a North Carolina corporation or limited liability company is a defendant, G.S. 1-79(a) treats it as residing where its registered or principal office is located or where it maintains a place of business. Each of those counties joins the list of proper venues alongside the home county of any driver who is sued and Mecklenburg, where the Judicial Branch lists the courthouse at 832 East Fourth Street in Charlotte. Buncombe County, with its courthouse at 60 Court Plaza in Asheville, joins only if a party resides there.
The county of the wreck is a proper venue only when someone in the case lives there.
When G.S. 1-83 lets a case stay put or move
A North Carolina case filed in a county that is not the proper one can still be tried there under G.S. 1-83. The exception is a defendant who demands in writing that the trial be conducted in the proper county, before the time for answering expires. The place of trial is then changed by consent of the parties or by order of the court.
G.S. 1-83 also lists grounds on which the court can change the place of trial, and two fit a wreck away from home.
Filed in a county that is not proper
The court can change the place of trial on the ground that the county designated is not the proper one.
Filed in a proper county
The court can still move the trial when the convenience of witnesses and the ends of justice would be promoted by the change.
Exception. G.S. 1-77(2) sends a suit against a public officer, for an act done by virtue of the office, to the county where the cause or some part of it arose.
When the other driver lives in South Carolina or Virginia
G.S. 1-105 treats a nonresident who drives on a North Carolina public highway, or at any other place in the state, as having appointed the North Carolina Commissioner of Motor Vehicles as agent for legal process in a suit growing out of that driving. How that service works, step by step, is in the post on suing an out-of-state driver.
G.S. 1-82 has its own venue rule for this situation. If none of the defendants reside in North Carolina, the action goes to the county where the plaintiffs or any of them reside. For a Guilford County resident hurt at the beach by a South Carolina driver who is the only defendant, that county is Guilford.
For a Guilford County resident hurt at the beach by a South Carolina driver who is the only defendant, that county is Guilford.
Three years for injury and two for death, in every county
The North Carolina period for an injury claim is three years, set by G.S. 1-52(5) for injury to the person not arising on contract. G.S. 1-52(16) fixes when that clock starts for a personal injury, which is when the bodily harm becomes apparent to the claimant or ought reasonably to have, whichever event occurs first.
G.S. 1-53(4) gives two years for a wrongful death action under G.S. 28A-18-2, and that cause of action does not accrue until the date of death. The wrongful death page covers the personal representative who brings that claim. These periods come from state statutes, so a wreck in New Hanover or Buncombe runs on the same clock as one in your home county.
Exception. G.S. 1-53(4) bars a death action when the person who died would have been barred, had he lived, from bringing an action for bodily harm because of G.S. 1-15(c) or G.S. 1-52(16).
Meeting an attorney when the wreck was across the state
I can come to you, wherever you are in North Carolina. The first conversation happens by phone or video. The meeting after it happens in person where you are.
Whether we work together is decided in that meeting. The county where the wreck happened does not change that order, and the contact page takes the request for the first call.
The county where the wreck happened does not change that order.
Choosing an attorney from outside the crash county is its own question, and the post on an attorney from another county takes it up. I would rather come to you than ask you to drive back to the county where you were hurt.
