Every term an adjuster, a court, or your own lawyer will use in a North Carolina injury claim, defined in plain English and paired with the North Carolina rule that applies to it.
Injury law has a vocabulary of its own, and most of it arrives at the worst possible time: in a letter from an insurance company, in a doctor’s report, or in a court filing. Adjusters use terms like subrogation, policy limits, and release because the words carry legal consequences, and a person who does not know what they mean is at a disadvantage in every conversation. This glossary closes that gap. Each term is defined in one or two sentences, explained the way a lawyer would explain it across a desk, and illustrated with an example drawn from the kinds of claims we handle.
North Carolina is not like most states, so a generic legal dictionary is not enough. This state still follows contributory negligence, does not require personal injury protection coverage, sets its own minimum liability and uninsured-motorist limits, caps punitive damages, and gives injured people three years to file most claims. Wherever a term works differently here, the entry says so and cites the North Carolina statute or court decision behind it. Joshua E. Palmer, Attorney at Law wrote and reviewed every entry; the glossary is general legal information about North Carolina law, not advice about your case.
Jump to a letter above, or start with the term you were just handed. Each entry opens with a definition you can read in ten seconds, followed by a longer explanation, a North Carolina section, a worked example, and answers to the questions people ask most about that term. Related terms are linked at the bottom of every entry, and each entry links to the practice page or guide where the term does the most work, so you can move from the word to the rule to what it means for a claim like yours.
New terms are added regularly. If a word in a letter, a policy, or a court document is not here yet, call the firm and ask. There is no charge for the question, and the answer often changes what you do next.
Because four North Carolina rules change the meaning of almost everything else. The first is contributory negligence: under the rule codified in part by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-139, an injured person whose own negligence contributed to the injury in any degree recovers nothing, which is why terms like negligence, proximate cause, and last clear chance carry more weight here than in the 46 states that share fault by percentage. The second is the state’s auto-insurance structure. North Carolina requires liability coverage of at least 50/100/50 and, for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, matching uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-279.21, and it does not require personal injury protection, so the insurance terms in this glossary describe a different system than the one a national explainer assumes.
The third is damages. North Carolina caps punitive damages under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1D-25 and has no general cap on compensatory damages, so terms like compensatory, non-economic, and punitive damages are defined here against the state’s actual limits. The fourth is time. Most injury claims must be filed within three years under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52(16), and the procedural terms in this glossary (deposition, interrogatories, mediation) describe what happens once a claim is filed inside that window. Every entry that touches one of these rules explains it.
Joshua E. Palmer
Managing Partner · Joshua E. Palmer, Attorney at Law
Attorney Palmer concentrates in personal injury law and trained in North Carolina law at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham. This glossary explains the terms he uses with clients every day, in plain English and with the North Carolina rule that applies.
Found a term in a letter or a policy that this glossary does not explain? Call the firm and ask. The consultation is free, and the answer may change what you do next.
Responsible attorney: Joshua E. Palmer, Managing Partner · 106 Moran Dr #5106, Bonaire, GA 31005 · (478) 887-3734. Attorney advertising. This page is general legal information about North Carolina law, not legal advice for your situation; contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Tell us what happened and we will explain, in plain English, how North Carolina law applies to it. Free consultation, no fee unless we win.
Each case is different. Any results, settlement figures, or benefit amounts described on this page depend on the specific facts of that case and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in yours. Statutes and benefit rates cited are current as of September 2026; confirm current law with an attorney before relying on it.