If you were badly hurt in a car accident in North Carolina, it is natural to wonder whether your injuries count as “serious” in a legal sense. In civil cases, lawyers and insurers usually use “serious injury” to describe harm that significantly changes your health or daily life, such as major medical care, lasting pain or disability, or visible disfigurement.
North Carolina does not have a single civil law that sets a specific “serious injury threshold” like some no-fault states do. Instead, severity is evaluated using your diagnoses, imaging results, surgeries or hospitalizations, and how long your limitations last. Those details drive how insurers, courts, and juries treat your claim.
To get oriented, it helps to start with a short answer about what usually counts as a serious injury in a North Carolina crash.
What Usually Counts as a Serious Injury in a North Carolina Crash?
In North Carolina car accident cases, an injury is usually treated as “serious” when it has a major and lasting effect on your life, health, or ability to work. That often includes injuries that require:
- Extended hospital stays
- Major surgery or multiple surgeries
- Long-term pain, loss of function, or disability
- Significant scarring or disfigurement
There is no single civil statute that draws a bright line between minor and serious injuries. In practice, the more intensive your treatment and the longer the impact on your daily life, the more likely insurers and juries are to treat the injury as serious for settlement or trial purposes. They look closely at diagnosis, treatment intensity, and long-term effects.
Common markers of a serious injury in North Carolina claims include:
- Hospitalization for days or longer
- Major surgery or multiple surgeries
- Permanent loss of function, disability, or disfigurement
- Long-term inability to work or perform normal daily activities
With those markers in mind, it helps to see what kinds of injuries often fall into the serious category after a crash.
What Injuries Are Typically Considered Serious After a Car Accident?
In North Carolina car accident cases, injuries such as brain and spinal cord damage, serious fractures, internal organ injuries, amputations, severe burns, and injuries that leave you permanently limited are typically treated as serious. These kinds of harm often change how you move, think, work, or care for yourself.
Less obvious injuries can also count as serious when they lead to significant surgeries, long-term pain, or an inability to keep working or manage daily tasks. Before looking more closely at concussions and fractures, it is important to understand how the phrase “serious bodily injury” is used under North Carolina law and why that wording matters.
Serious Injury vs Serious Bodily Injury: Why the Wording Matters in North Carolina
In everyday conversation and civil injury cases, lawyers talk about “serious injuries” to describe severe or long-term harm that justifies higher settlements and more extensive proof. North Carolina statutes also use the phrase “serious bodily injury” in specific criminal laws, including some assault and hit-and-run provisions.
Those criminal laws give a precise definition for charging decisions, but you do not have to meet that exact definition to bring a civil personal injury or wrongful death claim after a crash. Civil judges and juries still look at the real-world impact on your health and life when evaluating how serious your injuries are.
What Is “Serious Bodily Injury” Under North Carolina Law?
Under North Carolina criminal law, serious bodily injury generally means an injury that does at least one of the following:
- Creates a substantial risk of death
- Causes serious permanent disfigurement
- Leads to coma or extreme pain
- Results in long-term loss or impairment of a body part or organ
- Requires extended hospitalization
This wording appears in statutes such as G.S. 14-32.4 and is used to decide the level of criminal charges.
That criminal definition does not limit your ability to bring a civil claim. You do not need to prove that your injuries fit this exact standard to seek compensation after a crash. At the same time, injuries that meet this definition are usually treated as very serious in civil cases too because they involve high medical needs and lasting consequences.
With that context, it helps to look at common injuries after car accidents that are treated as serious in North Carolina claims.
Common Examples of Serious Injuries After Car Accidents
Serious injuries after North Carolina car accidents can take many forms. The key factor is how much they affect your ability to live, work, and function, not only how much they hurt on the day of the collision. High-speed crashes on I 40, I 85, I 77, and busy arterials in Raleigh and Charlotte often send people with major injuries to trauma centers at hospital systems such as WakeMed, UNC Health, Duke Health, and Novant Health.
Common serious injuries after North Carolina car accidents include:
- Traumatic brain injuries and concussions that cause lasting headaches, memory issues, or cognitive problems
- Spinal cord injuries that result in paralysis, major weakness, or loss of sensation
- Complex fractures, such as broken pelvis or hips, or multiple broken bones that require surgery and long rehabilitation
- Internal bleeding or organ damage to the spleen, liver, lungs, or other organs that require emergency treatment
- Severe burns that lead to permanent scarring, contractures, or repeated surgeries
- Traumatic amputations or loss of part of a limb
- Deep lacerations that damage nerves or tendons, affecting movement or sensation
- Injuries that permanently reduce mobility or cause ongoing severe pain
Two questions that come up often are whether concussions count as serious injuries and whether broken bones always qualify.
Can a Concussion or TBI Be a Serious Injury After a Crash?
Yes. Traumatic brain injuries can range from brief concussions to more severe injuries that cause long-term problems with memory, focus, mood, and balance. Even a concussion that looks mild at first can be serious if symptoms linger or worsen.
If symptoms such as confusion, headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light, or cognitive changes continue, doctors often treat the injury as serious. In North Carolina claims, insurers and juries usually do the same, especially when neurologists, imaging, and neuropsychological testing are involved. Persistent brain injury symptoms are taken seriously because they can quietly change a person’s whole life.
Do Broken Bones Always Count as a Serious Injury in a North Carolina Car Accident?
Fractures range from small hairline cracks to complex, multi-fragment breaks. Even a fracture that doctors call “simple” can be serious if it requires surgery, hardware, or causes lasting weakness or pain in the affected limb or joint.
Multiple fractures, fractures that involve joints, or fractures that require plates, screws, or rods are usually treated as serious injuries in North Carolina claims. They involve significant treatment, long recovery times, and a higher risk of permanent stiffness, arthritis, or functional loss. Whatever the diagnosis, insurers and courts care a great deal about how injury seriousness shows up in your medical records.
How Medical Evidence Shows an Injury Is Serious
Serious injuries are not proven by adjectives alone. Calling an injury “severe” does not make it so in the eyes of an insurer or a jury. Seriousness is shown by objective markers in your medical file, such as:
- The diagnoses you receive
- What imaging shows
- Whether you had surgery and what was repaired
- How long you were hospitalized
- How intensive your rehabilitation has been
Insurers also look for consistency over time. They compare what you tell them to what doctors, surgeons, and therapists wrote in your records. If the story in your chart matches the story you are sharing about your pain and limitations, your claim is usually stronger.
Key medical proof of a serious injury includes:
- Emergency room and trauma center records that describe the initial injury
- Imaging reports such as CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays showing fractures, bleeding, or structural damage
- Surgeon notes and operative reports explaining what was repaired and why
- Hospital records, especially ICU stays or repeated admissions
- Specialist notes from orthopedists, neurologists, or rehabilitation physicians
- Physical and occupational therapy records that show ongoing deficits and effort
- Work restriction notes and any impairment ratings after maximum medical improvement
What Medical Records Help Prove a Serious Injury Claim?
Emergency records, imaging studies, and hospitalization notes document the initial seriousness of a car accident injury. They show that the harm was significant from the start and that you were not simply treated and released with minor complaints. Operative reports and discharge summaries also show the level of medical intervention you needed.
Follow-up records, specialist consults, rehabilitation notes, and work restrictions show how long the injury continues to affect you. Employer documentation about missed work, reduced hours, or changed job duties and any formal impairment ratings round out the picture.
Together, these records help show not only that the injury was serious at the beginning, but that its impact has lasted. In the most severe cases, you may also see something called a life care plan.
What Is a Life Care Plan and How Can It Help in a Serious Injury Case?
A life care plan is a detailed report prepared by a medical or rehabilitation expert that outlines the future care, therapy, equipment, and support an injured person is likely to need over the course of life. It can include estimates for future surgeries, medications, personal care assistance, home modifications, mobility devices, and more.
In North Carolina catastrophic injury cases, such as paralysis or severe traumatic brain injuries, life care plans can be critical tools for explaining future damages to insurers and juries. They provide a structured, medically grounded estimate of long-term costs, which can justify much higher settlement ranges than past bills alone. Beyond medical charts, law enforcement reports also have a role in how injury severity is recorded, but they are not the whole story.
How North Carolina Crash Reports Classify Injury Severity
When law enforcement responds to a crash in North Carolina, the officer completes a DMV 349 crash report and assigns an “injury status” to each person based on what is observed and reported at the scene. These injury statuses are coded and used in statewide traffic safety data.
That injury status is only a snapshot. It is not a complete medical diagnosis and does not replace hospital or specialist records. Internal injuries and brain injuries often turn out to be more serious than they look at the roadside.
What Is the DMV 349 Crash Report and What Does “Injury Status” Mean?
The DMV 349 is the official crash report form used throughout North Carolina. It includes fields where the officer notes whether each person had:
- No injury
- Possible injury
- Suspected minor injury
- Suspected serious injury
- Fatal injury
using standardized codes.
These codes help transportation agencies and law enforcement track safety trends, but insurers still look beyond them to full medical records when evaluating how serious your injuries really are. A crash report might list “possible injury” while imaging later shows a serious internal injury.
Once your injury is documented, the next question is how seriousness affects the value and timing of your claim.
How Serious Injury Affects Claim Value and Timing
More serious injuries usually involve higher medical bills, longer periods out of work, and more disruption to daily life. Those factors significantly increase the financial stakes of a North Carolina car accident claim. Serious injuries may also involve higher noneconomic damages for pain, loss of quality of life, and emotional distress.
Because future care and future income loss have to be evaluated, serious injury claims often take longer to resolve. Your lawyer may need opinions about how long you will need treatment, what kind of work you can still do, and whether you will require help or equipment in the future. Insurers take more time investigating and evaluating high-value cases.
Serious injury impacts on North Carolina claim value include:
- Larger past medical expenses and related costs
- High likelihood of future treatment and rehabilitation needs
- Greater impact on work and earning capacity
- More substantial pain, loss of normal life, and emotional harm
How Does a Serious Injury Change the Value of a Car Accident Claim in North Carolina?
In North Carolina, juries and insurers consider both economic damages and noneconomic damages. Economic damages include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity. Noneconomic damages include pain, emotional distress, and the loss of ability to enjoy life as before.
Serious injuries that permanently change your ability to work or live normally generally support higher settlement ranges than injuries that heal quickly. Documentation and expert opinions are important. Treating doctors, life care planners, vocational experts, and rehabilitation specialists help explain how injuries affect your future, not just your past. Their opinions give structure to serious injury valuations and often make the difference between a routine settlement and a substantial one.
Why Do Serious Injury Claims Often Take Longer to Settle?
Serious injuries take time to reach maximum medical improvement, which is the point where doctors expect no major short-term changes in your condition. Until your medical team has a clear sense of your long-term prognosis, it is difficult to accurately estimate future care or long-term work ability.
Insurers usually investigate serious cases more thoroughly. They may want to see all records, consult their own experts, and sometimes test liability and damages in litigation. Lawsuits involving severe injuries take time for discovery, depositions, and motions.
Along with medical and insurance complexity, North Carolina has rules and deadlines that can change the outcome of a serious injury case.
North Carolina Rules That Can Change the Outcome
North Carolina law limits how long you have to file a lawsuit after a car accident. For most personal injury cases, including serious injuries, the statute of limitations is three years from the date of the crash under G.S. 1-52. For wrongful death claims, the general limit is two years from the date of death under G.S. 1-53(4) and G.S. 28A-18-2. Missing these deadlines can end even strong cases.
North Carolina also uses a pure contributory negligence rule. If a jury finds that you were even slightly at fault for the crash or your injuries, you may be barred from recovering from the other driver. This is very different from comparative negligence systems in other states and makes careful handling of serious injury cases especially important.
How Long Do You Have to File a Car Accident Lawsuit in North Carolina?
In most North Carolina car accident injury cases, including those involving serious injuries, you have three years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit in court. Settlement negotiations do not stop this clock. If the deadline passes without either a settlement or a filed lawsuit, you may lose your right to pursue compensation regardless of how severe your injuries are.
Certain special situations can have different timing rules, so it is important to talk with a lawyer if you think your case might involve minors, government entities, or other unusual circumstances.
How Long Do You Have to File a Wrongful Death Claim in North Carolina?
Wrongful death claims arising from a North Carolina car accident are generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations from the date of death. Under G.S. 1-53(4) and G.S. 28A-18-2, only the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate may bring the wrongful death action on behalf of beneficiaries.
Because these cases involve both estate administration and litigation, it is important to seek legal advice quickly if a family member has died from crash-related injuries. Even when claims are timely, contributory negligence can still change the outcome.
Can Contributory Negligence Bar Recovery in a Serious Injury Case?
In North Carolina, if a jury finds that you were even slightly negligent and that your negligence contributed to the crash or your injuries, contributory negligence can completely bar your recovery. This rule applies even when your injuries are very serious. For example, if evidence convinces a jury that you ran a red light or were also violating traffic rules, you may not recover damages from another driver.
This is one reason why preserving evidence and being careful in statements to police and insurance adjusters is especially important in serious injury cases. Casual admissions or unclear descriptions of how the crash happened can take on outsized importance later.
Given what is at stake, it helps to know what to do next if you think your injuries are serious.
What to Do If You Think You Have a Serious Injury in Raleigh, Charlotte, or Anywhere in North Carolina
If you suspect a serious injury after a crash, your first priority is your health. Your next priority is protecting your legal rights so that you have options when the bills arrive and the future becomes clearer. A few practical steps can make a big difference.
Steps to take after a serious injury in Raleigh, Charlotte, and across North Carolina:
- Seek emergency or urgent medical care right away and follow discharge instructions
- Attend follow-up appointments and recommended specialist or rehabilitation visits
- Keep copies of all records, imaging reports, discharge summaries, and prescriptions
- Request a copy of the DMV 349 crash report when it becomes available
- Take photos of your injuries when appropriate, as well as vehicle damage and the scene
- Collect contact information for witnesses and keep any correspondence from insurers
- Consider talking with a North Carolina serious injury lawyer early, especially before giving detailed recorded statements
Should You Talk to Insurance Before You Know the Full Extent of Your Injuries?
You usually must notify your own insurer about the crash and may need to answer basic questions about when and where it occurred. At the same time, detailed recorded statements about how you feel and what your long-term limitations are can be risky while diagnosis and prognosis are still evolving.
Especially in serious injury cases, it is often wise to speak with a North Carolina injury lawyer before giving a recorded statement or signing any releases. A lawyer can help you understand which questions are routine and which might harm your claim if answered too quickly or casually.
Get Help After a Serious Car Accident Injury in North Carolina
If a North Carolina car accident left you with injuries that changed your health, work, or daily life, you do not have to guess whether they “count” as serious or handle the fallout on your own. Extended hospital stays, surgery, lasting pain, time away from work, and visible scarring are all strong signs that your case needs careful attention, not quick decisions. Serious injuries often involve complex medical records, future treatment needs, and real questions about long-term earning ability. Having someone who understands how North Carolina law treats these harms can help you document what you are facing now, anticipate future costs, and avoid settlement offers that fall short of what your recovery will really require.
If you are dealing with a serious injury after a crash in Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington, or anywhere in North Carolina, you do not have to navigate insurers, deadlines, and legal rules by yourself. Call Lanier Law Group at 919-342-1368 or contact us online for a free consultation. Our team is ready to review your medical records, explain your options under North Carolina law, and fight like heavyweights to protect your right to full and fair compensation for the impact this crash has had on your life.