Summerville Personal Injury Attorneys

South Carolina recorded 143,801 traffic collisions in 2024, and those wrecks killed 1,040 people. The figures come from the Department of Public Safety's yearly Traffic Collision Fact Book. Section 38-77-140 sets the minimum coverage for every South Carolina auto policy. In shorthand, that minimum reads 25/50/25. It means $25,000 of injury coverage for one person, $50,000 when a crash injures several people and $25,000 for property damage.

Every policy must also include uninsured motorist coverage, which steps in when the driver at fault carries no insurance. Insurers must offer underinsured motorist coverage as well. It is optional, and it can help when the other driver's coverage is too small for the losses. South Carolina requires no personal injury protection, the coverage that pays your own bills regardless of fault. That is why it is not a no-fault state.

After a wreck that injures or kills someone, Section 56-5-1260 requires the drivers to notify police right away. The officer's report then goes to SCDMV, which keeps the official copy. SCDMV describes that copy as more detailed than the paperwork drivers get at the scene, and you or a lawyer can order it.

Summerville Car Accident Attorneys

On a Friday afternoon on Old Trolley Road, a driver rear-ends you at a red light. Fault in that crash usually turns on following distance and on whether the other driver glanced at a phone. Section 56-5-1930 names no set following distance in feet or seconds. It asks whether the gap was reasonable and prudent for the speed, the traffic and the road.

A 2024 rewrite of Section 38-77-170 changed what can support a hit-and-run claim. Before that change, the statute accepted only physical contact or a witness who signed an affidavit. Now video showing that an unknown car caused the crash can support a claim on your own uninsured motorist coverage. In car and SUV collision claims, Frost Law Group can gather the fault evidence and look for every policy that might pay.

Commercial Truck Accident Lawyers in Summerville, South Carolina

SCDOT's 2024 estimate for I-26 from North Main Street to College Park Road was 89,700 vehicles a day. When one of those vehicles is a tractor-trailer or a box truck, a wreck can involve more records than a car crash. Federal rules let a carrier discard a driver's duty-status records, the logs of driving and on-duty hours, after six months. So a lawyer asks the company to keep them as early as possible.

Commercial vehicles appeared in 3,260 South Carolina collisions in 2024. Drivers from other states made up 42.7% of the commercial drivers in those wrecks. The truck's weight, cargo and route decide which rules apply. A for-hire interstate carrier hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 of public liability coverage.

That figure is a minimum, not a limit on what a claim can seek. In commercial truck wreck cases, Frost Law Group can look for every layer of coverage.

Motorcycle Accident Injury Lawyers

Officers counted 2,121 motorcycle collisions across South Carolina in 2024, and 132 motorcyclists died. When a motorcycle and another vehicle collided, officers named the other driver as a contributing party 56.4% of the time.

Say an SUV turns left across a rider's path on Central Avenue. Under Section 56-5-2320, the SUV driver must yield to any oncoming vehicle close enough to pose an immediate hazard. That duty covers an oncoming motorcycle just as it covers a car.

A rider also has a right to the full lane under Section 56-5-3640. Riders 21 and older face no helmet requirement under Section 56-5-3660. Frost Law Group represents riders and passengers in motorcycle crash claims across the Summerville area.

Ride Share Accident Attorneys

Uber and Lyft crashes follow their own insurance rules. South Carolina's Transportation Network Company Act sets coverage floors that change with the driver's status in the app. A driver's personal auto policy may exclude coverage while the app is on.

So the first question is what the app showed when the crash happened. Was the driver waiting for a request, heading to a pickup or carrying a rider? A screenshot of the trip screen, with the driver's name and the car's plate, helps tie the crash to the app's records.

Frost Law Group represents passengers, other drivers and pedestrians in rideshare collision claims. It also represents rideshare drivers when another motorist causes the crash.

Summerville Uber Accident Lawyers

Coverage on an Uber driver's car rises in steps, and Section 58-23-1630 sets the minimum for each one. While the driver waits for a request with the app on, liability coverage must reach $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident. Property damage coverage must reach $50,000.

Once the driver accepts a ride, the floor jumps to $1,000,000 for death, injury and property damage combined. That higher limit holds until the last rider steps out. It already applies on the drive to a pickup near the Nexton Parkway interchange. Passengers, Uber drivers and anyone else on the road can bring Uber crash claims to Frost Law Group.

Lyft Accident Injury Attorneys in Summerville, South Carolina

The same coverage steps apply to Lyft drivers, and two sources can show which step applied at the crash. After a crash, Section 58-23-1630 requires the driver, on request, to say whether the app was on or a ride was underway. The driver owes that answer to the people involved, the insurers and the investigating officers.

When insurers investigate which policy covers a crash, Section 58-23-1625 requires them and the company to cooperate in sharing information with the people directly involved. That information includes the driver's log-on and log-off times. Those times show when the app was on, but not whether the driver had accepted a ride.

Acceptance of the ride is what triggers the $1,000,000 floor. The driver's answer and the company's own records can show whether acceptance came before the crash. Frost Law Group can ask for those records early in Lyft crash claims.

A store does not automatically owe you for every spill on its floor. The South Carolina Supreme Court restated the test in Wintersteen v. Food Lion in 2001. An injured shopper must show the store put the hazard there. If not, the shopper must show the store knew about the hazard, or should have found it, and failed to fix it.

When a store should have found a hazard, lawyers say it had constructive notice. A store's own inspection logs can help prove it. Your reason for being there matters too, since an owner owes a customer more care than a social guest.

Tenants can also rely on Section 27-40-440, which requires landlords to keep common areas reasonably safe. Frost Law Group takes slip, trip and fall claims from stores, restaurants and apartment complexes around Summerville. The South Carolina Tort Claims Act covers a fall in a public park or a government building, and it sets different deadlines. For a park, the claim also needs proof that the agency actually knew about the defect and left it unrepaired for an unreasonable time.

South Carolina has no "one free bite" rule, so a dog does not need a history of biting before its owner can be liable. A dog's owner is liable under Section 47-3-110 when the dog bites or attacks, and so is anyone caring for it. The statute protects a person in a public place and a person legally on private land, including the owner's own yard.

The South Carolina Supreme Court says the statute imposes strict liability. That means a bite victim does not have to show the owner was careless or knew the dog was dangerous. The statute does not protect a trespasser, or someone who provoked or harassed the dog into attacking.

Frost Law Group represents adults and children in dog bite and dog attack claims. By the end of the next working day, a doctor who treats a bite must report it to the county health department. A claim can start with that report and the medical records.

Traffic crashes killed 1,040 people in South Carolina in 2024, including 37 in Dorchester County. When a careless or reckless driver causes a death, Section 15-51-10 gives the family a claim for its own losses. That claim exists only if the person who died would have had an injury claim of his or her own.

A personal representative brings the case. That is the executor or administrator the probate court appoints. Consider a head-on crash on Ashley River Road that kills a father of two. Section 15-51-20 puts his wife and children first in line to share any recovery.

A separate survival claim under Section 15-5-90 belongs to his estate. It covers his own losses before death, such as conscious pain and suffering. Frost Law Group represents surviving families in wrongful death claims after a fatal crash, including crashes involving a drunk driver. The personal representative generally has three years after the death to file the wrongful death suit.

Frost Law Group's office sits in Dorchester County, but the county's Court of Common Pleas does not meet in Summerville. Common Pleas hears civil cases at the circuit court level. It meets in St. George, the county seat, at 5200 East Jim Bilton Boulevard. In Summerville, the Troy Knight complex on Deming Way houses the Family Court, the Summerville Magistrate Court and the Central Bond Court.

In the Fact Book's road counts, Dorchester Road, which SCDOT numbers SC 642, led the county with 519 collisions in 2024. The Summerville Police Department sends drivers to CrashDocs for copies of its own crash reports. In town, HCA Healthcare Summerville Hospital on Midland Parkway runs a 24-hour emergency room, though it does not hold trauma center status. Tara and Jack represent people injured anywhere in Dorchester County, including Summerville, Knightsville, Ridgeville, Harleyville, Reevesville and St. George.

No South Carolina county recorded more serious injury collisions in 2024 than Charleston County, with 241. Those crashes left 291 people seriously hurt. The county also ranked second in the state for total collisions, with 15,802.

Officers recorded 1,805 of those collisions on US 17. They listed distraction 2,965 times on the county's crash reports, second only to failure to yield. One report can list several factors, so that figure counts listings, not crashes.

Charleston County has two trauma centers. MUSC in Charleston is the state's only Pediatric Level I trauma center, and it holds Adult Level I status too. North Charleston's Trident Medical Center adds an Adult Level II designation.

Frost Law Group handles Charleston County injury claims from North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and the Charleston County slice of Summerville. Suits there go to the courthouse at 100 Broad Street in the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Berkeley County had 229,861 residents at the 2020 Census and an estimated 274,666 in 2025, a gain of roughly 19%. Its crash reports point to speed. Officers listed driving too fast for conditions 1,561 times in 2024, the most of any factor. Failure to yield came second at 1,454, though it ranked first in Dorchester and Charleston counties.

Roper St. Francis Berkeley Hospital at 100 Callen Boulevard uses a Summerville mailing address, but it sits in Berkeley County. Its emergency department is open 24 hours, and it is not a trauma center.

For Berkeley County accident claims, Frost Law Group represents people from Goose Creek, Hanahan, Moncks Corner and the Berkeley County side of Summerville. The county's circuit court cases go to the Berkeley County Courthouse in Moncks Corner, the county seat since 1895.

Orangeburg County has 83,177 residents, yet it ranked 8th of 46 counties for fatal collisions in 2024. Its roads saw 38 fatal collisions that killed 48 people. Charleston County, with more than five times the population, had 57 fatal collisions. Like Dorchester County, Orangeburg carries both I-26 and I-95.

Dorchester and Orangeburg counties sit in the same First Judicial Circuit, along with Calhoun County. The Orangeburg County Courthouse at 1406 Amelia Street hears the county's circuit court cases. A seriously injured patient may first reach the county's own hospital, MUSC Health Orangeburg, on Saint Matthews Road. People in Orangeburg, Santee, Holly Hill, Branchville and Elloree can call Frost Law Group about Orangeburg County injury claims.

Beaufort County has no interstate. I-95 runs through neighboring Jasper and Hampton counties instead. The county's main routes include US 278, US 21, US 17 and SC 170. Named corridors such as Robert Smalls Parkway, Ribaut Road and William Hilton Parkway carry local traffic.

The county recorded 3,895 collisions in 2024, with 23 fatal crashes and 27 deaths. Three hospitals operate in the county, and none is a trauma center. Beaufort Memorial Hospital on Ribaut Road and Novant Health Hilton Head Medical Center both provide emergency care. Naval Hospital Beaufort does not take civilian crash patients.

The nearest South Carolina trauma center is MUSC in Charleston, so a seriously injured person may leave the county for care. Frost Law Group takes on Beaufort County injury cases from Beaufort, Port Royal, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island. A Beaufort County suit goes to the courthouse at 102 Ribaut Road, in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit. That circuit is the only one in South Carolina with five counties.

US 17 carried 629 of Georgetown County's 1,484 collisions in 2024, which is 42% of the total. The county has no interstate. Its worst intersection was US 17 at SC 707, with 48 collisions. Driving too fast for conditions led the county's contributing factors that year.

Georgetown County holds the only Level IV trauma center among the eight counties. Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital sits at 4070 Highway 17 South in Murrells Inlet, on the Georgetown County side of the Horry County line. The nearest Level I center lies north, at Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach.

Frost Law Group handles Georgetown County crash claims for people in Murrells Inlet, Pawleys Island, Georgetown and Andrews. The Georgetown County Courthouse at 401 Cleland Street hears circuit court cases in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which includes Horry County.

Williamsburg Regional Hospital closed in January 2023. The county's operating hospital, MUSC Health Black River Medical Center, sits in Cades rather than the county seat. It has a 16-bay emergency department open 24 hours for adults and children. The county has no trauma center, and the nearest Adult Level II center is McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence.

Williamsburg had the steepest population decline of the eight counties since 2020, about 4.4%. Its traffic death rate rose from 23.3 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 30.2 in 2024. Animal in the road ranked third among the county's 2024 contributing factors, with 124 listings.

In Kingstree, Hemingway, Lane, Greeleyville and the rural communities around them, Frost Law Group handles Williamsburg County accident claims. Circuit court suits from across Williamsburg go to the Kingstree courthouse at 125 West Main Street. Williamsburg shares the Third Judicial Circuit with Clarendon, Lee and Sumter counties.