If a Five Points wreck, or any other Wake County crash, goes to court, the civil case is filed at the Wake County Courthouse on Fayetteville Street Mall. It is not filed at the Justice Center on Salisbury Street. The two buildings sit close together downtown, and people mix them up. The official Judicial Branch pages split the work clearly. Civil matters, except marriages, are conducted in the courthouse. Criminal matters, and marriages, are conducted in the Justice Center.
The courthouse address is 316 Fayetteville St. Mall, Raleigh, NC 27601. The main telephone is (919) 792-4000. Weekday hours run from 8:30 in the morning until 5 in the evening, and the building is closed Saturday and Sunday. Mail for the courthouse goes to PO Box 351, Raleigh, NC 27602. Those details are on the official Wake County Courthouse page. The Justice Center is at 300 S. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC 27601, with the same main telephone and the same weekday hours. A civil crash complaint does not belong at that door.
Which division hears the case
G.S. 7A-243 decides the division by the amount in controversy. District Court is the proper division for a civil action in which that amount is twenty-five thousand dollars or less. Superior Court is the proper division when the amount exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars. Interest and costs are not counted in the figure. When a pleading asks for money, the amount prayed for is the amount in controversy unless the pleading itself shows, to a legal certainty, that the sum cannot be recovered under the measure of damages that applies.
A smaller property-damage dispute may also fit the small-claim path. Under G.S. 7A-210, a small-claim action is a civil action in which the amount in controversy does not exceed ten thousand dollars, the only principal relief sought is money, the recovery of specific personal property, summary ejectment, or a permitted combination, and the plaintiff has asked for assignment to a magistrate. Many injury files, especially those with medical bills and a disputed fault issue, will be above that path and will belong in District or Superior Court instead.
Ask the clerk which filing window and which form the division is using, and confirm the current filing cost on the Judicial Branch cost chart, or with the clerk at 316 Fayetteville St. Mall, because those amounts can change.
If the wreck was not in Wake County
A Durham wreck is a Durham County case. The official Durham County Courthouse is at 510 South Dillard St., Durham, NC 27701. The main telephone is (919) 808-3000. The clerk is in on weekdays from 8:30 in the morning until 5 in the evening. Entry is through the main entrance on South Dillard Street.
Chapel Hill and Hillsborough are not automatically Wake County filings. Hillsborough is in Orange County. Chapel Hill offices in this market sit in more than one county. Some are in Orange County, at least one street address is in Chatham County, and at least one is in Durham County. File in the county where the wreck occurred, and confirm the courthouse on the official North Carolina Judicial Branch county page. Do not assume every “Triangle” crash belongs on Fayetteville Street.
The same caution applies farther out. Smithfield, Clayton, and Benson are in Johnston County. Goldsboro is in Wayne County. Wilson is in Wilson County. Oxford and Creedmoor are in Granville County. Dunn is in Harnett County. Youngsville is in Franklin County. Rocky Mount offices in the cleaned data sit in Nash County, but the city of Rocky Mount also extends into Edgecombe County. A wreck there is filed in the county of the wreck. Use the Judicial Branch county page for the courthouse address when you do not already have it from an official county page.
What to bring, and what the building will not decide
A civil filing starts a lawsuit. It is not a crash-report request, and it is not an insurance claim. Bring a copy of the complaint, the filing fee the clerk quotes that day, and a photo identification. If you already have counsel, that office will usually handle the mechanics. If you do not, the clerk can tell you where to file and what the cost is, but the clerk cannot advise you on contributory negligence, coverage, or the value of the case.
North Carolina’s fault rule still applies once the case is underway. Contributory negligence can end a damages claim even after a timely filing in the right building. The three-year injury window and the two-year death window, described in the deadline guide on this site, are not extended by choosing the wrong door downtown. File in the courthouse that actually hears civil crash cases, inside the statutory window, and keep the Justice Center for the criminal or traffic matter if there is one.
Parking around both buildings is paid lot, paid street, or paid garage parking, as the official pages describe. Plan extra time for security. The courthouse lists wheelchair-accessible entrance, parking, and restrooms. If you need an interpreter, ask the court in advance rather than assuming one will be waiting at the counter.
If a state department or the Board of Transportation is the defendant, the first forum may be the North Carolina Industrial Commission under G.S. 143-291, not the Wake County Courthouse. That path is explained in the city-and-state claims guide. For an ordinary private-defendant crash from Five Points, Glenwood, or the beltline, start with 316 Fayetteville St. Mall and the official courthouse page linked above.