About James

Learn James’s areas of practice.

Practice areas

Personal injury

50%

In order to have a valid personal injury claim, you must first have suffered an injury to your body. Second, your injury must be the result of someone else’s fault. It is not always necessary, however, to have a physical injury to bring a personal injury lawsuit. Suits may be based on a variety of non-physical losses and harms. There are a variety of typical personal injury claims such as car, truck, motorcycle accidents; slip/trip and fall accidents.
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42 years
Car accident

20%

If you have been injured in an auto accident which was not your fault, or if you were a passenger in a vehicle and suffered injuries as result of the negligence of another driver, you may have a claim against that driver’s automobile insurance company for compensation for any losses you sustained. These losses include medical expenses, emotional and physical pain and suffering, any lost wages you incur due to the accident, and any permanent injuries you sustain.
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42 years
Slip and fall accident

20%

An extremely common kind of accident is slipping on wet or otherwise slippery floor, stair, or ground, or tripping over something on the floor or the ground. In some cases, the owner was negligent, causing your accident. We can help.
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Animal and dog bites

10%

Animal bites are scary. While some animals are our friends, there is a growing problem of animal inflicted injury as larger and aggressively trained dogs come into contact with people.

PERSONAL INJURY PROFESSIONAL FOR OVER 30 YEARS!

Thomas West is proud to have been practicing law for more than 30 years with his law partner, Reggie Kelly and with his daughter, Elizabeth Murphy. Thomas’s passion and life’s work has been to have a law practice that he is proud of.

“For 30-plus years, I have strived to not just be a lawyer but to be an honest lawyer people can depend on. I work every day to make sure that my clients get the same representation that I would want if I had someone else representing me. Here at Kelly & West, it has always been our motto that we will try our best to help you. But, if we cannot help you, will try to find someone who can, and I firmly believe that we have succeeded through the years in doing just that. That’s why so many people come back to see us over and over again.”

Thomas was a 2016 recipient of the Martindale-Hubbell client distinction award. He believes that he is different from other lawyers because this has been his life passion.

“It’s not just a job, it’s about faith – faith that God will give you the ability to help, faith that God will provide you with the patience and wisdom needed, faith that God will send the next client to see you. Yes, I work hard and that’s important but working knowing my work is divinely inspired, that’s what keeps me going day in and day out.”

Also, Thomas says that one thing he is proud of is the technology the firm uses. Kelly & West proudly offers their clients the latest technology that helps manage cases and keeps each case progressing forward as quickly as possible and Thomas is the one behind it all.

“I love the fact that we have software that allows us not to miss opportunities to help each client the best we can. Over the years, I have handled thousands of cases and now with technology, I can put my experience to work for each client so that we don’t miss any coverages or additional insurance policies that may be out there. Plus, technology gives us the ability to track when we receive documents and phone calls on each case, to make sure that we are aware of everything that’s going on with a particular client at all times.”

Thomas is proud that he and his loving wife, Betsy Coats West of Dunn, have been married for over 40 years. They attend Divine Street United Methodist Church in Dunn. They have two children, Elizabeth Murphy, and James West, who practices law in Los Angeles, California. He hopes to continue to serve those throughout North Carolina and especially in his local community for many years to come.