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Riding your motorcycle can be an exhilarating feeling with the wind and the freedom you feel. Unfortunately, it can all turn upside down in a flash because of a motorcycle accident. You can end up with a severe injury and mounting medical bills to deal with that could alter the course of your life either temporarily or permanently, depending on the circumstances.
Car drivers deal with accidents too, but the scale is often much different because of the protection being in a vehicle gives versus having your body exposed and being on the receiving end of a sudden impact.
You could end up dealing with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), road rash, or some other injury or condition that ends up costing you as much physically and emotionally as much as it does financially.
However, there's no reason you can't get fair compensation for your injuries caused by another negligent party. Experience motorcycle accident lawyers know how to handle insurance providers and their attempts to swindle you out of a proper settlement.
Leverage a solid attorney-client relationship to help you recover lost wages, medical bills, property damage costs, etc. following your motorcycle accident.
You need only reach out to Powell Law Firm at (314) 470-1374 to schedule a free consultation with a motorcycle accident lawyer. St. Charles sees more than its fair share of bikers being injured and those responsible must be held liable.
Typical Reasons for Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle accidents happen for a variety of reasons, most of which are highly preventable. This is why experienced St. Charles motorcycle accident lawyers are so aggressive in ensuring your settlement is fair. Why should you be made to suffer from motorcycle injuries because someone else caused a serious crash? Some of the most common causes of motorcycle accidents are:
Impaired driving - Sometimes, drivers lose control of their vehicles because they are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which is an offense by itself. Unfortunately, they sometimes cause motorcycle accidents, which result in broken bones, hip injuries, head injuries, etc.
Subpar parts - A vehicle is mechanical, meaning it consists of numerous parts that must be in working order. Whether manufacturers are to blame or poor maintenance, less than stellar parts are sometimes responsible for motorcycle accidents.
Distracted drivers - Sometimes drivers are simply not paying as much attention as they should to what they're doing as they use roadways, which can lead to a motorcycle accident.
Road hazards - Whether it's a barricade, a less than visible speedbump, ice-covered roads, etc., road hazards can also cause a motorcycle accident.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list. While these are common reasons for a motorcycle accident, there are others too.
Common Injuries Sustained in Motorcycle Accident Cases
As indicated before, motorcycle accident injuries are often quite severe because of the lack of protection offered when a rider is compared to a car driver, for example. The motorcyclist is more exposed meaning there is often a requirement for greater medical care.
Some of the most common injuries that arise out of motorcycle crashes include:
Head injuries
Brain injuries
Leg injuries
Broken bones
Road rash
Accident victims need medical treatment as quickly as possible and in the case of motorcyclists, they often don't make a full recovery. As a rider, you can prevent serious injuries from being as bad as they could be by ensuring you outfit yourself in the necessary protective gear.
Your helmet and padding come to mind here. Remember that helmet laws are a factor in a personal injury insurance settlement. You don't want to deal with expensive medical treatment and be unable to recover maximum compensation because you were also at fault.
Wearing helmets is as much for your safety as it is ensuring your financial compensation is adequate if you should ever be involved in a motorcycle accident.
Areas of Compensation for Your Injuries After a Motorcycle Crash
The idea of your retaining the services of a motorcycle accident attorney is to ensure that the insurance company of the negligent party pays you what is owed in the form of a settlement.
Your lawyer achieves this by collecting the necessary information via investigation and building motorcycle claims. The investigation also helps with negotiations with injury adjusters.
Some of the damages that personal injury attorneys help their clients to claim include:
Medical expenses - Medical treatment is often needed for each minor or serious injury sustained during motorcycle accidents. These are unexpected bills that eat at and may even exceed your financial resources. Recovering compensation involves claiming for past, present, and future medical costs associated with the motorcycle accident.
Lost wages - An injured person often cannot work temporarily or permanently. An experienced attorney knows how to ensure that the loss of pay from these potentially permanent disabilities is properly compensated.
Loss of consortium - Spouses must provide affection to each other. Whether because of nerve damage, paralysis, or some other phenomenon that means reduced use of body parts, this duty made no longer be fulfillable. Spouses tend to file an insurance claim for loss of consortium.
Wrongful death - If a rider dies in a motorcycle accident, a loved one can file a wrongful death claim.
Pain and suffering - An experienced attorney can quantify and seek a satisfactory settlement for the physical pain and mental anguish caused by the accident.
The Best Way for Motorcycle Riders to Handle a Crash
Motorcycle accidents are incredibly scary to deal with and the last thing potentially responsible parties want to see is an insurance claim reflecting a massive payout requirement. An insurance company wants to see this even less, so if a victim slips up, the firm may attempt to circumvent having to pay what is owed. If you want to avoid falling into that trap, take the following steps.
Seek Medical Attention
Medical treatment is arguably the most important factor after a motorcycle crash. The motorcyclist and other drivers that may be involved need to be evaluated for potentially serious injuries and treated accordingly. Of course, checking on all parties is impractical in a hit-and-run accident or where you are too incapacitated to move.
When possible, however, it's a good idea to check on all involved and contact emergency services so those who are injured can be taken care of.
Apart from the health concerns, medical bills serve clients as evidence in injury cases. Other treatment documentation also helps, especially if your initial consultation leads to the discovery that ongoing treatment is going to be required following your motorcycle accident.
Be as descriptive as possible to the doctor to ensure that nothing is missed and that the documentation is accurate. Motorcycle accident lawyers depend on this kind of information to ensure your case is as strong as possible.
Gather Evidence
While doing this is useful in ensuring you can maximize your legal options, you may not necessarily always be able to collect information at the site of your motorcycle accident, If you can, however, it would be useful in assisting your motorcycle accident attorney to build your case.
Getting the contact information of the other drivers and parties involved is a good place to start. Law firms tend to do a thorough investigation anyways, but this provides a good starting point in proving how you were injured.
Take pictures and record anything that may be relevant. Skid marks, loose gravel, the state of other vehicles, a visual of injuries you can see, etc., all make great pictures to provide some context on your injury following the accident.
If there were witnesses to the accident, they may be useful in testifying later on. Therefore, you may also want to collect their contact information provided they are willing to help you take legal action.
File a Police Report
Many motorists downplay the importance of filing a police report whenever an accident occurs. Remember that getting the maximum compensation is based solely on the ability to prove not only that the motorcycle accident occurred, but also that negligence on the other side was the cause, and that you are dealing with injuries as a result.
Reporting the matter to an officer is an excellent way to start as there is a record of the motorcycle accident. Additionally, the police are likely going to investigate the matter to collect more insights that motorcycle accident lawyers can use to help build your case effectively.
Typically, motorcycle accidents necessitate an officer being on the scene, which allows you to give your statement on the spot. However, this is sometimes not the case, which means you need to head to the nearest police station to report what took place. After filing a police report, a St Louis MO motorcycle accident lawyer can assist further.
Seek the Counsel of a St. Charles Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
After having been injured in a motorcycle accident you never know the full extent of what your body may be going through internally. Motorcycles are intended for convenient movement and not sudden impact. The extent of your injuries and other factors come together to determine what your insurance settlement should look like.
Without the level of experience that a motorcycle accident lawyer has in this and other practice areas, it's going to be incredibly difficult to recover compensation in the amount that you deserve. The opposing insurance company, knowing this, is likely going to reach out to you as soon as possible.
The aim is to get you to either accept an unfair settlement or indicate that you aren't feeling too badly. Either action has led to motorcycle riders not getting fair settlements after having been injured.
St. Charles motorcycle accident lawyers know how to handle these insurance firms. Decline to speak to anyone but your medical professional and the police before getting your injury attorney involved.
How to Select a Proper Motorcycle Accident Attorney
There are numerous options for you if you need a motorcycle accident lawyer. St. Charles has various firms that are looking to represent clients who may be suffering from injuries after motorcycle accidents.
However, you cannot choose anyone to assist with your personal injury lawsuit. Your decision needs to be based solely on competence, which is a combination of relevant experience, qualifications, rapport, and a demonstrated track record.
Injury cases are anything but straightforward, even when it seems obvious that car drivers should be held liable for the injuries caused by a motorcycle crash.
During your initial free consultation, try to get a feel for your comfort level with the attorney. Ask questions about the strength of your case, what the action plan would look like, how often communication is expected, etc.
Ensure that you're selecting a law firm with decades of combined experience as it means you get to leverage personnel resources beyond your lawyer.
What Your Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Does for You
Your motorcycle crash attorney serves several legal functions that all come together to help you access financial compensation via the honoring of a claim. Some of these functions include:
Submission of the insurance claim that outlines the extent of your injuries and the compensation amount be sought
Investigating the scene of motorcycle crashes, even looping in accident reconstruction experts where necessary.
Legal representation in court if necessary
Explaining your legal options to you effectively
Negotiating with the opposing party to seek the best possible settlement
Informing you about the state of your claim and any offers that may have been presented
Working out lifetime medical requirements and costs with experts to ascertain the true cost of your motorcycle accident injuries.
Note that this list, while comprehensive, is not representative of the full list of duties that your attorney may assume to lead you to a favorable outcome. It's the ability to take this on successfully that makes your choice of attorney such an important decision.
Conclusion
Motorcycles can be a lot of fun, but they offer much less protection than other vehicles do. This means a motorcycle accident is often a lot scarier for riders since they are exposed and injuries can be so much more severe after a collision.
If you've been injured in a motorcycle accident, there's no reason you need to be the burden of attempting to seek a compensation claim on your own. Motorcyclists need to be protected after having had their motorcycles destroyed and getting injured too.
Whether it's from one of the common causes of motorcycle accidents highlighted above or something else, don't let a negligent driver get away with throwing the course of your life off.
Contact Powell Law Firm today at (314) 470-1374 for a free consultation. You're getting decades of combined expertise from a firm that has demonstrated its ability to serve clients in St. Charles effectively.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Motorcycles crash all the time and riders often have questions before they're comfortable retaining the services of an accident lawyer. Below is a collection of some of the most common such questions along with their associated answers to help you with your own decision.
What if the Insurance Company Covering the Negligent Party Presents Attractive Settlement Offers?
Since motorcyclists are so mentally frazzled after a crash, insurance companies often see the perfect opportunity to pretend to protect the interests of riders, while the real aim is to swindle them out of the compensation they deserve.
Think about this. If the insurance company really cared about you, why would it be so hasty to get you to agree to a settlement before your injuries have even been properly evaluated? Additionally, why would there be such a push to get you to indicate that you're not too badly injured?
Wouldn't it make more sense to push you to get medical treatment to see what the situation is depending on how badly you're hurt?
All the company wants to do is reduce how much it must pay you. That's why these early settlements often have clauses that prevent you from getting further compensation if needed in the future.
What if I'm Partially at Fault for the Way the Accident Occurred?
Missouri happens to be a pure comparative fault state. In other words, you're only entitled to redress up to the point where you are the victim. Even after a devastating accident, if you were partially at fault, you only get a percentage of the maximum compensatory amount.
This percentage aligns with the proportion of fault that is due to negligence on the other side. Helmets are mandatory, which is often ignored. Riders who end up in accidents and were not wearing helmets minimize the amount they could be awarded.
Even if you find yourself in this situation, you should still schedule a free consultation with an attorney. Remember experienced lawyers have dealt with motorcyclists who have had accidents under these circumstances before.
Do I Still Have a Personal Injury Lawsuit if I Sustained No Injuries?
Injuries are not the only reasons that accidents may be followed by claims. Additionally, you cannot always immediately tell what internal effects the crash may have had. You may have escaped nerve damage or paralysis, for example, but for all you know, you could be suffering from internal bleeding.
Get the professional opinion of a medical professional first.