Frequently Asked Questions

Experts Answer Your Motorcycle Law Questions

The Most Commonly Asked Motorcycle Law Questions from Riders Like You.

Proving that a manufacturer or repair business is responsible for an accident is very difficult.

The repair business or manufacturer will be attempting to prove that you were responsible for the accident through negligent driving, or that you had not properly maintained your motorcycle since its last time being repaired.

Following the accident, if you are capable of doing so, you will want to take several photographs as evidence, including:

  • The vehicles involved. This could be just your motorcycle or another vehicle if a collision was caused by mechanical failure.
  • The specific parts you believe to be responsible for the accident.
  • The surrounding road conditions.
  • Your injuries from the accident.

You should also call the police as soon as possible after an accident as well as seek out any witnesses to the event, making sure to get their names and contact information.’

- Top Chicago Motorcycle Accident Attorney.

The calculations to determine damages, and by extension, compensation after an accident is an extremely complex process that often requires professional assistance to navigate.

It is important to document any of your expenses throughout this process. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Your immediate cost of medical care,
  • Long-term treatment or therapy,
  • Any expenses that you may have to pay out of pocket as a result of your injuries.
  • Any loss of income from being unable to return to work.

Though your damages can include obvious factors such as your medical expenses, lost wages, and damage to your motorcycle or other property, calculating the overall impact an accident can have on your daily life is overly complicated. For example, one’s pain and suffering and how it impacts them through various factors, including:

  • Their ability to continue their previous everyday activities
  • Interruption or damage to their job or career
  • Disfiguration and any loss of mobility that may accompany it
  • The permanency of any of their injuries
  • Whether any injuries will require future medical care or treatment

As well as how badly your injuries or other damages impact your life. It can be exceedingly difficult for anyone without legal expertise to calculate and justify these factors should your insurer dispute your claim.

- Top Illinois Motorcycle Accident Attorney

According to reports from the Insurance Information Institute, there are well over a million collisions between vehicles and deer every year. Deer are very jumpy animals and may react unpredictably to unexpected events. To ensure your safety when riding in wilderness areas, you will want to take some basic precautions.

  • Be especially careful around dawn or dusk, when deer are most likely to be around.
  • The period between October and January is mating season, and deer are more likely to be active.
  • If you see a deer, there are more likely to be others nearby. Deer live and travel in groups
  • Do not swerve when trying to avoid a deer. This is likely to cause you to lose control of your motorcycle, leading to a potential injury or crash - possibly with something more dangerous than a deer.
  • When possible, drive in the center lane. This will give you more time to react if a deer should dart into the road.
  • Honking your horn can alert deer to your presence. However, be careful in case they are startled into running into your path.

As long as you stay calm and are alert to the potential risks that wildlife along the road can bring, you can significantly decrease your risk of a collision with a deer or other animal.

- Top Idaho Motorcycle Accident Attorney

You can assess Motorcycle Accident Damages by asking questions like these listed below:

  • How severe were the injuries you sustained?
  • Did you miss time from work and if you did, how much time did you miss?
  • What have been the costs incurred for your medical expenses to date?
  • Have you reached the maximum level of medical improvement that you will be able to reach, or are you still undergoing treatment, are you able to determine with experts when or if that treatment will complete?
  • Will you be able to return to your previous job, or will you have to retrain for different opportunities?
  • Have you endured notable or significant mental or physical suffering, or has your family?
  • What is the extent of the damage that was done to your personal property, Are there future considerations in answering this question?

Once these questions can be fully answered, your attorney will be able to start to assign a potential value to the case. Your attorney will also be able to help you foresee any considerations that you might not have, which would impact your future well-being.

- Top Idaho Motorcycle Accident Attorney

After an accident, insurance providers will usually attempt to contact you for a recorded statement, often even when you are still in the hospital. You are under no obligation to answer their questions, and it is inadvisable to do so without representation.

While your insurer may seem like they are interested in your well-being, their questions are often intended to get you to say something that will help them to reduce your compensation or get you to drop your claim.

This is why it is important to contact a professional motorcycle accident attorney as soon as possible after your accident. Rather than answering your insurance provider’s questions while in a vulnerable position, it is best to refer them to your attorney, who will be better able to protect you during these situations.

- Top Florida Motorcycle Accident Attorney

If you have to deal with an Insurance company after a motorcycle accident, you are going to want to make sure you have a knowledgeable and experienced advocate at your side! For you, this, not a daily conversation, and you are not overcoming bias’s built by years of facing this situation, so don’t be naive or trusting when our well being and fair compensation to cover your needs are on the table.

There are different methods of determining how long an injury will impact your life and your livelihood. Insurance companies don’t take that into account. An insurance company will typically multiply the cost of medical bills you have receipts for, by something between one and five - like a sliding scale based on how permanent they deem your injury to be and how much of it was caused by your accident. This is how they calculate “pain and suffering.”

The more severe and permanent your injury is, the higher the number they will use as a  multiplier. You, or your advocate, will need to use your best judgment in estimating your pain and suffering, so we highly recommend you choose a seasoned accident lawyer for your advocate! We will make sure your rights and your needs are address to the maximum benefit available for you and your family.

You Matter: Pre-existing conditions do not pre-empt compensation requirements, nor do they dictate that you deserve less than a fair and reasonable settlement that empowers you to regain your productive life!

While in some cases after an accident the other party or your insurance company refuses to take responsibility or negotiates in bad faith and you will have to file litigation, many motorcycle accident claims are settled out of court. The process of negotiating a claim is a back, and forth that can be broken down into three primary steps.

  • After an investigation of the accident, your attorney helps you to file a claim with the other party’s insurance, laying out the details of the accident, the other party’s fault, and the damages you’ve suffered - including but not entirely limited to your injuries and lost income.
  • The insurance company reviews your claim and either makes an offer or refuses to pay.
  • Your Attorney either negotiates with the insurance company to ensure that you receive a proper offer of compensation if their original offer is too low.

It is usually only when the other party refuses to negotiate in good faith or attempts to delay invalidating your claim that your case will go to court. In those cases, an experienced Motorcycle Accident Attorney is essential to fight to ensure that the court is convinced to give you the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

- Top Georgia Motorcycle Accident Attorney

There are both legal and medical reasons why seeing a doctor as soon as possible after being involved in a motorcycle accident is important.

From a medical standpoint, many injuries - including internal injuries and trauma to the head - are not immediately apparent when you first get them. They can take hours or even days to show external signs, and you may find yourself in a much worse situation if you had been examined shortly after your accident. Your injuries could get worse, or you might even die if they’re severe enough.

Legally, having an examination and medical record immediately after the accident allows you to prove that your injuries stem from the accident and not some other cause that may have happened between your accident and the time of your claim. Your insurance, or the other party, may claim that your injury is from another event, or that it was not as bad as it is before some external activity made it worse, potentially resulting in reducing or dismissing your claim. Having this record, and getting regular treatment documenting your recovery, is an important part of proving that this is not the case and that the other driver is responsible for your injuries.

- Top Georgia Motorcycle Accident Attorney

Probably the most notable, and obvious, difference is that a motorcycle doesn’t offer the same protection that other vehicles might. A fender bender can lead to an outright crash that cripples a motorcyclist, where it might just leave a dent in a car. Road hazards are also more dangerous for motorcyclists. A pothole or unexpectedly bumpy stretch of road can cause a motorcycle wipeout where more sizable vehicles

- Top Alabama Motorcycle Attorney

Motorcycle accident cases are often very complex, and there can sometimes be attempts to utilize some of the bad stereotypes around bikers against you in order to discredit your claim. They might claim that as a motorcyclist, you must have been reckless, or that you ‘assumed the risk’ by deciding to ride your motorcycle and are responsible for your injuries simply by choosing to ride.

That is clearly false, and any experienced Motorcycle Accident Attorney knows it. Without the knowledge and experience that a Motorcycle Accident Attorney brings, it can be very difficult to fight against this and ensure that you get the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

A Motorcycle Accident Attorney will also be able to conduct an investigation into the accident to find evidence of the fault of the other party, help you to organize the details of your claim, and negotiate with insurance companies to make sure that you get fair compensation and aren’t pressured into taking a lowball offer that won’t cover your expenses from the accident. Most Accident Attorneys will not receive payment unless they win, so if a Motorcycle Accident Attorney agrees to help with your case, you can rely on them to be confident that they will be able to help you get the full compensation you deserve.

-  Top Texas Motorcycle Accident Attorney

Usually, the at-fault insurance company of the opposing driver does not want to pay anything in terms of bodily injury until the case settles. However, if there is an obvious liability, they’re willing to pay for property damage. That means either the repair or the replacement cost of the motorcycle. Be very cautious about where you bring their motorcycle for repairs. Why? Because, unfortunately, a lot of insurance companies have cozy deals with two or three shops.

And they'll take a vehicle that should be considered totaled out, and they'll say, "No, it can be fixed".  Then they'll address cosmetic damage but will NOT do adequate testing to see whether the frame has been bent. And if you drive a cycle with a bent frame, you're going to have a lot of problems down the road. Always get a second opinion.

As far as medical bills are concerned, first ask, "Do you have PIP, which is personal injury protection?" When you buy auto insurance, you can buy insurance that pays no-fault up to a certain amount. So, whether it's $5,000, $10,000, or even up to $30,000, it’s dedicated money for your own medical care or the medical care of your passenger.

And the great thing about it is, unlike health insurance, there's no co-pay, there's no deductible. If they don't have PIP, ask them just to check their health insurance at your employment or someplace else.

If not, then talk about looking for doctors who might work on a lien. The attorney can write a letter to the doctor and say, "I've got a good case. Could you treat this client as a patient? And you'll get paid when the case is settled." Because medically, that's the most important thing. Getting the person healthy is more important than getting the money. Both are important, but health comes first.

People who have been injured are worrying about medical bills. They're paying their rent, their mortgage and so forth. The last thing they need to be doing is paying an attorney by the hour.

Normally, attorneys when they do wills or divorces, they bill by the hour and send you a bill each month. Well, injured folks are not in a position to do that. I suppose there are some injured millionaires, but I haven't seen too many. So that's why we do a contingent fee. So, either we win you a jury verdict or a settlement and that’s the only way they pay me the fees.

Yes. Washington State is one of the states where helmets are required in order to ride your motorcycle legally.

According to the RCW 46.37.530, the following requirements must be met for your helmet to be considered a proper motorcycle helmet in the State of Washington.

  • Neck or chin strap
  • Hard outer shell
  • Padding adjacent to or inside of the outer shell
  • Must meet standards set by the Department of Transportation

Even in states where it is not legally required to ride, it is generally a good practice to wear them anyway. Studies suggest that wearing a helmet significantly reduces the risk of serious and fatal head injuries, reducing the risk of death by as much as 42 percent. Riders without helmets are also three times as likely to suffer from traumatic brain injuries in the case of an accident.

- Washington State Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

In order to ride in Washington, a motorcycle license endorsement is required for riders of all ages. In order to receive your motorcycle endorsement, you will need:

  • A valid Washington State driver’s license
  • To take the motorcycle safety course
  • To pass the motorcycle knowledge test
  • To pass the motorcycle riding skills test
  • To be at least 16 years of age
  • Your parent or guardian’s signature of consent, under the age of 18

There is a separate endorsement for three-wheeled motorcycles or motorcycles with a sidecar.

The individual costs of the motorcycle safety course are dependent on the individual school, so it’s a good idea to look into a few to find the one that best suits your needs.

- Washington State Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Do I really need a lawyer? That is the number one question asked, and the answer is, yes, and find a lawyer that is a good fit for you personally. Hire someone that specializes and will focus on you and your specific type of case. Somebody that solely does injury work, is dedicated and is a boutique type of atmosphere so you know you will get the amount of attention you need and deserve.

The second question is more of a statement, do they need to go to a doctor if they think they are fine? Again, the answer is yes, they must go to the doctor right away.

And because the biggest thing that insurance companies look for is,” Did you go to the doctor right away”. They are fine. And then, somebody is calling three months after a wreck and saying, well, my ribs really hurt, you know, this kind of thing and this hurts and that hurts. The first question asked them is have you gone to the doctor yet. Sometimes people say no, there are ways that can work, but it definitely is a red flag that the insurance companies look for.