Motorcycle Accidents Law Firms

How to choose a motorcycle accident lawyer

Two things make this different from a car case, and neither is the vehicle. A rider walks into a room where a number of the people deciding the case already have a view about motorcycles, and the injuries are routinely larger than the insurance standing behind them. A firm that does this work talks about both without being asked.

The rider starts behind, and the firm has to know it

Adjusters and jurors arrive with a picture of who rides and how, and the defence builds on it: speed, lane position, the decision to be on a motorcycle at all. None of that is evidence, and all of it shapes the first offer. The counter is ordinary and specific, which is the licensing, the training course, the years riding, the gear that was worn and what the other driver actually did.

Ask how the firm handles that assumption, and whether it has picked a jury in a motorcycle case. A firm that has will describe the questions it asks in selection. A firm that has not will tell you the crash was not your fault, which everybody already agrees on.

The injury is usually bigger than the policy

A rider has no cage, no airbag and no crumple zone, so the same collision that dents a bumper produces an orthopaedic injury, a head injury or an amputation. State minimum liability coverage was not written with that in mind, and in a serious case the at-fault driver's policy is exhausted long before the medical bills are.

So the real work is finding the rest of the coverage: the rider's own underinsured motorist cover, an umbrella policy, a commercial policy if the driver was working, a dram shop claim, or a municipality where the road surface caused the crash. That search happens in the first weeks or it does not happen.

• How do you find coverage beyond the driver's liability policy?
• Have you tried a motorcycle case, and how did you handle jury selection?
• What do you do with my bike and my gear, and when can they be released?
• Who inspects the motorcycle, and at whose cost?
• If I was not wearing a helmet, what does that change in this state?

The bike and the gear are evidence before they are property

Damage patterns on the motorcycle, the scuffing on a helmet and the tear in a jacket establish speed, angle and impact in a way no witness can. All of it is commonly repaired, scrapped or quietly released by a tow yard while the claim is still being set up.

A firm doing this properly asks where the bike is on the first call, puts a hold on it, and arranges an inspection before anybody authorises repairs. Ask that question back, and notice whether the answer is specific.