Because motorcycles do not offer the protection of a vehicle, the person on the motorcycle is usually the most seriously injured in an accident involving a car or truck and a motorcycle. The injuries can be quite serious and the healing process extensive. In some cases, the injury results in a long-term or permanent disability.
After a motorcycle accident, you may feel lost and uncertain about your next steps. Repairing damaged motorcycles can be costly, and medical expenses can quickly accumulate. On top of that, suffering an injury and suddenly being unable to work can cause significant stress.
If another driver was responsible for your accident, you have a right to pursue financial compensation from them to make you whole for your losses. In Texas, this would ordinarily entail filing a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company, and perhaps later filing a lawsuit if litigation becomes necessary.
However, dealing with an insurance company alone, not to mention the possibility of a lawsuit and public court trial, is a daunting task. Motorcycle cases are typically harder to win than other types of auto accident cases, which makes them all the more difficult for injured victims to handle alone. This is when the assistance of a skilledCollege Station motorcycle accident lawyer becomes invaluable.
When you retain an attorney, they evaluate your case, calculate your damages, and take over all communications with the insurance company. They gather evidence, negotiate on your behalf, and fight hard to win you a full and fair settlement. Allow us to explore precisely how a motorcycle accident attorney in Bryan, TX can assist you in recovering after your accident.
One of the most stressful factors after a motorcycle crash is not fully understanding your rights. Consulting with a motorcycle accident attorney can quickly clear away this fog of uncertainty. Even during your initial free consultation and free case evaluation, an attorney can explain your legal rights, outline options, and suggest your best course of action.
Texas is an at-fault state, meaning the injured party can make a claim with the other driver’s insurance company to recover their damages. But insurers dislike losing money and often dispute the liability of their policyholders, negotiate hard to minimize the value of claims, and even encourage injured victims to make costly mistakes during the filing process.
For most injured motorcycle accident victims, it is inadvisable to take on the insurance provider without good legal representation. By informing you of your rights, your lawyer provides you with a firm legal footing from which to pursue the compensation you deserve.
Motorcycle accidents are far more dangerous than other kinds of vehicular accidents. Collisions involving motorcycles account for 14% of all road accident fatalities, even though only 3% of vehicles on the road are motorcycles.
Without the protection of a seat belt, metal frame, airbags, and other safety features you find in passenger vehicles, motorcycle riders are more likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries. And the more serious and long-lasting an injury, the higher the medical bills. This tends to put motorcycle crash victims under greater financial pressure than victims in other kinds of personal injury cases.
If you’re facing the looming threat of sky-high medical bills, you may be tempted to accept a quick settlement from the insurance company. But this is often a mistake. With patience and skillful negotiation, you’re likely to recover far more in the final settlement.
However, motorcycle accident claims can take months or even years to resolve, which means a long wait until your settlement arrives. Meanwhile, you need to find a way to pay your medical bills. A local College Station motorcycle accident lawyer may be able to help with that.
When you speak to an experienced attorney, you will often find that they’ve previously helped many clients in similar situations to yours. They’re therefore likely to know many specialist medical care providers in your vicinity.
Your attorney may even know local healthcare providers willing to provide medical care on a deferred payment arrangement. In these cases, the doctor might provide treatment in exchange for a lien on any damages recovered in your claim or lawsuit.
The lien is a right to a portion of your final settlement or court-awarded payout, once it arrives. In this way, the doctor enters into a contingency fee arrangement with you, much like the contingency basis of your motorcycle accident attorney’s legal fees.
Similarly, your own health insurance provider may also be encouraged to cover your medical bills under the conditions of a lien on your final settlement. Personal injury attorneys can sometimes negotiate either or both of these arrangements, taking the immediate financial strain of costly medical bills away from the injured victim’s shoulders.
A study by the Insurance Research Council found that accident victims that hire an attorney recover three and a half times more money on average than those who do not. One reason for this is that Bryan motorcycle accident lawyers can more accurately calculate your damages. Damages are the sums of money the at-fault party must pay to recompense you for your losses.
Without an attorney, you’re unlikely to know all the damages you have a right to pursue. For a full financial recovery, it is important not to exclude any damages from your claim; once you’ve accepted a settlement and signed a release form, you will never have another chance to claim more damages in the future for the same motorcycle accident.
There are three main types of damages: special, general, and punitive damages. Consider which of the following damages may apply to your case.
Most accident victims seek special damages, which cover losses that have a clear monetary value associated with them, such as medical bills and property damage. As previously mentioned, these types of damages can be especially high in motorcycle accident claims.
The most common special damage is medical expenses. You may pursue damages for all money spent on your medical treatment and recovery.
Motorcycle accident victims often suffer broken bones and road rash burns. Sometimes the injuries sustained are extremely severe such as traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and other life-threatening injuries.
When an injury is long-lasting or permanent, you may also seek damages for future medical expenses. With the assistance of medical professionals, your College Station motorcycle accident attorney can estimate the probable cost of all future medical treatment, even over an entire lifetime.
Your motorcycle may have been damaged or destroyed in an accident. You have a right to pursue compensation for any amount you’ve paid for repairs or in purchasing a replacement motorcycle. If you haven’t yet had your motorcycle repaired, you may be able to prove your property damage with an estimate from an approved mechanic.
In many motorcycle claims, the injured motorcyclist is kept away from work for a prolonged period of time while recovering. Any kind of income you’ve lost as a result of your injuries can be included in your special damages.
If you’ve suffered injuries severe enough to reduce your long-term capacity to work, you may also seek damages for future lost wages. This predicted figure will also be carefully estimated by your motorcycle accident lawyer in College Station, perhaps with the assistance of a vocational rehabilitation expert.
General damages are monies for losses that do not have a clear objective monetary value, such as physical pain or emotional suffering. Without the counsel of an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer in Bryan, TX, injured victims often fail to realize how much general damages they have a right to pursue. As a result, they leave money unclaimed.
Personal injury lawyers can make sure their clients avoid this mistake. They can determine all the general damages that should be included in the initial demand letter to the insurance company.
Severe injuries can cause a great deal of physical pain, sometimes lifelong pain. You should be compensated for any pain and suffering you’ve experienced. Pain and suffering damages sometimes refer to all physical, emotional, and psychological suffering.
The upset and stress caused by an injury can be hugely detrimental to the life of an injured motorcycle rider. In more severe cases, the victim may suffer from anxiety disorders, depression, panic attacks, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Any such emotional and mental anguish should be financially compensated for.
When an injury and its treatment leave a victim scarred or disfigured, it can negatively impact the individual’s self-image, confidence, relationships, and career. Motorcycle accidents sometimes result in facial injuries such as lacerations, breaks, and road rash burns.
Amputations, nerve damage, and severe bone fractures can all cause disfigurement. And reconstructive surgery often leaves disfiguring scars.
As a result of a serious injury, part of your body may become temporarily or permanently impaired. This means the body part has lost some degree of its prior movement or function.
If an impairment reduces your ability to enjoy a pastime or perform work-related activities as effectively as before, you have a disability. Both impairment and disability may be compensated for in your damages.
If your ability to enjoy any pleasurable pastime or activity has been reduced or lost because of your accident, it also counts as a loss for which you may seek compensation. People close to you may testify to how your enjoyment in life has been diminished.
Due to the relatively high fatality rate, cases involving motorcycle accidents are often wrongful death claims. The most important damage in a wrongful death claim is often loss of consortium damages.
Loss of consortium damages is pursued by the surviving loved ones of the deceased accident victim. These damages refer to all the benefits previously derived from having the deceased individual in their life.
Lost relational benefits may include comfort, affection, financial support, emotional support, parental guidance, and more lost benefits. Motorcycle accident lawyers often handle wrongful death cases where the motorcycle accident victim has perished.
While special and general damages are meant to compensate motorcycle accident victims for their losses, punitive damages are designed as an added punishment for the at-fault drivers. Motorcycle accident cases may include punitive damages when the at-fault driver was acting with reckless or willful negligence, such as drunk driving or driving well above the speed limit. When auto accidents are caused by reckless negligence, a jury trial will often be required to win punitive damages successfully.
As previously mentioned, hiring a personal injury lawyer has been found to increase the final money recovered by three and a half times, on average. This significant boost is mainly because negotiating effectively with insurance providers requires a skilled motorcycle accident lawyer with a solid understanding of local motorcycle laws.
An experienced lawyer has negotiated with insurance providers many times before. They know how to counter all the insurer’s strategies and build a rock-solid motorcycle accident case based on evidence and strong argumentation. It is typically very hard for injured motorcycle riders to negotiate alone with anywhere near the same level of skill.
If you’ve already been offered a settlement, before accepting, ensure that you at least arrange a consultation and free case evaluation with a reputed local motorcycle accident law firm or lawyer. You can ask them how much your personal injury claim is actually worth and how they’d negotiate to attain an optimal settlement.
Almost all personal injury cases need evidence to prove the liability of the at-fault driver, but motorcycle accidents often require even more robust and persuasive evidence than most. This is because of the unique challenges claimants often face in motorcycle accident claims. For example, even though the drivers of other vehicles are usually responsible for motorcycle accidents, jury members sometimes view motorcyclists as somewhat reckless in nature and therefore likely to have been at fault.
Furthermore, eyewitness evidence tends to be more unreliable in motorcycle accidents. The irregular way that motorcycles move combined with the sheer speed at which motorcycle accidents unfold often makes it difficult for eyewitnesses to understand clearly what happened or who caused the crash.
These challenges make it easier for the at-fault party or their insurance provider to accuse the injured motorcyclist of partial or complete responsibility for their own injuries. Overcoming these obstacles often takes an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer who can collect a mountain of evidence to prove the other driver’s liability.
You also need to prove the full value of your damages. Without evidence, motorcycle accident cases can sometimes devolve into a situation where it is the injured motorcyclist’s word against that of the other driver, which isn’t a strong position to be in.
As the individual accusing the other driver of negligence, the burden of proof is on you to back up your claim. This is why it is so important to think about evidence from the very first moment an accident occurs.
Evidence from the motorcycle accident scene often plays a pivotal role in proving the liability of the at-fault driver. So, immediately after a motorcycle accident, gather as much as you can.
Call the police, who will document significant factors in their report, sometimes including who they think caused the crash. Take pictures and videos of everything, including the position of any motor vehicles involved, damage to your motorcycle and the other vehicles, road conditions, weather conditions, and injuries suffered. Also, ask eyewitnesses for their contact details.
After suffering an accident and injury, you may not have the wherewithal to gather evidence at the accident scene, especially if you need to be rushed to the emergency room. If this is the case, ask a family member or friend to collect evidence for you. Alternatively, if contacted on the day of a motorcycle crash, most motorcycle crash attorneys will be able to have a special investigator rush to the accident scene.
Your motorcycle accident lawyer in Bryan, TX may be able to access additional evidence that would otherwise be difficult to obtain, such as surveillance camera footage. Motorcycle accident attorneys also have networks of local expert witnesses who may provide testimony to strengthen your claim. This may include accident reconstruction experts, highway safety experts, engineering experts, and more.
The value of your damages may also be disputed, especially if you’ve suffered severe motorcycle accident injuries requiring substantial damages. Successful negotiation with the insurer often comes down to the strength of the evidence supporting the damages.
Medical bills and lost wages may be simple enough to prove with hospital bills and pay stubs, but proving the estimated values of future medical expenses and future lost income can be harder. Your motorcycle accident lawyer can retain more expert witnesses, such as specialist medical experts and vocational rehabilitation experts, to provide testimony supporting the value of future damages.
General damages, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment in life, also need to be proven. Your College Station motorcycle accident lawyer or law firm might use doctors’ records, the reports of clinical psychologists, and even the testimony of friends and family members to support these more subjective damages.
The best motorcycle accident lawyer for your case will often be one with plenty of experience trying motorcycle accident cases in court. While most motorcycle accident claims are settled out of court, there is always a chance that you will need to proceed to litigation.
Your motorcycle accident lawyer should be ready and willing to file a lawsuit and argue your case before a judge and jury. If your claim is being disputed by the insurance provider, and you think you might end up in court, it is usually unwise to risk a jury trial without proper legal representation.
Because the majority of motorcycle accidents are resolved with a settlement, many motorcycle accident attorneys never try cases in court. This is something to ask prospective motorcycle accident lawyers about before you hire them.
Without jury trial experience, your motorcycle lawyer may be unwilling to push for the maximum compensation possible. The best motorcycle lawyer is one who will fight tooth and nail to recover every cent you deserve, even if it requires a grueling court case.
Interestingly enough, when you retain a motorcycle accident lawyer with a reputation for trying and winning motorcycle accident cases in court, the other party will understand that you’re willing to go all the way. This will often help you to reach a fair settlement long before it becomes necessary to enter the courtroom.
One of the greatest benefits a motorcycle crash lawyer can offer is letting you know that you’re not alone. Your motorcycle accident lawyer will listen to you sympathetically, clarify your legal rights, and explain the entire legal process clearly. They may also help you find the right medical care if you need it.
The immense stress and anxiety that can result from a motorcycle accident are alleviated when you have experienced medical and legal professionals by your side. And the earlier on in the claims process that you hire a personal injury law firm or lawyer, the sooner they can get started in building your case and helping you financially, physically, and emotionally return to life as it was before the accident.
If you’ve experienced a motorcycle accident in Texas, contact Brian C. Gutierrez today at 979-271-5338 for a free consultation. With over 15 years of trial law experience and more than 1,000 cases under his belt, Brian can fight hard to win you the full and fair compensation you deserve.
When motorcyclists and their passengers are injured in an accident, our Bryan, TX motorcycle accident lawyer fights to recover compensation for their injuries. Depending on the extent of your injuries, we may be able to recover compensation for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, loss of future income, disability, other costs associated with the accident, and pain and suffering.
There are many factors that are considered when preparing a case for a client injured in a motorcycle accident. Showing that the other driver was at fault is critical to a successful outcome. We can investigate your personal injury claim, look for evidence to support your claim, interview witnesses, and consult with experts, as needed, to prepare your case for settlement negotiations or trial in Bryan or College Station.
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