Motorcycle accident victims often sustain exceptionally serious injuries, much more than other motorists. Motorcyclists are 26 times more likely to die than occupants of other motor vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Unfortunately, accidents often result in severe injuries, extensive medical care, and missed work. If you or a loved one suffered an injury in a motorcycle wreck, experienced attorneys from our motorcycle accident law firm could help. We might be able to help you obtain fair compensation for your physical, emotional, and financial losses.
Contact us today for a free consultation with a motorcycle accident lawyer in Hollywood, FL.
What Are My Options for Compensation After a Motorcycle Crash?
The first place auto accident victims turn to for financial compensation is their insurance company. However, this is not an option for Florida riders, where motorcycle owners do not have to purchase personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.
If you sustain catastrophic injuries in a motorcycle accident, you may be unable to recover medical expenses from your insurer, even if you have PIP coverage on your car.
You can take several courses of action to help you recover damages after a crash.
If you were at fault for the accident, you would need to rely on other resources for coverage, including your health insurance and disability coverage.
You have other options if another party caused or contributed to your accident. We can help you file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company if they have liability coverage, or we can file suit against the at-fault party.
Contact us before you try to file a claim on your own. We can help you explore your legal options to recover compensation for your damages.
Do I Have a Valid Motorcycle Accident Case?
To win damages from another party, we must show that they behaved carelessly and that their negligence caused the accident. Negligence can come in various forms, such as when:
- The driver failed to look before turning, was speeding, or otherwise broke the rules of the road.
- A pedestrian stepped into traffic in front of you where there was no crosswalk.
- A truck driver cut you off because he was texting while driving.
- Your bike had a defect that caused you to wreck.
- Your helmet or safety equipment failed to protect you adequately.
- The roadways were defective.
You may still qualify for compensation even if you were partly at fault. Florida’s pure comparative negligence rule provides that victims can still recover damages in a shared fault accident with the stipulation that the court will reduce their damage award based on their degree of fault.
For example, if you were 30% at fault for your accident, you could still collect 70% of your losses.
Contact our personal injury attorneys today if you were partially at fault for your accident. We can help you determine how much of the blame you shared, and we will work to recover maximum compensation for your claim.
What Steps Do I Take After a Motorcycle Accident?
To protect your best interests, you should do a couple of things following a motorcycle accident.
- Continue with your medical treatment. Stick to the doctor’s orders and follow through with all your care.
- Do not provide a statement to any insurer before speaking with one of our personal injury lawyers. Insurance companies can use anything you say against you to reduce your claim or avoid paying altogether.
- Take your bike to more than one auto body shop for accurate repair estimates.
- Begin gathering all your accident-related documents and evidence in a file folder to share with one of our lawyers. This will give us a starting point to build up your case.
What We Do After You Contact Our Team
After you contact us, we will begin working on your claim immediately. We will locate the evidence we need to support your right to compensation.
This proof can include:
- Medical records and prognoses: These documents prove what injuries you sustained and whether those injuries will improve over time. They also contain information about your past health history and medications.
- Photographs of your injuries: A photo of an injury is often enough to convince a judge that it occurred during the accident.
- Witness statements: Witnesses who saw the crash can testify about what happened and how it affected them.
- Vehicle inspection reports: If your vehicle has been damaged, this report will tell us the extent of the damage and whether it could have contributed to the accident.
- Crash reports: The police report tells us everything we need to know about the cause of the accident. It includes details like speed, weather conditions, and other factors that might have played a role in causing the collision.
- Insurance policies: Your insurance company will likely send us copies of your policy. We will review these documents to see which coverage applies to your claim. We will also consider your financial situation to ensure you can pay for the repairs after the accident.
- Injury-related bills and receipts: We will gather every bill related to your accident from doctors, hospitals, and other providers. We will then compare each item to the amount you paid for it to ensure you received full value for your money.
- Proof of loss of wages: If you lost income due to your accident, we would document this by collecting wage slips and tax returns.
- Police report: We will collect the police report if it was filed as part of your accident investigation.
- Documentation of the damage to your bike: We will take photos of your motorcycle and its parts so we can show them to the repair shops when they estimate their costs.
- Photos and video surveillance of accident scene: If there were witnesses or surveillance cameras at the scene, we might be able to obtain photos and videos taken by them.
What Is the Value of My Claim?
The value of your claim depends on several factors, including the extent of your injuries, whether you suffered visible scarring or amputation because of the crash, your pre-injury income, your age and expected work life, and your degree of fault.
We will work to win you compensation for damages, including:
- Medical bills from your hospital stay, surgeries, prosthetics, prescriptions, and physical therapy
- Loss of wages, reduced capacity to work, and loss of work perks
- Emotional trauma or pain and suffering
- Miscellaneous expenses, such as a wheelchair, lifts or ramps to accommodate a disability, specialized transportation costs, and in-home help
- The effect of your injuries on your relationships, career, and overall quality of life
- Punitive damages in cases where the other party willfully caused harm or acted in a particularly reckless way
Our firm can calculate the total value of your personal injury claim, including current and future damages. Having a professional evaluate your damages is particularly important when your injuries are substantial.
We can use testimony from medical and vocational experts to estimate the lifetime costs of your injury. You do not want to miss out on the funds that you deserve.
Call for a free consultation with a motorcycle accident lawyer in Hollywood.
At The Law Firm of Anidjar & Levine, our attorneys are passionate about helping motorcycle accident victims and their families during their most difficult times.
We can advise you of the best recovery options for your case, walk you through the claims process, and diligently work to secure the highest settlement or verdict possible.
Contact us today and request a free case analysis for your motorcycle accident claim.
We Can Help.
