If a distracted driver injures you while you’re motorcycling, schedule a consultation immediately to discuss your rights and options with a Philadelphia motorcycle accident attorney.
Under the law in every state, when negligent drivers injure motorcyclists and their passengers, the injured parties may recover compensation for their accident-related medical expenses, lost income, personal pain, suffering, and other damages.
What Injuries Are Common in Motorcycle Collisions?
A forceful or violent impact or blow to the head may bring about a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that requires a lifetime of treatment and therapy. A helmet is no guarantee against a TBI, but those who wear helmets suffer far fewer TBIs in motorcycle accidents than those who don’t.
Spinal cord injuries, road rash, burn injuries, bone fractures, and paralysis are just several of the other injuries motorcyclists may sustain when a negligent motorist crashes a car, truck, or bus into a motorcycle.
Take These Steps After a Motorcycle Crash
If you are able and are not incapacitated, take these steps after a motorcycle collision, or ask someone to take these steps for you:
- Call for medical and police assistance. That’s the paramount priority.
- Exchange personal and insurance contact details with the other driver or drivers.
- Take photographs of the accident location, damage to vehicles, and your own injuries.
- Ask any eyewitnesses for their names and a way to reach them.
- Be sure to get the other driver’s vehicle description and license plate number.
Ask the police officers how and when you may obtain a copy of the written accident report. If you pursue compensation, that report will be key evidence. Photos and eyewitness statements may also be persuasive evidence that can lead to a swift settlement of your injury claim.
Why is Wearing a Helmet So Imperative?
In Pennsylvania, you are exempt from the requirement to wear a motorcycle helmet only if you are over age 21 and you’ve held a motorcycle license for at least two years or completed a state-approved motorcycling safety course.
Unlike Pennsylvania, New Jersey requires all motorcycle operators and passengers to wear approved helmets at all times, regardless of age or riding experience. Not wearing a helmet in New Jersey may also affect how insurance companies and juries evaluate an injury claim.
But old prejudices persist. At a personal injury trial, you may be portrayed by the at-fault driver’s lawyer as “reckless” merely because you did not wear a helmet. Wearing a helmet while motorcycling is not only the best way to protect yourself; it also demonstrates to judges, jurors, and insurance companies that you are not irresponsible.
Even if a motorcycle accident is indisputably the car, bus, or truck driver’s fault, if your failure to wear a helmet exacerbated the severity of your injuries, the compensation amount you are seeking may be reduced.
There is nothing to stop a juror in a personal injury trial from believing that helmet-free riding constitutes negligence. Wearing a helmet puts you in the best position to prevail with a personal injury claim if a negligent driver injures you.
How Do Accident Lawyers Help Injured Motorcyclists?
A good lawyer will shift your motorcycle accident claim away from any prejudices and focus on the facts. Your lawyer will fight for your compensation and insist on holding the driver who caused your personal injury or injuries accountable.
If a distracted driver injures you, your Philadelphia motorcycle accident lawyer will:
- investigate exactly how the accident happened and how you were injured
- review the evidence, examine the medical and police reports, and speak to the witnesses
- prepare the necessary legal paperwork on your behalf
- negotiate with the negligent driver’s car insurance company for your compensation
How Are Negligence Victims Compensated in Pennsylvania?
Personal injury law in Pennsylvania operates on the “modified comparative negligence” principle. Injured victims of negligence in traffic accidents may recover compensation, but their damages are reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to them for the accident.
If an injured person’s share of fault for an accident is 51 percent or more, that person cannot recover compensation in Pennsylvania.
How Will Your Attorney Proceed?
Your Philadelphia motorcycle accident lawyer will consult your healthcare providers to ascertain the extent of your injuries. Do not speak to the other driver’s insurance company, make a statement, or accept a first settlement offer.
Let your attorney handle the negotiations and communication. Your attorney will negotiate with the at-fault driver’s insurance company for an acceptable settlement. Most accident claims are resolved through private negotiations, so an injury victim may not even have to appear in court.
But if liability for the accident is in dispute or no acceptable settlement is forthcoming, your case will go to trial. At trial, your lawyer will tell jurors how you were injured, to what extent, and why the jurors should order the at-fault driver’s car insurance company to compensate you.
Is There a Deadline for Taking Legal Action?
If a negligent motorist injures you while you’re motorcycling in Pennsylvania, your deadline for taking legal action, with only narrow exceptions, is two years from the injury date. Don’t wait two years to call an attorney; do it immediately after you’ve received treatment for your injury.
Your attorney needs to review the evidence in your case and speak with the witnesses promptly. Evidence may become contaminated or disappear over time, and the memories of witnesses may fade. Begin the legal process as soon as you can.
If an on-duty state or local government employee injures you, you have six months to provide written notice to the governmental agency you’re naming as a defendant in your personal injury lawsuit. Your lawyer will help you identify the agency and prepare the written notification.
Bring Your Motorcycle Accident Case to Messa Law
The attorneys at Messa Law have secured substantial recoveries, including multi-million-dollar recoveries, for hundreds of clients. A Philadelphia motorcycle accident attorney at Messa Law doesn’t prepare cases to settle them; we prepare cases to win trials.
We will make your case a priority if another person’s negligence injures you in a motorcycle accident or any other accident scenario. You’ll pay Messa Law no lawyer’s fee upfront and nothing until and unless we recover compensation on your behalf.
Messa Law is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Delaware, Georgia, and Florida. If another party’s negligence injures you, schedule a free confidential consultation by calling Messa Law at Call Now. Hablamos Español.
