Motorcycles are a great way to enjoy California’s open roads, but motorcycle rides tend to be at greater risk of serious injuries when involved in a traffic accident. A smaller size means they’re harder to see, and full exposure to the elements means little-to-no physical protection if there’s a collision. As a result, victims of motorcycle accidents can easily endure life-threatening injuries that can change their personal and work lives.
If you or someone close to you has been hurt riding a motorcycle in California, Maison Law’s motorcycle accident attorneys can help you recover full compensation for your injuries and property damages. Contact us for a free consultation. There’s no obligation to talk to us, and we don’t get paid unless you get paid, so don’t delay in reaching out.
Motorcycle Accident Settlements: An Overview
Most compensation for motorcycle accident victims doesn’t normally require going to court. Instead, they involve settlement negotiations between the victim and the at-fault party’s insurance company.
Types of Settlements
Motorcycle accident settlements can vary greatly in size, depending on what the victim had to go through after the accident. That said, most settlement offers fall into three types:
- Small settlement offers: These settlements are made when the motorcycle injuries aren’t serious and require minimal hospitalization or other medical care. In many cases, much of the settlement amount is for motorcycle repair or replacement costs.
- Medium settlement offers: These will usually provide compensation for more significant injuries that require extended medical treatments and/or hospitalization. Injuries can include femur injuries, broken arms, chest injuries, nerve damage, and impaction fractures. Despite these serious injuries, treatments usually lead to a full or near-full recovery and only a moderate amount of missed work.
- Large settlement offers: These offers are for the most severe injuries, including death. In many cases, lifelong medical treatments are required due to permanent damage to the body, often resulting in a disability. A common type of injury that can result in a significant settlement offer is a traumatic brain injury or TBI. The large settlement amount is intended to compensate the victim for a lifetime of pain, decreased wages, and a lower quality of life.
What Makes Up a Motorcycle Settlement Offer?
Depending on the facts of the motorcycle accident, a settlement offer will account for any damages the victim could reasonably expect to recover for if they sued the at-fault party. These include the following types of damages:
- Economic damages. This represents the financial harm suffered as a victim of the motorcycle accident, like unpaid medical bills, motorcycle repair or replacement costs, and lost past and future wages.
- Non-economic damages. These are more subjective damages than economic damages. They’re intended to compensate for subjective harm, such as pain and suffering, stress, anxiety, emotional distress, and loss of consortium.
- Punitive damages. When a defendant causes a motorcycle accident due to their reprehensible or outrageous conduct, a court may decide to award a plaintiff punitive damages. The goal of these damages is to punish the defendant, not compensate the plaintiff. A court might award punitive damages in a motorcycle accident case if the defendant caused the accident because they were drunk, street racing, or were engaged in road rage.
Factors That Can Lower the Settlement Amount
Motorcycle settlement amounts have the potential to be significant, but there are several factors that can lower the settlement offer. Among the most common are:
- Pre-existing medical conditions: If the victim suffered from a health problem before the motorcycle accident, the at-fault party will try to argue that the victim’s claimed injuries already existed before the accident. Even if this isn’t true, the mere possibility may be enough to lower a settlement offer.
- Lack of strong evidence of liability: If blame boils down to the victim’s word against the at-fault party’s word, there’s always a chance that a judge or jury will believe the at-fault party over the victim. Convincing evidence can avoid this, but if it doesn’t exist, the value of the cause drops.
- Poor credibility of the victim: If the victim doesn’t come across as honest, a potential defendant may believe their chances of winning go up, and therefore, offer a lower settlement offer. Poor credibility can exist for a variety of reasons, including inconsistent victim statements and the victim’s demeanor when talking about the case.
- The victim’s level of fault. California is a pure comparative negligence state. This means any personal injury award can be reduced in proportion to the victim’s level of fault for causing their injuries.
- Delayed or missed medical treatments. Not seeing a doctor or ignoring their treatment recommendations tells the insurance company that either the injuries don’t exist, or they aren’t as bad as the victim claims.
Factors That Can Increase the Settlement Amount
Just like how there are factors that can reduce settlement offers, there are also factors that can increase them. Some of these factors include:
- Following all medical recommendations. Getting the prescribed treatments shows that the victim’s injuries are real and that the victim is doing their best to get them healed.
- Keeping good records. Having copies of medical records, repair estimates, and a journal of the accident and what effect the accident has had on the victim’s life can go a long way to proving damages and substantiating a victim’s settlement counteroffer.
- Not missing the statute of limitations deadline. The ability to sue for personal injuries is a major negotiating chip for the motorcycle accident victim. Losing this right because the two-year statute of limitations deadline has passed can dramatically lower the value of a settlement offer.
How a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Can Help Your Case
You aren’t required to hire a lawyer to represent you after your motorcycle accident, but doing so can go a long way to maximizing your settlement recovery and making life easier and less stressful for you. By retaining a motorcycle accident lawyer, you can expect them to:
- Help you accurately estimate your damages.
- Estimate the overall strength of your potential legal case.
- Identify expert witnesses you’ll need to use to win your case should you have to litigate.
- Minimize your level of responsibility, if any, for causing the accident.
- Negotiate with opposing counsel and insurance company adjusters for you.
- Represent you in court should the need arise.
What It Costs To Hire an Attorney
If you need to litigate, you can usually hire a motorcycle attorney on a contingency fee basis. This means your attorney won’t get paid until they recover compensation on your behalf. This fee is usually a percentage of the total amount recovered. Your lawyer may also take out money for reimbursement for the fees and costs they incurred representing you. Below are some of these fees and costs:
- Copying fees
- Postage costs
- Administrative fees for obtaining copies of medical records, accident reports, and other documents held by third parties
- Expert witnesses fees
- Travel expenses
- Deposition costs
- Court filing and trial fees
Talk to a Maison Law Motorcycle Accident Attorney
Getting hurt in a motorcycle accident shouldn’t leave you with an unmanageable financial burden. If someone is responsible for causing you to crash while riding your motorcycle, you’re entitled to compensation. The motorcycle accident lawyers Maison Law will make sure you get the most compensation possible to fully compensate you for your injuries and property damage.
To set up a consultation and case evaluation, contact us at your earliest convenience. There’s no charge for either, so don’t wait to get in touch.
