When you’ve been in a motorcycle accident in Stockton, reach out to our team of motorcycle accident lawyers at Maison Law. We represent victims of motorcycle accidents, and can guide you or someone you care about through the legal process to take care of any injuries and other damage. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.
Who’s Liable For Your Injuries in a Motorcycle Accident?
You may be wondering if you even need a lawyer if you’ve been involved in a motorcycle accident. The answer depends on the severity of the accident and your injuries. If it was just a minor collision, you probably don’t need to hire a lawyer to represent you. However, any motorcycle accident in Stockton is going to be damaging, but especially for you, the rider. Thus, the more hurt you are, the more our lawyers will be able to help you.
While there are many different types of accident you could be involved in, one of the most common is known as a left turn accident.
As the name suggests, this happens when a driver is turning left, like at an intersection, and collides with a motorcyclist. Most of the time, these accidents happen because:
- The driver isn’t paying attention
- The driver fails to yield to you on your motorcycle
- The driver misjudges your speed on the motorcycle
Regardless of the overall cause, it’s important to establish liability in these accidents. In Stockton, as in other places in California, liability is the lynchpin of your legal options. To establish liability, you have to show that the vehicle driver that ran into you was being “negligent.”
Negligence
There’s four elements to establishing negligence in a left-turn motorcycle accident:
- The person that caused the accident has a duty of care to operate in a way that prevents an accident
- There is a breach of this duty
- The breach of duty caused the accident in question
- The accident, in turn, was the direct cause of your injuries and damages
In the vast majority of left-turn accidents, a driver of another vehicle is going to be negligent, and thus, liable for covering your injuries and damages. However, there’s a variety of other potentially liable parties in these accidents, depending on the circumstances:
- Another motorcyclist or pedestrian
- The government agency in charge of maintaining the road, street lights, or signs
- A passenger
- Third parties, like manufacturers of the vehicle or part that failed
Here’s another area where our team of lawyers can be a big help. With more than one liable party, or with complicated circumstances, our team can establish negligence. Once you have a handle on who exactly is liable for causing the left-turn motorcycle accident, you’ll have the starting point of filing an injury claim. Before you do that, though, it’s important to know what you need to do to protect your rights.
What Steps Do You Need to Take After a Motorcycle Accident?
Even though it’s common, a left-turn motorcycle accident is nonetheless scary. If you’ve been involved in one, you need to make sure that you take certain steps to protect your health and well-being, as well as your potential claim. Now, some of these actions are going to depend on the severity of the accident and collision. However, one way or the other, you’ll need to make sure to do the following after being involved in one of these accidents:
- Get medical care – This first step is fairly obvious. After the accident, the first thing you should do is check yourself for any injuries and get to safety. From there, make sure to get immediate medical care for your injuries. This will give you a baseline for how hurt you are and what you need to do to get healthy.
- Exchange information – The best case scenario after these accidents is that the driver that collided with you will stay behind and check on you. If you’re comfortable or able, make sure to exchange contact and insurance information with them. In other cases, the driver may flee the scene. Then, make sure to call the police and let them know.
- Report the accident – You should report any accident to local police so they can respond and take control of the scene. While they’ll create a report of the incident, it can’t be used as evidence in a lawsuit. Still, it’ll have important information for your potential insurance claim.
- Collect evidence – This is another important step for your potential claim. If you’re healthy enough, make sure to start collecting evidence. Take pictures and video of the scene with your phone if it still works. This will establish important visual evidence for your claim.
With these actions, you not only safeguard your health and safety, but it sets important guidelines for your legal claims. Your claim is going to involve an insurance company, who has the ultimate goal of paying you as little as possible. Still, understanding what damages you can recover in a claim will show you the importance of taking action.
What Can You Recover in a Motorcycle Accident Claim?
The good news, relatively, is that a left-turn motorcycle accident is going to be fairly straightforward in terms of liability. More to the point though, California law allows you to file an injury claim against every liable party. This could mean multiple claims with multiple insurance companies, which can get quite overwhelming, especially if you’re hurt. Still, you have two main options for taking legal action against the responsible parties:
- Filing an insurance claim
- Filing a personal injury lawsuit
Both of these legal actions allow you to recover certain “damages” from the responsible party, but in real terms just reflect your injuries and other losses from the accident. In a typical left-turn motorcycle accident claim, you can potentially recover the following:
- Medical expenses and bills, including costs related to any surgeries, ambulance services, emergency room services, treatment, therapy, and even medical devices.
- Damage to your motorcycle or other personal property, like phones and clothes.
- Any lost income or future wages
- Costs relating to the physical pain, suffering, and emotional distress relating to the accident.
- Costs relating to any permanent injuries or disfigurement
- Damages relating to any loss of quality of life or companionship with your loved ones.
There are two important aspects of any injury claim: the statute of limitations and comparative negligence. The statute of limitations is the deadline by which you need to file a claim. In California, you have two years from the date of the accident to file.
Comparative negligence is a legal concept in place in California that says any fault that you contribute to the accident will reduce your overall recovery by the same percentage. Thus, if you played some part in the accident, your recovery will be reflected by that same percentage.
Experienced Support After a Stockton Motorcycle Accident
No matter what the circumstances are around your left-turn motorcycle accident in Stockton, our experienced and dedicated motorcycle accident lawyer at Maison Law can help you. We have a proven system of success in dealing with these claims, and can provide you with the support you need to see your claim through to the end. Don’t wait–if you’ve been hurt in a motorcycle accident, contact us today for a free consultation.
