Did you or a loved one get hurt while riding your bike? Read these 3 bicycle accident tips, then give our Florida bicycle accident lawyers a call today.
1) Mistakes to Avoid After a Bicycle Accident
When we have people come to us after being injured in a bicycle accident, they’ve often done things that harm their case without even knowing it. It’s very important to make sure you avoid these problems. First, we frequently see people that have been injured on bikes destroying evidence that could be helpful to us. Make sure that clothing is preserved. Oftentimes, you’ll have bloody clothing, or maybe clothing that had to be cut off of you at the emergency room. Helmets, pads, shoes, and bicycles may have been destroyed or mangled during the accident, but you shouldn’t dispose of this crucial evidence.
Another thing that we see at times, although not as often in bike cases, is people who don’t do a good job of getting immediate medical attention. It’s important to go ahead and get medical treatment from the time that you begin to feel pain so that you can correlate your pain to the injuries you suffered in this collision. This is more prevalent in car wreck cases because the impact people get in bike wrecks is often so much more severe.
Always get treated immediately. Don’t let a long time pass before you have treatment if you’re experiencing pain. Another thing we see people do that can really harm their case is not following through with their treatment. We oftentimes see people who tell their physicians that their pain has resolved, when in fact, it hasn’t. They are just getting impatient with the treatment process. Make sure that you don’t underestimate your case. Don’t tell the doctors you are better when you’re not. Also, don’t allow gaps in your treatment to occur. When people don’t follow through and they go long periods of time where they haven’t gotten treatment, insurance companies will latch onto this and claim that they must not have been as injured as they say they are or they would have been getting that regular treatment. Don’t give them that opportunity.
Finally, make sure you immediately hire an attorney that is experienced in handling these types of cases. Attorneys are going to want to get out to the scene and preserve any evidence. There could be blood on the concrete that will eventually disappear. There could be scuff marks in the asphalt from where the bike hit. There could be remnants of the bike or the car that are still around. Make sure you hire someone that knows what they’re doing and has experience handling bicycle cases.
2) Choosing a Bicycle Accident Attorney
We are often asked by potential clients how to pick the right attorney for a bicycle injury case. The main consideration is that you must have an attorney who has experience handling bicycle accident claims. Bicyclists have their own rules of the road. It’s important to know what those rules are in order to successfully work up these cases. If an attorney does not handle these cases on a regular basis and does not know what to look for and what laws and pressure points to apply, they’re never going to be able to get the best compensation for your injury claim. At Gunnels Injury Law , we have handled numerous bicycle injury cases. We have been able to achieve very successful results because we know how to work these cases up.
It is also important to have an attorney who knows how the insurance system works. All of these cases are insurance-based cases. Before switching sides and beginning to represent individuals who needed help receiving compensation for injuries, I spent many years working for these insurance companies. I know how the system works. I know what it takes to get cases through the system. I know what it takes to get the best offers possible. I also know how hard they are going to work to minimize the compensation you receive. Now, I can put my experience with these companies to work for you to help you achieve the best possible result.
Another thing to keep in mind when you’re looking for a personal injury attorney is that you always need to have an attorney who has demonstrated he or she will take a case to trial if an insurance company does not give you a reasonable offer. Most cases settle before trial, but in some instances, insurance companies take positions that are just not reasonable and they will not offering you fair compensation. You need an attorney who will take a case to trial and present it to a jury to help you get the best possible compensation.
Here at Gunnels Injury Law , we spend a significant amount of our time at trial. We know how to take a case through trial and present it in a way that leads to effective results. We want to make sure that insurance companies always know we are not just going to take the best offer they give. They know that we will take a case to trial and make a jury hold them accountable when it is necessary.
3) Bicycle Accident Recorded Statement
We are sometimes asked whether a person should give a recorded statement to an insurance company after they have been injured while riding a bicycle. The answer is always no. The insurance company for the at-fault party will often ask for a recorded statement from the injured party. The injured party often believes that it is good for their case to tell their story, but generally, the exact opposite is true. While you don’t know the process, the insurance company will utilize a trained claims examiner to ask questions in a way that will give you the opportunity to give misleading answers, and will harm your claim going forward. If you are not represented by an attorney and you’re asked to give a recorded statement by the insurance company, always decline to do so.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured while riding a bike in Georgia and have questions about these 3 bicycle accident tips?
Contact the experienced Atlanta bicycle accident lawyers at Gunnels Injury Law today to arrange a free consultation and case evaluation.
Let our experience work for you.
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