Atlanta Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

We see a few common mistakes with people who have been injured in motorcycle wrecks that harm their cases without even knowing it. One of the first things that someone who’s been in a motorcycle wreck needs to do is preserve evidence. That may be in the form of clothing they were wearing, the motorcycle itself, their helmet – things that show what type of impact they received. Another mistake that we see people make is not getting medical attention quickly enough. A lot of people tend to delay their treatment and wait several weeks. When you do that, you give the insurance company the opportunity to argue that you weren’t actually injured in the collision. If you feel injured at the scene, make sure you get medical treatment. If it’s not until the next day that you start feeling pain, which is very common, make sure that you go then and have those symptoms documented. We want to make sure that we can show that you had documented symptoms as soon as possible after the collision.

People often ask what someone needs to do if they’ve been injured in a motorcycle wreck case. The first thing they need to do is the same thing they need to do in any other type of personal injury matter, and that is to seek immediate medical attention. People who have been injured often want to delay and see if the injuries are going to get better on their own, but that’s not the best thing to do when you’re talking about pursuing a personal injury claim. It’s important to get immediate attention and document what injuries you already are experiencing. Insurance companies are notorious for pointing out gaps in seeking treatment and trying to minimize claims because someone did not seek immediate treatment. Don’t give them this advantage, and don’t wait around. Seek treatment immediately.

When people have been injured in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, they often want to know the best way to choose a lawyer or law firm that can help them with their injury claim. There are some unique issues that arise with motorcycle cases. The primary one is we find that jury pools are not usually overly sympathetic to motorcycle riders. They see motorcycle riders as daredevils and people who often get what’s coming to them because they are taking risks. We know that the laws are not slanted this way and that motorcycle riders have the same rights and protections as anyone else driving on the road, and we’re here to protect those rights. We have handled numerous motorcycle claims and know the ins and outs of dealing with these types of cases.

We were recently asked by a person who had been injured in a motorcycle wreck case whether they could recover damages for their injuries even though they had not been wearing a helmet. The answer is, potentially, yes. Under Georgia law, a person is required to wear a helmet when they are riding a motorcycle. However, the failure to wear a helmet does not automatically extinguish a personal injury claim. In that scenario, your own personal negligence in not wearing a helmet gets weighed against the negligence of the person who caused the accident. It’s important to investigate these claims from the beginning and preserve all necessary evidence to make sure that you can present that claim in the most effective manner.

We recently had a potential client contact us and ask whether she was entitled to personal injury damages having been injured due to the negligence of another while riding on a motorcycle as a passenger. The answer is yes. When someone injures you and you are the passenger in any type of motor vehicle, you may have a claim for damages. Even if you are the passenger on a motorcycle, you will have that claim just like you would have if you were a passenger in a car. The issue comes down to who the responsible party may be.

One question we’re frequently asked is whether motorcycle wreck cases are different than general car wreck cases. The answer is yes and no. Under Georgia law, motorcycle riders are required to follow the same rules of the road as someone driving a car or a truck; this means they also have the same protections as someone driving a car or a truck. However, the perception often is that motorcycle cases are different than car wreck cases since the injuries involved are often more significant. With regard to injuries, a person who’s riding a motorcycle doesn’t have the protections of a motor vehicle. They don’t have airbags. They don’t have anything to block impact. As a result, in many situations, motorcycle injury cases are far more severe than a general car wreck injury.

Clients who have been injured in a motorcycle accident often want to know if there’s a minimum amount of medical expenses they need to have incurred in order to pursue a personal injury case. You really can’t determine if you have a good personal injury case just by the amount of medical expenses. Some personal injury cases are very good, even though they have small medical expenses, and there are some that may have large medical expenses, but aren’t very good cases.

We’re often asked how long it takes to settle a motorcycle injury case. The answer to that question is it varies greatly from case to case. Sometimes those cases can resolve fairly quickly, and sometimes they may take a long time and require a lawsuit and a trial. Determining factors include the extent of the injuries and how much insurance coverage the at-fault party has. If you have been injured and the other party has $25,000 worth of insurance coverage, and your medical expenses alone were $50,000, that case is going to resolve very quickly. If you have a case where you have $25,000 in medical expenses and you healed from your injuries, and the other side has $100,000 worth of insurance coverage, there’s going to be a lot more fight over what the value of that case is, and those are going to take a lot longer to work through. With any type of suit like this, you have to look through the facts. If it’s a type of case where a lawsuit needs to be filed, you’re probably looking at six to eighteen months before being able to resolve, but again they are all very fact-intensive.

When we have clients come into our office who are looking for help in dealing with injuries associated with a motorcycle wreck, one of the first things they want to know is how much their case is worth. In looking at the value of these cases, there’s no magic formula that can determine what the claim is worth. What you need to look at are things such as the severity and permanence of the injury, the amount of medical expenses that you have incurred, lost wages and missed time from work, and to what extent your life has been disrupted because of these injuries.