Were you injured in a motorcycle crash in Georgia? Contact the Gunnels Injury Law today to arrange a free consultation and case evaluation.
Motorcycle Accident Case Value
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.
Another thing that drives the value of these cases, unfortunately, is the amount of liability insurance coverage that the at-fault driver has. Most of these cases come down to insurance coverage and the amount of coverage. In Georgia, you’re only required to have $25,0000 of insurance coverage for incidents that you cause in which you harm someone else. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses, and you have someone who only has $25,000 of coverage, unless you’ve protected yourself with your own uninsured motorist coverage, you’re going to be stuck with that amount. That’s another thing that goes into driving the value of these injuries. The best thing to do, if you’ve been injured in a motorcycle wreck and you want to pursue a claim, is to immediately hire a personal injury attorney who can guide you through this process and make sure that all the right things are being done to set your claim up in the best possible way.
Motorcycle Accident Settlement Timeline
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.
Motorcycle Accident Claim with Minimal Medical Bills
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.
One thing that you have to look into, especially with motorcycle cases, is liability. Motorcycle cases can be difficult because a lot of times fault is placed on the motorcycle rider. If it’s not a good case for assigning the liability to the other driver, it doesn’t really matter how much you have in medical expenses. On the other hand, you can have a case where the medical expenses are very small, but the case is still significant. You may have some stitches that you need, which won’t generate a lot of medical expenses, but when they leave permanent scarring, it can be a very valuable case. The point is you must look at each case on its own merits and not just base your decision on the amount of medical expense. My advice would be that if you’re in a motorcycle wreck and you’ve sustained some injuries, talk to a personal injury attorney immediately so that you can have some help in getting your case lined up correctly.