There were 13,086 motorcycle collisions in California in 2019, involving 14,176 injured people and 479 deaths, according to provisional U.C. Berkeley data. California’s roads can be dangerous for motorcyclists, and insurance adjusters often have biases against motorcyclists, making it impossible for motorcyclists to obtain fair compensation for their injuries on their own. You need strong representation by lawyers the insurance adjusters fear if you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident. Insurance adjusters fear the attorneys at Nadrich & Cohen because we’ve been successfully obtaining policy limit recoveries for motorcycle accident victims for three decades.
Call us today at 800-718-4658 for a free consultation if you or a loved one was injured or killed in a motorcycle accident. You may be eligible for financial compensation, and we’ll only charge you a fee if we obtain compensation for you. You can also complete the “Do I Have A Case?” form on the right, email us at info@personalinjurylawcal.com or have a talk with one of our live chat specialists.
What To Do After A Motorcycle Accident
Your first priority is attending to your immediate medical needs. You should only collect evidence if you are physically capable of safely doing so. Beyond that, there are other steps you should take after a motorcycle accident:
- Call the police: You must report any motor vehicle accident in California you’re involved in to the police if any injuries occur, $1,000 or more of damage occurs or if aggravating circumstances such as DUI apply to any driver involved. Police reports can also be extremely important for those who wish to obtain financial compensation for their injuries.
- Collect info from the driver of every vehicle involved: Collect their names, license plate numbers, vehicle registrations, phone numbers and driver’s license numbers. You or your lawyers will need this to deal with your insurance company. Keep conversation to a minimum because what you say here can affect how much you’re compensated for your injuries.
- Collect info from witnesses: Get the name and contact information of any witnesses who saw the accident itself or who saw you driving safely immediately before the accident. Keep conversation to a minimum since what you say to witnesses can affect your final compensation amount.
- Take pictures: Get photos from multiple angles of every vehicle involved to demonstrate damage, and get photos of any road conditions which may have contributed to the accident.
- Seek medical attention: It’s common to not realize you’ve been injured by a motorcycle accident until days or weeks after the accident. It’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible because it becomes more difficult to prove that your injuries resulted from the accident as you wait longer to seek treatment.
- Seek legal representation: You need strong, experienced lawyers to deal with the insurance companies for you if you want to be fairly compensated for your injuries. The insurance companies won’t respect you unless you’re backed by lawyers they fear. Insurance companies fear Nadrich & Cohen.
- Don’t talk to insurance companies: The adjusters for the insurance companies are trained to manipulate you. They are taught dozens of ways to trick you into incriminating yourself so they don’t have to pay you fairly for your injuries. Leave all communications with the insurance companies to your lawyers.
How We’ll Obtain The Most Compensation For Your Injuries
We will obtain the maximum possible compensation for your injuries by proving that your motorcycle wreck was the result of someone else’s negligence.
Negligence in terms of California civil law is defined by CACI No. 401 as “the failure to use reasonable care to prevent harm to oneself or to others.” Acting or failing to act can be negligence. Doing what a reasonably careful person wouldn’t is negligence. Not doing what a reasonably careful person would is negligence.
CACI No. 400 tells California jurors what must be proven to establish a negligence claim. It states that it must be proven that the defendant was negligent, the plaintiff was harmed and the defendant’s negligence was a “substantial factor” in causing harm to the plaintiff.
We will prove that someone else’s negligence occurred and that this negligence was a substantial factor in causing your injuries.
The most common cause of motorcycle accidents is the drivers of other vehicles not seeing the motorcyclists at all or until it was too late. A reasonably careful person would ensure that they were aware of their surroundings while driving a motor vehicle, thus a lack of awareness of one’s surroundings while driving can be negligence.
Another common cause of motorcycle accidents is the drivers of other vehicles violating the right of way of motorcyclists. Reasonably careful people obey traffic laws, thus failing to obey traffic laws is negligence.
Forms Of Compensation We Can Recover For You
There are many forms of compensation we can recover for you, including:
- Past and future medical bills: These bills can be for things such as ER visits, prescription drug costs, physical therapy, homemaker services, in-home nursing, etc.
- Pain and suffering: We can recover damages for physical and mental pain and suffering.
- Loss of enjoyment of life: Your injuries may cause you to enjoy life significantly less and we can obtain compensation for this.
- Lost wages: We can recover damages for any wages you are unable to earn due to your motorcycle accident.
- Loss of earning capacity: We can recover damages for your loss of future earning capacity if your injuries permanently prevent you from working.
- Property damage: We can recover the fair market value of your bike and any other property of yours damaged in the accident.
- Vocational rehabilitation: We can obtain damages to help you get back to work if your injuries lead to a disability.
- Disability accommodations: We can obtain damages to help you pay for disability accommodations, including home remodeling and/or a vehicle to accommodate a disability caused by your motorcycle crash.
California Motorcycle Accident Statute Of Limitations
Motorcyclists involved in accidents in California have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit.
California Motorcycle Accident Lawsuits
The vast majority of our cases are settled out of court. Having strong lawyers the insurance companies fear and respect will make the difference for you here between obtaining fair compensation for your injuries and only getting lowball offers.
There is a small chance your case will go to trial. Having battle-tested, experienced lawyers like the attorneys at Nadrich & Cohen will make the difference for you here between winning or losing your motorcycle accident lawsuit.
Our attorneys offer a no fee promise. This means we only charge our clients a percentage of their recovery. We do not charge our clients a fee if we do not obtain a recovery for them.
Call us now at 800-718-4658 for a free consultation if you or a loved one was injured or killed in a motorcycle accident. It is important to seek representation as soon as possible as there is a time limit for motorcycle accident lawsuits to be filed in California.
