Many victims of motorcycle accidents think that their motorcycle accident will be handled in just the same way as a car accident. They could not be more wrong. While the laws are the same, how insurance companies, and later juries, view motorcycle accidents is very different. Failing to understand those differences and failing to hire a lawyer who recognizes those differences could be fatal to your motorcycle accident case.
If you have been involved in a motorcycle accident, you may be having a similar experience in dealing with the insurance company as you would if you were in a car accident .... at least to begin with. And for many motorcycle accident victims, that would make sense. After all, both motorcycles and car are covered by the same provisions of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code and have to follow the same rules of the road. However, motorcycle accidents and car accidents are viewed very differently by insurance companies, and later, juries. Failing to recognize that and failing to hire a lawyer who understands that can have fatal results for your motorcycle accident suit.
Here are some of the ways that motorcycle accident suits are different from car accident suits:
• People who are not riders frequently and unfairly regard all riders as being daredevils. This comes from the minority of riders who do drive like daredevils, speeding and weaving in traffic and the like. This puts motorcycle riders behind the 8-ball when they go to court because this is the image that may jurors have of motorcycle riders. An experienced motorcycle accident attorney handles this a couple of different ways. First, he tries to bring out those beliefs during voir dire (commonly known as jury selection) and tries to eliminate those people from the jury pool to the extent possible. Second, he tries to undermine those attitudes as they apply specifically to the accident victim by showing what the injured rider did to learn how to ride safely, by showing that the injured rider followed safe riding practices, and by showing what he did to avoid the accident at issue in the lawsuit.
• Many jurors do not have experience riding a motorcycle and do not how to drive one. This means that they must be be taught the fundamentals. There are some aspects of riding a motorcycle that seem counter-intuitive to one who has not done it. For example, people who have not ridden would not realize that maintaining speed helps maintain the stability of the bike. Also, riders know to lay the motorcycle down to avoid a catastrophic or fatal crash. To people who have never ridden, it looks like the motorcyclist was traveling at an excessive speed and lost of control of the motorcycle.
• Injuries from motorcycle accidents are severe, in those instances where the rider survives the crash. Multiple, severe fractures and/or loss of a limb are common results from motorcycle crashes. These are serious, permanent, life-changing injuries, and call for the services of a skilled lawyer to bring home the full extent of the damages to the insurance company and later, the jury. Virtually all injured riders suffer “road rash” in a motorcycle crash. “Road rash” is one of these terms that fails to properly describe how terrible these injuries are. Several motorcycle accident victims have said the road rash was more painful than the fractures and other injuries from the accident.
• Insurance companies know that jurors may have some biases against motorcycle riders that make it hard for them to return a fair verdict to the injured rider. This means that they also are not likely be fair to injured riders. Sometimes when insurance adjusters are taking the recorded statement of an injured rider, they will act like they do not know how a motorcycle is operated when they actually do. This is an attempt to get a poor description of the events from the injured rider so that they can make it look like the rider did not know what he was doing if the case had to go to court later. Sadly, injured riders many times hire a lawyer only after they find out the hard way that the insurer does not plan to deal with them in a decent, honorable way. By that time, the damage has been done.
Understanding and recognizing that car accidents and motorcycle accidents are not the same thing is the first step for injured riders in protecting their legal rights after a motorcycle crash. The second step is hiring a lawyer who understands the differences between the two and who is prepared to present a motorcycle accident case in a smart, compelling way to an insurance company, and later a jury if needed. Motorcycle accidents cause serious damage to the victims and should be treated as a serious matter with the help of skilled legal counsel.
