Spokane Motorcycle Accident Lawyers

Motorcycle Accident Lawyers in Spokane, WA

Motorcycle accidents are scary, no matter what the circumstances. And the inherent vulnerability of the motorcycle rider often leads to devastating injuries. If you’ve suffered a serious motorcycle injury because someone else was being careless or negligent, you owe it to yourself to find out if you are owed compensation for the damages you’ve suffered.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident. You’re probably in pain, and you may be facing enough missed work to worry about keeping up with paying your bills. You’re probably also stressed about finding someone who can help you with a motorcycle accident claim.

We are here to help. Our firm offers free legal advice. Give our motorcycle accident lawyers in Spokane, WA a call today.

Don’t procrastinate on getting the answers you need because you’re concerned about the cost. Contact us any time to set up your free legal consultation.

Protecting Yourself as a Motorcyclist

In comparing the risks of riding a motorcycle with driving a car, it’s important to know that motorcyclists have a higher chance of dying in an accident than if they’d been traveling in a car, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

 In addition, wearing a helmet is crucial to helping a person survive a motorcycle accident. Helmets are required in the state of Washington for motorcycle drivers and their passengers, and for good reason.

Having an anti-lock braking system (ABS) helps prevent fatal motorcycle crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). In fact, ABS have lowered fatal accidents among motorcycle riders by over 33%.

Statistics show that age is also a factor to be aware of, as the majority of those killed in motorcycle accidents are 40 years old and older. This finding cites a decline in reaction time and vision acuity associated with aging.

Alcohol plays a role in many fatal motorcycle crashes. Over 40% of riders who were killed in recent single-vehicle crashes were alcohol-impaired. Statistics reveal that motorcycle riders killed in night crashes were almost three times as likely to be alcohol-impaired than people killed in daytime motorcycle crashes in recent years, and motorcyclists also typically show higher blood alcohol (BAC) than drivers of any other vehicle type at any time of day, according to NHTSA.

Finally, the fact that excessive speed was shown to be involved in over a third of fatal motorcycle accidents reveals that speed is also a significant factor in motorcycle accident facilities.

If, you’ve taken all the steps you can to be safe while riding a motorcycle and you are injured by someone else’s negligence, it’s time to ask a lawyer about a potential accident claim.

Do I Need a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer?

A personal injury lawyer with experience in motorcycle accident claims can give you a significant advantage for several reasons. For one thing, having an attorney handling your claim sends a clear message to the insurance company that if they don’t work with you to arrive at a reasonable settlement, your lawyer will likely take them to court. This is not something the insurance company is going to worry about if they see that you’re taking on your claim alone.

When people try to handle a claim on their own, insurance companies often try to take advantage of the situation and present you a lowball offer. Given enough time and financial worry, you are likely to accept; just to get it over with. Sidestep the  insurance companies’ tactics by letting an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer deal with the insurance company.

Another way having a lawyer can help is by bringing you a larger settlement or court award. Much larger. There is a common misconception that muddling through your claim alone will save you money, but statistics show that people who hire lawyers are frequently awarded many times the amount of those without legal representation.

Handing over your claim to an attorney will safeguard its value. Your experienced personal injury lawyer knows the tactics the insurance company is likely to employ to try and save the company money. The money saving tactics aim to lower the value of your claim or get it dismissed entirely. Your motorcycle accident lawyer knows how to avoid getting tripped up by these tactics and how to preserve your claims value.

Finally, and certainly one of the most valuable reasons to hand your claim to a personal injury trial lawyer is it allows you to rest and recover. If you were going to pick a time to learn how to successfully navigate an insurance claim or a legal case, you probably wouldn’t choose a time when you were injured and in pain. Let us help you though this; call today to schedule a free legal consultation.

Mistakes to Watch Out for in Your Motorcycle Accident Claim

Even when you’ve arrived at the conclusion that you need to hire a lawyer for help with your personal injury claim, there are a few mistakes you must avoid in order to preserve your claim’s value.

Don’t Skip the Medical Exam

Right after the accident, your body will almost certainly be flooded with adrenaline. This is the body’s attempt to protect you with a temporary boost of energy and strength. You may suddenly feel more than okay, but it’s crucial to understand it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re okay; it’s your body’s response to trauma.

Get checked at the doctor to be sure of where you stand medically. Let the doctor tell you that you’re okay or otherwise.

When you get a medical exam, you’re not only protecting your health, but you’re also protecting your claim. The insurance company will be working to verify your injuries to prevent fraud. Having a medical record of your exam is valuable evidence to strengthen your claim.

Don’t Ignore Your Treatment Plan

Following your treatment plan after seeing the doctor is another important step in protecting your health and supporting your claim. Whether the doctor advises you take medications on a schedule, attend physical therapy sessions, or engage in some other kind of treatment, take your plan seriously. It will ensure you recover as quickly as you possibly can and will again help to preserve the value of your claim.

Checking up on your adherence to your treatment plan is another way that insurance companies make sure you’ve got a legitimate claim. If you’ve filed for a claim based on a back injury, for example, and an insurance investigator catches you out in the yard swinging an ax over your head chopping a cord of wood, you’re putting the value of your claim in jeopardy. Not only are they likely to challenge whether you’re really injured — they’ll challenge the cause of any backslide in your recovery, blaming your failure to adhere to your treatment plan instead of the severity of original injury.

If they succeed with either of these challenges, the value of your claim is going to plummet. Preserve the value of your claim by following doctors’ orders.

Don’t Wait to Find an Attorney

Now that you’re aware of the many ways hiring an attorney can help your claim, it’s best not to wait too long to hire one.

While it’s true your claim will have a filing deadline, you’ll need to meet, your more pressing issue is making sure the evidence to support your claim is gathered while it’s still around. Accident scenes will be cleaned up and witnesses may leave the area. If there’s security footage from a neighborhood camera that happened to capture the accident, you’ll want to get hold of it before it’s recorded over. Time is against you when it comes to the availability of evidence.

Even if you’re fortunate to locate witnesses’ months or even a year or more down the road, if this is your first contact with them since the accident, their memory of what happened is not likely to be perfectly clear. Help your attorney build your strongest case by getting started as quickly as possible.

If you’re unable to focus on the task of looking for a lawyer, consider asking a friend or relative to start the search online. They’ll want to read the websites of law firms with personal injury trial success, check out client reviews, and look at ratings on legal website directories like lawyer.com and avvo.com.

Don’t Assume All Lawyers are Interchangeable

When you retain a lawyer, it’s important to make sure the person you hire is experienced with personal injury and motorcycle accident claims. It’s also important that to find a successful trial lawyer. Your claim may settle before it needs to go to court, but if it doesn’t, you need to know your lawyer can successfully take your claim to trial.

Motorcycle Accident Client Story

We are sharing the story below to give you an understanding of what you can expect in the motorcycle accident claims process. While we’ve changed names and specifics to protect the privacy of our client, this doesn’t diminish the usefulness of the information. Please read it through to learn as much as possible. Then, give us a call to schedule a free legal consultation to discuss your specific motorcycle accident claim.

On a crisp, sunny Saturday in Spokane not too long ago, Jordan Dunn wrapped up his lunch shift at the restaurant where he worked as a chef and rode off on his Harley-Davidson Softail to spend the evening with Bob, his newly adopted greyhound rescue. He’d picked Bob up from foster care five days earlier and spent the week getting him settled in.

The rescue organization couldn’t give Jordan all of Bob’s history. All they knew was that he was a retired race dog and hadn’t always known kindness. Jordan was committed to changing that, no matter how long it took. Thankfully, by that morning the dog had finally come out from behind the couch. He’d even eaten half his food and gone out the new dog door once before almost tripping over his tail coming back in. Baby steps.

Hopefully, Bob would be feeling a little less anxious tomorrow since Jordan was scheduled for a double shift. Sundays were long, but then he’d be off until Wednesday.

Jordan loved the month of October and admired the fall colors as he cruised east on Sprague Avenue. He wondered if Bob would like to check out the park after dinner. Maybe even run a bit at the dog park.

Jordan relaxed and focused on the other vehicles on the road, ever watchful. Smooth sailing.

Until it wasn’t. Moments after he passed South Carnahan Road, a pickup lumbered out in front of him at a high rate of speed. It was pulling an old, rusted trailer. With no possibility of stopping, Jordan’s mind seemed to detach, and, in an instant, everything went dark.

Jordan woke up in the hospital with a severe concussion, neck sprain, broken shoulder, broken clavicle. The doctor told him he was lucky to be alive. He agreed.

“Without a helmet it’s doubtful you would be here,” Dr. Rashada was telling him when his sister Kim arrived. “…and if you did survive the crash without a helmet, there’s no telling you what kind of injury you’d have had to your brain. You’re a lucky man.” She then informed them Jordan would be stuck at “Club Med” for the next 48 hours.

Kim stayed for an hour fussing over her baby brother until he asked her to check on Bob. “You want me to take him home with me?” She offered.

“He just started getting used to my place,” Jordan said, reluctantly. “Any way you can stay at my house with him until they release me, pleeeease?”

“Sure,” said Kim, giving her brother’s hand a gentle squeeze and breezing out the door.

Two days later, Kim pulled her car up to the turnaround at the hospital portico so Jordan could get in. When the nurse rolled him out in his obligatory wheelchair ride, he was dumbstruck to see Bob in the back seat wagging his tail beside her pug, Bugle.

“How did you manage that?” He asked, incredulous.

“Bob loves car rides, she said, as if it she hadn’t pulled off the most miraculous feat since Velcro. Kim was like that with animals. “You didn’t expect me to leave my dog to watch yours, did you?” Kim laughed as she strapped her brother into his seatbelt, then hopped behind the wheel and turned the car toward Jordan’s bungalow.

Jordan made a mental note to explore getting Bob a therapy dog.

The next week was rough as Jordan adjusted to being stuck at home. Kim helped a lot, but it would be weeks before he could return to work. She knew Jordan worried about the bills that were piling up. She recommended he make an appointment with the personal injury lawyers at Paukert and Troppmann, PLLC.

How much does it cost to hire a lawyer?

We met Jordan ten days after his accident. He made it clear he needed to find out up-front how much it would cost to hire our firm to handle a motorcycle accident claim.

 “There is no up-front cost,” said Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Douglas C. McDermott. “Our firm works on a contingency model. We cover all case expenses from start to finish. Investigation, administration, research, whatever your case requires — even litigation, should it be necessary. In the end, we are only compensated when we bring your claim to a successful resolution.”

“Wow,” said Jordan. “That wouldn’t be doable for you unless you were good at it.”

“It seems to work well for everyone,” agreed McDermott.

How much is my case worth?

“So, what is a motorcycle case worth?” asked Jordan.

Attorney McDermott said, “Well, every case is unique. It’s true your claim falls into the category of motorcycle accidents, but beyond that, it’s about the specific circumstances of your accident, your injuries, and the way your life has been damaged by what has happened because of the other driver’s negligence.

“This means there is no chart I can point to and say up-front, ‘Your claim is with XYZ amount,’” said Attorney McDermott. “And you need to be wary of any attorney who does that. Whatever they tell you at the very start without any information is not going to be based on anything factual. It’s irresponsible, and unreliable.

“So, the first thing we need to do to answer your question is a thorough accident investigation,” McDermott continued. “That’s where we always begin. We’ll review police reports, medical reports, speak to witnesses, gather evidence to clearly establish fault, and do any necessary research to build you a rock-solid case.

“Then there’s the second piece of information we need, and that’s your damages. Determining those will rely on your reaching what’s called ‘maximum medical improvement.’ This simply means recovering back to your former ‘normal’ level of health.

“If your injuries prevent you from returning to your prior level of health, maximum medical improvement will be reached when you’ve recovered to the highest level your doctors believe you’re capable of reaching. Either way, it’s going to mean you’re through with surgeries and your doctors have a reliable idea of what, if any, future care for your injuries may be required.

“When you reach this point, Jordan, we’ll know your damages and can then tell you what your claim is worth. Your job, your only job, is rest and recovery. Focus on adhering to your treatment plan. Show up for any therapy appointments you need, take all your meds, don’t go sky diving. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Jordan sat in silence, staring at nothing as he digested what he’d been told. “I guess I should be happy with that answer,” he said. “Because while it’s frustrating, if you’d just ‘waved the magic lawyer wand’ and said, ‘Your case is worth, Blah, Blah, Blah,’ I would’ve thought you were blowing hot air.”

“As well you should,” said McDermott. “This is what is necessary to give you an answer you can ‘hang your hat on.’”

How long will my case take?

“So, is there a point to my asking how long the case will take? I mean, if you have to wait until I reach maximum medical improvement to know my damages, I assume it’ll take at least that long,” said Jordan.

“That’s correct,” said Attorney McDermott. “That’s the first factor in your timeline. Once you get there, we’ll know your damages and send a demand letter to the insurance company. From that point onward, your timeline will depend on how agreeable they are to offering a fair settlement,” said McDermott.

“And if they’re not?” asked Jordan

“Then we file suit and introduce them to a jury. But don’t let that possibility put you off, Jordan. Our firm has a long and successful track record in personal injury claims, including motorcycle accident claims. If it comes to a trial, we’ll be more than up to the task.

“And it’s likely the insurance company knows who we are. They may settle just to avoid us in the courtroom. I can’t guarantee it’ll shake out that way, but it’s happened before. Either way, we’ll be ready. That’s why no matter who you decide to retain for your claim, I urge you to hire a personal injury trial lawyer.”

Jordan was satisfied with the information he received in his free legal consultation. He retained Paukert and Troppmann, and Attorney McDermott got him over five times the amount initially offered by the insurance company.

Call Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers in Spokane, WA Today

We hope the information above has given you a good overview of what to expect in your motorcycle accident claim. Since every case is different, we urge you to call us as soon as you’re able and schedule a free legal consultation. Let us stand up for your right to receive full and fair compensation.