Filing a lawsuit after a bicycle accident is very similar to a motorcycle accident. The person on the bicycle is going to usually be very badly injured. You need a lawyer that is going to get out there and investigate it immediately. A lawyer that will get out there and talk to the police, the […]
How do i file a lawsuit after a bicycle accident
Filing a lawsuit after a bicycle accident is very similar to a motorcycle accident. The person on the bicycle is going to usually be very badly injured. You need a lawyer that is going to get out there and investigate it immediately.
A lawyer that will get out there and talk to the police, the EMS workers, the witnesses and get the video if that’s available because it’s possible that the vehicle that hit you might not have enough insurance coverage.
Is there a street defect that’s responsible for the accident? Is there a pothole that was caused by a utility company not filling in their holes?
If the bicycle accident was caused by some other event, maybe not a vehicle, maybe there was a damage in the sidewalk that caused the tire to go into a crevice and get stuck throwing you off the bicycle.
We had a case like that, a person ended up getting thrown off the bicycle because of roadwork, hitting his head and causing catastrophic injuries. But you’re not going to know that unless you get out there.
A client’s not able to tell if they are in the hospital in a coma, you need a lawyer that’s not afraid to leave their office and get out there and investigate the scene of a serious accident.
Maybe there is a sign that is missing, maybe there was a light out, there is a whole host of other possible ways that the bicycle accident could have happened but if you don’t get out to the scene you’re never going to know.
You need a lawyer that’s not going to be afraid to spend the time and get out there. When the police report that the light wasn’t working how long do you think it’s going to take the city to fix that light?
When they know there was a big accident they’re going to fix it in a minute. When the stop sign is down it’s going to be replaced in a day if you don’t get out there you’re not going to know it.
Video: How do I file a lawsuit after a bicycle accident?
It’s hard to say who’s at fault in a bicycle accident lawsuit until you analyze the facts.
Is the bicycle driver at fault? Is the vehicle at fault? Is the municipality at fault because they don’t have a sign? Is the utility company at fault because it had a pothole in the road or the sidewalk? Is another vehicle at fault because it passed the red light or past the stop sign and didn’t yield right away?
There are so many possible scenarios to bicycle accident lawsuits and to motorcycle lawsuits but the thing is you need to get the facts and you need to get the facts the day of the accident. You need to nail down what happened that day because things change overnight.
The answer is yes.
Now if there is a helmet law in your jurisdiction, we need to read the helmet law but it’s possible that the helmet law is going to hold you at least somewhat responsible for the injuries that might have been prevented if you’re willing wearing a helmet.
If you broke your leg, no helmet is going to prevent you from having a fractured leg. If you broke your arm, the helmet’s not going to help you there either. If you sustain the brain injury, now we have to start considering what role would a helmet have played there.
It may actually be an affirmative defense that the defendant has to undertake that the helmet would have prevented their injury they’re going to need to bring in helmet experts they’re going to need to bring in doctors who are experts in brain movement. Because the brain is constantly moving within the skull, they’re going to bring in experts that are going to recreate how the vehicle hit you how your brain moved around within your skull, so it gets quite complex.
But you need a lawyer who can think of those things and who can anticipate those defenses. The defendant is going to hire their own experts early on so that they’re ready for those defenses.
You need a law firm that has the money to expend on those kinds of experts and they’re very expensive but if the injury is substantial then you have to spend the money in my opinion. We are well financed and we are not worried about spending the money when the expenditure is warranted.
We just don’t spend money willy-nilly but if that client sustained a serious injury on a bicycle or motorcycle or they have a head injury without a helmet law I’m going to get an expert in there to talk about helmets because they might put the helmet defense in.
So if there is a law, the law is going to tell how it needs to be analyzed and if there’s no law they’re still going to claim that your client should have wore a helmet and that the injury would not have happened or the injury would have been much less than it was and you need to have the experts that come in and the guys that do the graphics and the animation so the jury can see that this helmet would not have had any impact in lessening the injury to the brain
If you have been involved in a bicycle accident, you need a lawyer that is going to get out there and investigate it immediately.
A lawyer talk to the police, the EMS workers, the witnesses and get the video if that’s available because it’s possible that the vehicle that hit you might not have enough insurance coverage.
There are so many possible scenarios to bicycle accident lawsuits but the thing is you need to get the facts and you need to get the facts the day of the accident
Yes.
if there is a helmet law in your jurisdiction, it’s possible that the helmet law is going to hold you at least somewhat responsible for the injuries that might have been prevented if you’re willing wearing a helmet.
It also depends on your injuries. Not all injuries could have been prevented by a helmet. And even when there’s a brain injury, it quite possible it couldn’t have been prevented by a helmet either.
If you are involved in a Bicycle accident, contact Parker Waichman immediately calling 1-800-YOUR-LAWYER (1-800-968-7529) for a free case review today.
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