California’s roads can be dangerous for motorcyclists, and insurance adjusters often have biases against motorcyclists, making it nearly impossible for motorcyclists to obtain fair compensation for their injuries on their own. If you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident, you need strong representation by lawyers experienced in handling motorcycle injury claims. Insurance adjusters fear Nadrich & Cohen because we’ve been successfully obtaining policy limit recoveries for motorcycle accident victims for over three decades.
Call our experienced motorcycle accident lawyers today 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 only charge you a fee if we obtain compensation for you. You can also complete the contact form on this page or text us from this page.
Compensation For Motorcycle Accident Injuries
There are many forms of compensation we can recover for you in a motorcycle accident case, 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: An experienced motorcycle accident lawyer at Nadrich & Cohen 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 help you seek compensation for this.
- Lost wages: An experienced motorcycle accident attorney with Nadrich & Cohen 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: The experienced motorcycle accident attorneys at Nadrich & Cohen 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.
- Wrongful death: If you have lost a loved one to a motorcycle crash, we can file a wrongful death lawsuit on your behalf seeking compensation for burial costs, funeral costs, your loved one’s lost income, any pain and suffering your loved one experienced prior to dying, any medical bills your loved one incurred prior to dying, lost love and companionship and more.
Do I Need To Hire An Attorney If I’m In A Motorcycle Accident?
A personal injury lawyer at Nadrich & Cohen 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.
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 being injured in a motorcycle accident:
- Stay at the accident scene: It’s illegal for you to leave the scene of the accident without leaving identifying information.
- 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 for a motorcycle accident victim to not realize they’re injured 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 motorcycle riders. 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.
California Motorcycle Accident Statute Of Limitations
Motorcyclists involved in accidents in California usually have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. However, when government entities are involved, such as in a motorcycle accident claim involving a dangerous roadway condition like a pothole, that time limit is reduced to six months.
Call us today for a free consultation so we have as much time as possible to build a convincing case for you and ensure any deadlines are met. It can take a long time to build a convincing case, so you cannot expect to recover maximum compensation for your injuries in a personal injury claim if you wait until a day before the deadline to call us.
What If I Was Partially At Fault For My Motorcycle Accident?
We can still obtain financial compensation for injured motorcyclists even when they are partially at fault for motorcycle crashes. When it comes to motorcycle accident claims in California, a motorcycle rider who is found 30 percent at fault for an accident simply sees the damages they are eligible to recover be reduced by 30 percent.
Call our law firm today so we can help you minimize the percentage of fault attributed to you in order to make sure you receive a fair settlement.
What If The Police Report Says I Was At Fault?
You may think you don’t have a valid motorcycle accident claim if the police report says you’re at fault for your accident, but you may be wrong if you do. In fact, we commonly obtain financial compensation for clients who come to us with unfavorable police reports.
First off, while a favorable police report can absolutely help you obtain compensation from an insurance company, police reports are not admissible as evidence in court, so an unfavorable police report is not the end of the world for you.
Secondly, we aren’t fazed by unfavorable police reports. Dealing with them is simply a regular part of our job and we have vast experience in picking them apart.
We know how frustrated you must be if the police and/or witnesses haven’t documented the accident as you saw it. However, police offers make mistakes due to error, inexperience or bias, and witnesses sometimes lie or are sometimes misquoted. The accounts of the police and/or witnesses don’t mean your case is over – you should call us before giving up.
Common Causes Of And At-Fault Parties In Motorcycle Accidents
A key factor in building a successful motorcycle accident case is identifying what and who caused your accident. Common at-fault parties in and causes of motorcycle accidents include:
- Drivers of automobiles
- Distracted drivers: Motorcycles are more difficult to see than larger vehicles, and are even more difficult to notice when drivers are distracted. Distracted drivers commonly strike motorcyclists while making left turns, and commonly rear-end motorcyclists as well.
- Reckless driving and traffic code violations: Those who injure you by breaking the law are guilty of negligence per se and must pay you for any damages associated with your injuries. Examples include right-of-way violations, speeding, driving the wrong way, changing lanes abruptly, road rage, suddenly stopping, drunk driving and texting while driving. Negligent drivers often pull into the path of motorcyclists and this can be a deadly situation.
- Employers: Companies and government agencies can be liable for motorcycle accident injuries when their employees cause them by acting badly.
- Defective and poorly designed roads: Poor roadway conditions caused by defectively designed roads or improperly maintained roads can cause motorcycle accidents. Motorcycle accidents can be caused by storm drain runoff, debris and potholes. Motorcycle crashes can be caused by animal carcasses, tree branches, grass clippings, loose gravel, rubble, mud or oil. Motorcycles can crash because of litter, screws or nails from unsafe construction zones, or because of open utility hole covers. We may be able to help you obtain financial compensation from private contractors or government entities such as CalTrans, city governments or county governments.
- Defective products: Sometimes motorcycle accidents are caused by defective motorcycles or defective motorcycle parts. A manufacturer of motorcycles or motorcycle equipment may be held liable for injuries in a products liability case. Examples include accidents involving brake failures, electrical malfunctions and defective helmets which fail to protect the rider’s head.
You can obtain financial compensation for a motorcycle accident if you pursue a negligence claim. However, you will need experienced motorcycle accident lawyers to do so.
You need aggressive, dedicated lawyers to hold an at-fault party responsible for a motorcycle accident. Call us today for a free consultation.
California Motorcycle Accident Attorney
The vast majority of our cases are settled out of court. There is a small chance your motorcycle accident lawsuit will go to trial. Having the history of success and experience of Nadrich & Cohen on your side will ensure that you receive fair compensation for your injuries.
We have recovered over $350,000,000 in financial compensation for our clients since 1990. Our past results in motorcycle accident cases include a $1,000,000 settlement for a motorcyclist whose femur was fractured by a collision with a car on Highway 99, and a $1,000,000 settlement for a motorcyclist whose femur was fractured by a collision with a car on I-5.
Our attorneys offer a no fee promise. This means we collect a fee if a recovery is made.
Call us now to speak with one of our California motorcycle accident attorneys. We will provide free consultation to advise you of your rights. 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.
