There are many great places to ride a motorcycle throughout Georgia. If you get into a motorcycle accident, you will be very lucky to escape with minor injuries. Motorcycles do not have seat belts, crumple zones, air bags or other safety features present in cars. This increases the risk of significant injury for motorcycle riders who crash. Many of these crashes are caused by reckless or negligent behavior on the part of other motorists. This means many of these crashes can be avoided and the injured motorcycle riders who are involved could be entitled to compensation. The Albany motorcycle accident lawyers at our firm can discuss your accident and injuries in a free, no obligation legal consultation. If you decide to pursue a case, we will work for you on contingency. This means there will be no legal fees unless we help you recover compensation.
Roden Law‘s personal injury attorneys have recovered fair compensation for many victims of negligence, including those injured in traffic accidents.
Complete a Free Case Review form today or call us at 1-844-RESULTS.
Motorcycle Crash Injuries
Even wearing a helmet may not save you from serious or life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle accident. Unlike riding in a car, there is nothing to protect your body from getting hit by the road, other vehicles or stationary objects, like road signs, medians or sidewalks.
This is why victims often suffer severe injuries, such as:
- Broken bones – Riders often suffer broken bones in the arms and legs. Crash victims are also at risk for fractures in their wrists, shoulders and pelvis.
- Road rash – This occurs when riders hit the surface of the road, causing a skin abrasion. These injuries can range from mild to severe. Sometimes areas of the skin are completely scraped off.
- Head and brain injuries – Riders can suffer severe bruising and lacerations to their head, particularly if they are not wearing a helmet. Crash victims can also suffer concussions and other traumatic brain injuries that cause debilitating symptoms, such as confusion, personality changes, loss of coordination and seizures.
- Spinal cord injuries – Some people who are quadriplegics or paraplegics became disabled after a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle crash.
If you suffered one of these injuries or any other in a motorcycle crash you believe was caused by negligence, contact an Albany motorcycle accident lawyer right now for a free consultation.
Fill out a Free Case Review form.
Filing an Insurance Claim
Many motorcycle crash victims attempt to obtain compensation by filing insurance claims. In Georgia, the at-fault driver’s insurance company is financially liable for the victim’s damages. This means you must first file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
Other drivers are required to have bodily injury liability coverage that pays for medical expenses and lost wages for victims of accidents. The minimum amount of coverage required by law is $25,000.
Your Albany motorcycle accident lawyer can also pursue compensation from the other driver’s property damage liability coverage. This pays for damage to your motorcycle in the accident. Drivers must carry at least $25,000 in coverage.
However, the value of your damages may exceed the limits of the other driver’s coverage. There are also situations when the at-fault driver does not have insurance coverage.
When either of these things happens, your attorney may be able to obtain coverage from your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. If you have this coverage, it will pay for medical bills, lost wages and property damage up to the limits of your policy.
The other two coverages we may be able to draw compensation from include collision and medical coverage. Collision covers damage to your motorcycle and medical covers medical expenses.
When you contact Roden Law, an Albany motorcycle accident attorney can review your situation to determine your options for obtaining insurance compensation.
We can handle all communication with insurers after you initially file a claim. This includes settlement negotiations.
It can be dangerous to talk to insurance companies yourself because they will try to get you to say something that hurts your case. Our experienced attorneys have dealt with insurers many times and know how to defend your best interests. We will not accept lowball settlement offers because we know how to determine a fair value of your damages.
Call Roden Law today at 1-844-RESULTS.
Motorcycle Accident Lawsuits
Georgia also allows you to file a personal injury lawsuit after your motorcycle accident. A lawsuit may allow you to recover additional forms of compensation not available in an insurance claim, including:
- Pain and suffering – This refers to the physical and emotional effects of your injuries, including the pain you feel on a daily basis. You may also experience depression, mood swings or sleep disturbances, particularly if you suffer a head or brain injury. An attorney will know how to properly document the fair value of these damages. This is challenging because there are no bills for pain and suffering. This is one of the benefits of working with an attorney.
- Lost earning capacity – You could suffer a permanent injury that limits your mobility or causes other limitations that affect your ability to work in the same capacity you did before the crash. You may even be forced to switch jobs or work in a different field. If this happens, an Albany personal injury lawyer may be able to obtain compensation for the loss of earning capacity.
Sometimes filing a lawsuit is your only option for obtaining compensation, such as when the other driver lacks insurance coverage or your attorney is unable to obtain a fair settlement from the insurance company.
This is one of the reasons it is to your advantage to have an experienced, knowledgeable Albany motorcycle accident attorney during the legal process. A lawyer with courtroom experience will not be tempted to accept an unfair settlement offer from the insurance company because he or she will be prepared to go to court.
We understand going to court makes people anxious, and that is why we can manage every aspect of this process. We will keep you informed about what to expect and what we need from you to help build your case.
It is extremely important to contact an attorney as soon as possible. Georgia’s statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits, such as motorcycle accident lawsuits, is two years from the date of the crash. This means you will lose the right to file a lawsuit after two years have passed from the date of the accident.
Part of those two years might be spent pursuing insurance compensation. However, the statute of limitations will still be running while we are doing this. If your claim is unsuccessful, you may have much less than two years to file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations expires.
Our motorcycle accident attorneys in Albany understand this and will be prepared to file a lawsuit while we are pursuing insurance compensation.
Schedule a free legal consultation to find out the other ways we can help you after an accident.
Are You Partially at Fault for the Crash?
Sometimes motorcycle riders are somewhat responsible for ending up in a motorcycle accident or suffering injuries. For example, maybe you were not wearing a helmet, which is required by the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) 40-6-315.
In these situations, juries and insurance companies will use Georgia’s modified comparative negligence law to determine if you can recover compensation.
Under this law, victims who are more than 50 percent at fault are prohibited from receiving compensation. Victims who are less than 50 percent at fault will have their compensation awards reduced by their percentage of fault. This means an award of $60,000 would be reduced to $50,000 if you were found to be 20 percent at fault.
You may not be familiar with this law, but our Albany motorcycle accident lawyers are. We know how this law is applied and will fight to help ensure it is used fairly in your case. You should not be assigned more fault than you deserve.
Contact Roden Law by completing a Free Case Review form.
Types of Motorcycle Accidents
Riding a motorcycle is dangerous, no matter how many safety precautions you take. This is why some motorcycle accidents are the fault of the riders themselves. Simply riding over gravel too quickly could cause you to lose control of the bike and hit the pavement.
However, there are many other types of crashes caused by the other drivers’ negligence. This includes the following types of crashes:
- Car-door collisions – Sometimes drivers open their doors as a motorcycle is approaching and the biker crashes into the door. This can cause the rider to vault over the handlebars and off the bike, which is a life-threatening situation. This is why motorcyclists should be extremely cautious when riding next to a line of parallel-parked cars.
- Left-turn accidents – Drivers are not used to looking for motorcyclists, particularly when they are making turns. Sometimes drivers do not see or fail to look for motorcycles before making a left turn on a green light. This can result in the motorcyclist crashing into the car at high speed.
- Crashes during lane changes – This is also a result of failing to look for motorcyclists. Some drivers simply start to change lanes and can sideswipe a motorcyclist. There are also situations when a driver cuts off a motorcyclist and the rider does not have enough time to stop before rear-ending the car. This is not only dangerous, it is against the law. Georgia law says all motorcyclists are entitled to the full use of a lane. Other motorists cannot deprive you of the use of a lane of traffic.
- Rear-end crashes – These often happen when a motorcyclist is stopped at a stop sign or red light and a car hits him or her from behind. Even at slow speed, this can be devastating for a motorcyclist. It can cause him or her to get thrown off the bike.
The Albany motorcycle accident attorneys at our firm are prepared to take cases involving many types of crashes. Contact us today to discuss what happened and your potential legal options.
Call an attorney right now at 1-844-RESULTS.
What Causes Motorcycle Accidents?
As discussed above, motorcycle crashes are often a result of careless actions by drivers, such as distracted driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, violating right of way laws, following too closely, speeding or not looking for motorcycles.
Our Albany motorcycle accidents lawyers know there are many causes of motorcycle crashes. That is why we will do a thorough investigation to determine what happened and how the other driver was negligent. This includes carefully reviewing the police report, taking pictures at the scene, obtaining any video footage of the crash, and consulting medical experts to determine how your injuries are linked to the driver’s negligence.
In order to obtain compensation, we must prove the other driver violated a duty of care and link this to your injury. The duty of care is a legal duty to act in a reasonable manner to prevent others from suffering injuries. If we can establish a breach of the duty of care and show that you would not have been injured without this breach, we may be able to prove negligence.
Schedule your free legal consultation to find out how we can help with your claim.
Contact Roden Law’s Albany Motorcycle Accident Lawyers
Have you been injured in a motorcycle accident?
Our attorneys know how devastating these crashes can be for the victims. You may have permanent physical limitations, along with intense pain and possibly permanent disfigurement.
Many of these accidents are the result of another driver’s negligence. That means you may have legal options for pursuing compensation. This could cover your physical, financial and emotional damages caused by the crash.
Schedule a free, no obligation legal consultation today to determine your rights. If you have a viable claim, we can pursue it on contingency. That means no fees or costs unless you are compensated.