Ways You Can Lose Your Motorcycle Accident Claims and Cases
Here at InsuranceQuoteIQ.com , I’m going to give you the top three ways to lose your motorcycle accident case, and kill your chances at getting a settlement,so we are talking about motorcycle accident claims right now.
The first way to lose your motorcycle accident claim is, if the at fault driver that hit you has no bodily injury liability insurance coverage. That’s the coverage that pays you for your pain and suffering, out-of-pocket medical bills and lost wages. Unfortunately, in a state like Florida which is where I’m a motorcycle accident lawyer, most vehicles are not required to have any bodily injury liability insurance coverage.
If you’re badly injured in a motorcycle accident and another driver is at fault, your best case scenario is that you were hit by an 18 Wheeler or a corporate vehicle or an Uber or Lyft vehicle when they were engaged in a ride. This is because in all of the cases I just mentioned, there’s a much higher probability that there will be enough bodily injury liability insurance to pay for your injuries,18 wheeler typically have at least $750, 000, of bodily injury liability coverage and Uber and Lyft vehicles.
There will be one million dollar liability insurance coverage if rider has agreed to take a ride and its on the way to get ride through drop off. Just because you’re hit by a vehicle that’s owned by a company doesn’t mean that there’s going to be bodily injury liability coverage.
I’ve seen some companies that only have $10, 000 of bodily injury liability coverage or so. If the at fault driver that hit you does not have enough bodily injury liability insurance to pay for your injuries, you then look for your own uninsured motorist insurance on the motorcycle.
Uninsured motorist insurance also known as UIM coverage, pays you for pain and suffering and your out-of-pocket medical bills and lost wages, if the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance to pay for your injuries. If you don’t have uninsured motorist insurance on the motorcycle that you are riding, you then look at your cars that you own to see if you had uninsured motorist insurance on those.
In a state like Florida, the uninsured motorist insurance, if you have stacking coverage, it will cover you for your injuries on a motorcycle even if you owned the motorcycle and it was uninsured. If you did not own the motorcycle that you were driving, and someone else is at fault, uninsured motorist whether stacking or non-stacking, both of them will cover you for your pain and suffering, medical bills and loss wages.
And if you lived with a relative on the date of the accident and they did not own the motorcycle that you were riding when you got hurt, their uninsured motorist insurance should cover you, if the at fault driver does not have enough bodily injury liability insurance. You can find out if you have uninsured motorist insurance on your car or any vehicle by looking at the declarations page of your insurance policy, which you should easily be able to get online or on their app.
The second way to lose your motorcycle accident case or get a very small settlement is if your injuries are minor or if you don’t get medical treatment for your injuries. In any personal injury case, your injuries determine the full value of your case, and this applies to motorcycle accident cases as well. Minor injury cases are tough enough if you’re in a car and you’re injured but if you’re on a motorcycle, you have juries that are not wild about motorcycle riders. That means that many jurors will not award large payouts, for people who are injured while riding on a motorcycle.
When I use the phrase minor injuries, I’m talking about just neck pain or back pain or knee pain or elbow pain. I’m not referring to cases if you have a broken bone or fracture and surgery. Those cases are worth a lot more money, than just having neck pain or back pain in most cases. For example, I have friends who are accountants and their view on injured motorcycle riders who are hurt, even if someone else is at fault is that they would not award one penny, if they were on a jury for pain and suffering.
Unfortunately, a lot of jurors feel the same way about motorcycle claims as the couple of friends of mine, that I just mentioned do. Now big injury or death claims have a much higher, full settlement value in motorcycle accident cases,by big injuries I’m referring to broken bones and surgery, fractures, bleeding of the brain, a horrible burn, if someone is killed in an accident and things like that.
The third way to lose your motorcycle accident case, is if you were the only one at fault in the accident.In order to get money for pain and suffering and out-of-pocket medical bills and lost wages, there has to be someone at fault other than you. Now do not just rely on the police officer’s crash report. In motorcycle accident cases as you can imagine, it’s usually best if the police officer gives the other driver a ticket. This means that the other driver was at fault and police officers usually get it right.
However, there are plenty of circumstances where the police officer can give the motorcycle rider a ticket and he or she may still have a good case. In Florida, if you’re riding a motorcycle and you’re partially at fault, you can still make a claim for the other driver’s percentage of fault. For example, I represented a motorcycle rider who was heading down the street in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
An 18 Wheeler was coming the opposite direction and made a left hand turn in front of the motorcycle rider, the motorcycle rider flew off the bike and ended up breaking a finger and his leg, and ultimately had surgery on both of those. Now, in this case, the officer gave the ticket to the truck driver and I determined that the truck driver was a 100% at fault. However, I settled the motorcycle riders case for $445, 000 but let’s assume that he was 50% at fault, if the facts were a little bit different. In this case, he’d be able to get half of the $445, 000, which would be around $222, 000 or so.
Florida is very generous to motorcycle riders in this regard. Fortunately, Florida does not have a law that says, if the motorcycle rider’s at fault at all or 50% at fault or more, he gets nothing. To help prove fault, you may want to ask the owner of the vehicle that hit you to preserve the event data recorder, also known as a black box. In a hard break or heavy impact case, the black box may show the other vehicle’s speed, whether they braked prior to impact, the speed prior to impact and many other things.
Ridermagazine says that some motorcycles have an event data recorder in them.
To learn more on how to deal with the insurance company in motorcycle accident claims or cases, so you get the largest settlement possible fast, check out for more guides here.
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