Arizona is a popular place for motorcyclists to live in, with almost 300,000 registered motorcycles in the state. The downside of this popularity is that Arizona is also a state that has a lot of motorcycle accidents and motorcycle injuries.
If you are involved in a motorcycle accident that results in personal injury and/or property damage, then call Stone Rose Law today at (480) 490-8998 to team up with one of our Scottsdale motor accident lawyers.
We will confidently represent you to ensure you receive the substantial compensation you may be entitled to for your physical injuries, lost income, and other losses you may have suffered because of a negligent driver.
After a motorcycle accident with another motorist, either the other driver’s insurance company or your own may approach you with a quick settlement offer. Be wary of such offers.
Auto insurance companies are businesses that exist to make a profit. Once you file a car accident policy claim, you become a liability to the insurer.
Insurance companies will try to get you to agree to a settlement as quickly as possible before the true value of your claim fully develops. The fewer accident-related injuries they’re responsible for, the more money they save.
At Stone Rose Law, we recommend talking with one of our personal injury lawyers at (480) 490-9889 as soon as you receive an insurance settlement offer. We will review it with you in a no-cost consultation to determine if the settlement offer is fair to you. We will also ensure that it does not trade away your ability to claim the maximum compensation you may be entitled to for your motorcycle accident injury claims.
The most frequent kind of motorcycle accident is what you might expect: a collision with another motor vehicle.
The next two common Scottsdale motorcycle accidents are losing control of the motorcycle (overturning), or colliding with a fixed object.
Accidents involving pedestrians, bicyclists, animals, and other causes do occur, but they are far less frequent.
Unfortunately, you can do everything right while riding your motorcycle and still be involved in an accident. In about half of Arizona motorcycle accidents, the motorcyclist did nothing to cause the crash.
There are many ways other drivers can cause motorcycle accidents:
Understanding who is at fault for a motorcycle accident is important in Arizona because it is a “comparative negligence” state when assigning the share of blame for a vehicle accident. This means that if the motorcyclist is found to have contributed to the accident, a court can find the motorcyclist at fault for it and reduce any recovery you might be entitled to.
The best way to lower your chance of being involved in a Scottsdale motorcycle accident is to watch your speed. This is also a good way to avoid losing part of your compensation claim to comparative negligence.
In about 20% of motorcycle accident cases, the motorcyclist is at least partially at fault. This can be from driving too fast for the current road condition. The faster you are driving when a motorcycle wreck happens, the more likely you will suffer catastrophic injuries like broken bones, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and organ damage.
Another way to reduce your risk of a motorcycle accident and the possibility of contributory negligence is to pay attention when following other vehicles and making left-hand turns. Rear-end collisions and left-turn accidents are the most common motorcycle accidents for Arizona motorcyclists, together making up about half of all injury-causing and fatal motorcycle accidents. It’s not uncommon for the vehicle drivers to make the claim that they simply “didn’t see” the motorcycle in time.
One perk of riding a motorcycle is experiencing the environment around you without being seat-belted inside a shell of metal, plastic, and glass. However, this also means that there is nothing to protect you in an accident but your helmet and the clothes on your back.
Even a low-speed accident can leave a motorcyclist with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken and fractured bones, and soft tissue damage from abrasions, lacerations, and burns. You can still experience serious injuries like a traumatic brain injury while wearing a helmet.
You can also suffer crush injuries from being run over or road rash injuries from skidding underneath your motorcycle or being dragged by another vehicle.
Motorcycle collisions can also lead to injuries that may require intensive and costly medical care. Before you know it, you’ll be seeing bills come in for a wide range of medical costs, including:
These drastic expenses are why motorcyclists should always carry as much Uninsured Motorist (UM) and Underinsured Morotorist Insurance (UIM) as they can afford.
In some cases, you may be unable to return to work full-time or could even become totally disabled. How will you replace your lost wages?
Of course, the worst-case scenario is that the accident is fatal. If this is the case, your legal claims for injury compensation would fall to your estate and possibly also to your family as a wrongful death claim.
An experienced personal injury attorney can tell you that the exclamation, “I’ll see you in court!” is one that is often heard yet seldom realized. This is because most motorcycle accident lawsuits settle out of court.
Receiving a fair settlement depends heavily on how well you negotiate with insurance companies and their lawyers. This requires experience with the legal complexities of Arizona personal injury cases.
This is why it is important to have a personal injury law firm like Stone Rose Law on your side.
After you get into a motorcycle crash, you may discover that insurance companies, including your own insurer, are not necessarily your friends. They often have interests adverse to yours.
The greater your injuries and other harm done to you, the larger your potential personal injury claim judgment award is in a lawsuit. Insurance companies will be eager to settle your claim as soon as possible and for as little as possible. This pressure grows as the potential settlement payout increases.
Insurance companies typically only provide you with an attorney if someone is making a claim against you. And although your insurance company attorney may be sympathetic to you, that lawyer is duty-bound to do nothing to harm your case. However, it’s important to remember that the insurance company is paying for that lawyer’s time and will want to keep your payout as low as possible.
It is also important to realize exactly who the attorneys that you interact with represent. For example:
Expect these attorneys to know Arizona personal injury law, to be experienced, tough negotiators in personal injury cases, and to not care whether you get treated fairly or receive fair compensation that covers all your injuries.
Arizona’s comparative fault law will lead these other attorneys to look for ways to put some or all of the blame on you. They will also be looking for ways to get you to say, do, or sign things against your own interest.
The cost of hiring a personal injury law firm attorney who charges by the hour to navigate complex settlement negotiation is too often beyond the reach of most Arizona residents. This can be even more expensive if the claim moves to court.
This is a key reason why most personal injury claims for motorcycle wrecks never reach the trial stage of the legal process.
If you hire a Motorcycle injury lawyer who charges by the hour, you may feel pressure to settle quickly while you can still afford your lawyer.
At Stone Rose Law, our motor vehicle and motorcycle personal injury accident lawyers in Scottsdale work for you on a contingency basis. We get paid only if we win for you.
You never have to compromise the value of your settlement claim for personal injuries or your potential motorcycle accident lawsuit because of law office bills.
The stakes are too high when negotiating a motorcycle accident injury settlement for you not to have an experienced lawyer whose only job is to represent you.
We provide superior yet affordable serious injury legal representation for injured motorcyclists in Scottsdale and across Arizona.
We are highly experienced in providing legal aid to motorcycle accident victims looking to recover compensation. With our motorcycle accident attorneys’ combined knowledge and unique insights, we will help you maximize the amount of fair compensation you receive.
Our Scottsdale personal injury lawyers can help you secure financial recovery from insurance companies to compensate you for serious injuries and losses.
Call us at (480) 498-8998 today to set up a free consultation with one of our Scottsdale motorcycle accident injury attorneys. Contact us here to ask a question to a Scottsdale motorcycle accident attorney, or set up a consultation about your Scottsdale motorcycle accident claim. Remember, under Arizona law, motorcycle accident personal injury claims and property damage are subject to a two-year statute of limitations that can easily slip by before you know it. Don’t wait until it’s too late.