It’s critical.
Having an attorney who is a general accident attorney handle your motorcycle case is like having your family doctor perform your brain surgery. No one in their right mind would do that.
In a typical accident, someone makes a left-hand turn in front of you and cuts off your motorcycle.
If you’re in a car, you jam on the brakes, which are probably ABS brakes. You try to steer at the same time, and you don’t have to give it any thought at all. In fact, the harder you jam on the brakes, the better the ABS system works.
Motorcycles, even motorcycles with ABS brakes, are not the same as cars. The rider of a motorcycle first has to decide what the trajectory of the car is and then they decide whether to try to go behind or in front of the car, or whether they should just slam on the brakes.
It’s not recommended on a motorcycle that you break and swerve at the same time because it can cause you to crash. You might decide that you should break first and then swerve. Maybe not. It’s complicated.
You need an attorney who understands how long it takes to do each of those things because he has to show that what you did in the available amount of time made sense.
If you don’t have enough time to swerve or if you don’t have enough time to stop the motorcycle, you’re going to hit the car. Presenting a motorcycle accident is all about knowing all of the steps, and how to time them.
Even after the decision is made to stop the motorcycle, you have to figure out how much front brake you are going to use and how much rear brake you are going to use, unless you happen to have a motorcycle that has linked brakes and does that for you with a computer chip.
Again, compared to a car-to-car accident, this is very different and the numbers are very different. The main thrust of the case is going to be to determine, once the car cut you off by making the left turn, whether or not you had the chance to stop. The defense will claim you blew it because you weren’t paying attention.
Do You Know of Any Motorcycle Cases Where the Defense Lost Due To Poor Representation?
I recently settled a case where a vehicle was making an illegal U-turn in the middle of the block across a double yellow. The motorcycle rider locked up the wheels and crashed in the street. The defense expert was not sufficiently knowledgeable to know that if the motorcycle rider had spent more time practicing panic stops and was more skilled and careful, he would have been able to stop without having any accident at all. Mistakes by attorneys who don’t know about two-wheeled vehicles happen all the time.
I’ve had attorneys ask my client whether motorcycles have seatbelts. I’ve had any number of attorneys ask my clients how the brake lever works and how the rear brake works and which is which. I smile secretly, because I know that my client and I have a huge advantage in presenting the case.
There is an enormous amount of knowledge needed to handle these cases. It’s astounding how low the level of knowledge is in most attorneys.
Even attorneys who advertise themselves as motorcycle lawyers don’t always know what they are doing. Surprisingly, a lot of them have never even ridden a motorcycle. Yet they have the nerve to call themselves motorcycle attorneys and put the ads on the internet. They don’t know and so they are not concerned about things they don’t know about. These attorneys handle and settle cases for a lot less than they are worth. Yet they honestly believe they have done a great job for their client because they just don’t know any better.
Is There Anything Else that You Would Like To Add?
A lot of times clients have accidents involving head injures and they don’t remember the accident at all. I’ve handled a lot of these cases, and they are tough.
Sometimes there just isn’t enough physical evidence and without a description of the accident, there is nothing that can be one. It’s very, very frustrating. Other times, we’ve been able to get enough physical evidence of how the accident happened to reconstruct exactly what took place and show that it was the fault of the driver we’re seeking damages from. These cases can be very, very challenging and absolutely impossible for those attorneys without substantial experience as a motorcycle attorney.
For more information on Hiring the Right Motorcycle Attorney, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling (800) 928-1511 today.
