If you were hurt in a motorcycle accident, you should speak with a lawyer right away. Attempting to handle your case through insurance without the help of a lawyer could leave you settling for a low dollar amount that fails to cover your needs. If the insurance company denies liability for their driver, it could also be hard to overcome their challenges.
When you work with our Lakewood, NJ motorcycle accident lawyers, we can fight your case in court to get you the damages you need for a serious injury case. We can also help you collect evidence and build a strong case.
For a free case review, contact Legal Care New Jersey at (732) 838-9769. Call our Lakewood motorcycle accident lawyers today.
Damages Available in a Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit in Lakewood, NJ
If you were hurt in a motorcycle accident, you might be entitled to file a lawsuit. Most drivers need to worry about no-fault insurance laws blocking their ability to sue in court, but motorcyclists are not covered by NJ’s no-fault rules and can typically turn straight to a lawsuit for damages.
When you sue for damages, you can typically claim damages for the three most important areas of compensation you will need after an accident: medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Medical Bills
The cost of having your injuries treated at a hospital is often quite expensive. Moreover, you may need ongoing medical care, such as home nursing care, trauma counseling, physical therapy, and more.
Victims can often get these damages covered through a lawsuit against the at-fault driver who caused your accident. Our Lakewood motorcycle accident attorneys will work with your doctors and collect evidence of bills and financial statements to prove these damages in court.
Lost Wages
If you were out of work during your recovery, you will already have faced concrete damages that you should be able to get compensated through a lawsuit. On top of these past lost wages, you could be facing current and future lost wages if you are still out of work and will face future workplace complications.
In many lost wage claims, our Lakewood motorcycle accident lawyers will work to calculate what wages you should have been able to achieve going forward between your injury and your prospective retirement age. If your injuries require you to go on light work duties or take a less physically demanding position with a pay cut, we can calculate the difference between your old and new wages to calculate lost earning capacity. If you cannot work at all, we can claim the full value of your projected future wages as lost wages.
Pain and Suffering
Motorcycle accidents often involve substantial physical harm and may even involve permanent loss of limb, long-term disabilities, or life-altering injuries. These damages tend to come with very high levels of pain and suffering.
These damages are considered “non-economic” damages and are not based on bills and financial statements. Instead, more severe injuries often result in higher pain and suffering. Our Lakewood motorcycle accident lawyers will look at factors such as your lost enjoyment of life, lost abilities, trouble with activities of daily living, the mental and emotional effects of your injury, and more to determine what your pain and suffering is worth.
Proving Fault in a Lakewood Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit
When filing an insurance claim or a lawsuit for motorcycle accident injuries, your motorcycle accident lawyers will have to prove that the driver who hit you was legally at fault for the crash. Proving liability in an auto accident case typically involves proving that the driver violated a legal duty (such as a traffic law), and that that violation directly caused your injuries.
Violations and Negligence
Common traffic violations that are used as proof of fault in a motorcycle accident involve the following:
- Speeding
- Drunk driving
- Distracted driving
- Tired driving
- Failing to signal
- Failing to yield (e.g., during left turns or while merging)
- Following too closely/tailgating
Even minor bumps that would probably not lead to serious damage with another car can cause motorcyclists to suffer devastating crashes. Because of this, even slight or minor traffic violations like failing to signal could be a substantial cause of a serious motorcycle accident.
In addition to explicit traffic violations, our Lakewood motorcycle accident lawyers can also hold drivers accountable for other unreasonable decisions or actions behind the wheel. These kinds of situations require a case-by-case analysis, so it is important to have your attorney look at all of the factors.
Assigning Fault
Many motorcycle accidents also involve multiple at-fault drivers. Make sure to collect information at the scene of the crash or get a copy of the police report to help identify all potentially at-fault drivers involved in your accident.
When you file your claim or lawsuit against another driver, you might find that they deny fault and instead try to blame you for the accident. This victim-blaming is a common defense tactic, especially for motorcycle accidents. Drivers and their insurance companies will often claim that a motorcyclist made themselves more vulnerable to injury by failing to wear safety gear or simply by riding a motorcycle instead of driving a car. As long as you were following all safety gear requirements, these kinds of defenses are usually untenable.
If, however, you were speeding or otherwise did something wrong, they could claim that this contributed to the accident. In many cases, the jury can assign you a percentage of the fault and reduce your overall damages by that same percentage. However, this should not block your ability to sue unless the court finds you were more at fault than the other driver.
Call Our Lakewood Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Today
If you were injured in a motorcycle crash, call the Lakewood motorcycle accident attorneys at Legal Care New Jersey today at (732) 838-9769. Our lawyers offer free case reviews.
