Motorcyclists frequently suffer traumatic brain injuries in accidents, even when wearing a helmet. Bikers can face significant challenges in the aftermath of a wreck that caused brain trauma. It’s common for a brain injury to result in physical, cognitive, and emotional impairments, for example. Motorcycle accident victims also struggle with large medical expenses and income losses.
If you suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident, an experienced lawyer can help you rebuild your life. By pursuing lawsuits and insurance claims on your behalf, a skilled attorney can secure the compensation necessary to assist you in paying your bills and planning for the future. Reach out to a motorcycle accident lawyer.
The Wide Range of Motorcycle Accident Brain Injuries
Motorcycle accidents can inflict a wide array of brain injuries. And it’s not just bikers who ride without a helmet who suffer brain trauma. Anyone who rides may sustain a brain injury in a wreck.
That said, the worst brain injuries tend to happen to unhelmeted riders. Riding without a helmet triples the risk of dying or sustaining catastrophic brain trauma in a crash. Unhelmeted bikers who survive an accident may end up in a coma, or permanent semi-conscious state or severely impaired basic life functions like eating, communicating, or caring for themselves.
Nevertheless, even helmeted riders can sustain a brain injury that results in severe life disruption. If you take a knock on your (helmeted) head in a crash, for instance, you may sustain a so-called mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), which most people refer to as a concussion. But make no mistake: there’s nothing mild about the impact a concussion can have on your life.
Concussed motorcyclists can—and frequently do—suffer from lasting impairments that include:
- Cognitive difficulties and brain fog
- Memory loss
- Persistent headaches
- Struggles with emotional regulation
- Sensitivity to light and sound
- Fatigue and sleep disruption
- Depression, anxiety, and substance abuse
- Increased risk of degenerative brain disease
No matter what label a doctor puts on it, any brain injury you suffer in a motorcycle accident holds the potential to upend your life. Never brush off a brain injury simply because a medical professional refers to it as mild. Every motorcycle accident brain injury is something to take seriously.
Your Legal Rights as a Motorcycle Accident Victim
As someone who suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident, you may have significant and valuable legal rights to compensation. The law generally entitles you to seek monetary damages from anyone whose dangerous decisions or actions contributed to the cause of your wreck. Here’s an overview of who may owe you those payments and the types of harm you can demand to be compensated for.
At-Fault Parties May Owe You Compensation
Many motorcycle accidents happen because of the careless, reckless, or intentional actions of someone other than the injured biker. By law, you typically have the right to hold all of those at-fault parties accountable for the harm they caused.
In any given motorcycle accident, that could include:
- Car and truck drivers who failed to share the road responsibly, resulting in a crash
- Businesses whose employees crashed into you while driving a work vehicle
- The bars or restaurants that served alcohol to a drunk driver who caused your wreck (not applicable in all states)
- Government agencies or contractors at fault for unreasonably hazardous road conditions that made motorcycle riding unsafe
- Vehicle and vehicle part manufacturers that made and sold defective products, leading to an accident
These are just a few examples. The point is, as the brain-injured victim of a motorcycle accident, you can generally turn to the law to seek damages from anyone who puts you in harm’s way.
You May Demand Payment for the Full Scope of Harm You Suffered
Victims of brain injuries suffered in motorcycle accidents also generally have the right to pursue payment for the wide scope of harm they suffered. It may surprise you to learn just how expansive your rights to compensation are.
Every case differs, of course, but through insurance claims, lawsuits, and similar legal actions, you can typically demand payment for your:
- Past and future medical expenses in treating your brain injury and other health complications it causes, including for hospitalization, surgery, medication, and rehabilitation
- Past and future out-of-pocket expenditures for goods and services you need to help you adapt to or live with your brain injury, such as in-home care, occupational therapy and support, and mobility devices.
- Loss of past income and employment benefits because your brain injury kept you from work (including the value of sick leave or vacation time you used).
- Loss of future income and employment benefits your brain injury will prevent you from earning.
- Physical pain and discomfort caused by your brain injury and the treatment you receive for it.
- Emotional struggles and mental health challenges related to your brain injury.
- Inconvenience and disruption in your daily life due to your brain injury.
- Difficulties in personal or intimate relationships as a result of your brain injury.
- Overall loss of quality and enjoyment of life because of your brain injury.
In addition to these compensatory damages (that is, payments that compensate for the harm you suffered), you may also have legal rights to demand additional payments. For instance, courts may award punitive damages to punish the at-fault party for engaging in extreme or malicious behavior. You may also have rights to particular kinds of insurance payments or damages fixed by statute, depending on the circumstances of your crash.
How a Motorcycle Accident Attorney Can Help
An attorney’s job is to secure maximum compensation for your motorcycle accident brain injury from as many sources as possible. Skilled motorcycle accident attorneys handle every aspect of pursuing those payments on your behalf. They take the burden of getting compensation off your shoulders so that you can focus your energy on healing from and managing your brain injury.
Here’s a description of some services a motorcycle accident lawyer can provide.
Investigation of Your Motorcycle Accident
Your rights to compensation generally depend on an attorney being able to prove in court (if necessary) that someone else’s dangerous conduct led to your accident and injuries. A skilled lawyer can take steps to investigate how your motorcycle wreck happened and who should bear the blame.
Experienced lawyers know to dig deep into the facts—looking beyond the quick conclusions police or insurance investigators may have reached—to identify as many at-fault parties as possible. Why? Because the greater the number of individuals, businesses, and entities who owe you damages, the higher your odds of receiving the maximum compensation available.
Quick Actions to Protect Your Rights
Motorcycle accident lawyers know how to size up and act on your legal situation efficiently so that your rights stay protected. For instance, a lawyer can move promptly to give notice of your claim before a deadline expires or to secure critical evidence before it gets deleted or goes missing. The quick actions of a skilled lawyer can make the difference between receiving full compensation and no compensation at all.
Case Assessment, Planning, and Explanation
You deserve to receive a clear, thorough, and straightforward explanation of your rights as a brain-injured motorcycle accident victim. A skilled lawyer can provide that by conducting a comprehensive assessment of your case, planning a strategy to secure you the most money possible, and describing the proposed course of action in plain English. In the same vein, an attorney can also answer your questions and help you make key life decisions that may affect your legal rights.
Presenting and Litigating Your Claim
The rubber hits the road for your brain injury claim when it comes to presenting and arguing its merits to decision-makers like insurance adjusters, judges, and juries. An experienced motorcycle accident lawyer knows the best way to compile the evidence and legal principles that make up your case into a coherent narrative that clearly and forcefully explains why you deserve compensation.
The lawyer knows where, when, and how to submit those claims for them to have the most significant impact and the strongest chance of securing your money quickly. And a lawyer can present your case in a courtroom—including in a trial if necessary—to achieve the financial result you deserve.
Communicating and Negotiating With Insurance Companies
Motorcycle accident brain injury victims and their families routinely struggle with the inconvenience and frustrations of convincing insurance companies to treat them fairly. Dealing with insurance is rarely straightforward, but it can feel downright impossible when your injuries happen in a motorcycle wreck because insurers have a knee-jerk tendency to blame bikers no matter how a crash happened.
An experienced attorney, however, can protect you from the hassle and annoyance of interacting with insurance companies. Once hired, a lawyer takes over all communication with all insurers who may owe you money for your injuries and losses. The lawyer also handles all aspects of negotiating with insurance companies to achieve a settlement of your claim. All you generally need to do is decide—with your lawyer’s help—whether to accept or reject a settlement offer an insurance company puts on the table.
Talking to and Hiring a Lawyer Costs You Nothing Unless You Win
Motorcycle accident lawyers understand that a brain injury can put you and your family under significant financial strain. Therefore, they aim to make their services as affordable and accessible as possible.
Talking to a motorcycle accident injury lawyer for the first time should not cost you a dime, ever. All reputable attorneys representing motorcycle crash and brain injury victims offer a free consultation to learn about the services they might offer in your case. In this initial meeting, the lawyer can learn a little about your situation and give you a first-impression assessment of your rights. You will never have to pay the lawyer for the time spent in this consultation, even if you decide not to hire that lawyer to handle your motorcycle accident brain injury case.
When you decide who to hire, you can also expect not to pay a dime for the work the attorney performs on your case unless and until you see results. All skilled motorcycle accident injury lawyers represent their clients on a contingent fee basis. That’s an arrangement in which they do their work in exchange for a percentage of any money they secure on your behalf. They don’t charge upfront fees and don’t bill by the hour. They only get paid if they win for you.
How to Find the Right Lawyer for Your Motorcycle Crash Brain Injury Case
It’s not hard to find a lawyer who advertises services for brain injury and motorcycle accident victims. A simple Google search (which you’ve probably already done if you’re reading this) will probably suggest dozens of potential lawyers in your area. And having a choice is a good thing.
But you must choose wisely. Not all lawyers are created equal, especially when representing people like you who suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident.
The right attorney for your case should have a long track record of achieving successful results in cases like yours. It should also be someone you feel comfortable with after your free consultation. Ideally, someone whose past clients give them top-notch reviews for their hard work, dedication, responsiveness, and professionalism.
Connect With a Knowledgeable Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Today
You face a daunting challenge after suffering any type of brain injury in a motorcycle accident. Now is the time to focus on healing and rebuilding, not worrying about how you’ll pay for your care and recovery.
A skilled, experienced motorcycle accident injury lawyer can handle the entire process of pursuing compensation on your behalf. Contact a personal injury lawyer in your area today for a free, no-obligation case consultation.
Contact the Chicago Motorcycle Accident Law Firm of Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys for Help Today
For more information, please contact the experienced Chicago motorcycle accident lawyers at Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys today. We offer free consultations.
We proudly serve Cook County, Will County, Kendall County, and its surrounding areas:
Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys – Chicago Office
10 S La Salle St STE 1230, Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 726-1616
Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys – Joliet Office
195 Springfield Ave, Joliet, IL 60435
(815) 726-1616
