Eugene Bicycle Accident Lawyer

It can be difficult to know what to do immediately after a bicycle accident, especially if you have been seriously injured and are severely traumatized by the crash. It’s important that all of the following happen after a crash. Whether or not you, specifically, are the one to do the following things, though, will likely depend on the severity of your injuries.

• Your accident needs to be reported to the police. It’s very important that your bicycle accident is reported to the police, that the names of all those involved are recorded, and that you get a copy of the police report. If your accident is reported to the police, it will be difficult to create a connection between the accident and your injuries when you are seeking damages from your insurer.
• You need medical care. Getting medical care after an accident is incredibly important. Most importantly, getting medical care improves your chances of healing to the maximum extent possible – what’s known as reaching Maximum Medical Improvement. But getting medical care, just like filing a police report, helps to establish a connection between your damages and the accident. After you are released from the hospital, it’s also very important that you follow your doctor’s medical orders. If you don’t, then you may not heal to the extent possible, which can be used against you during settlement negotiations.
• Your crash needs to be investigated. Your crash needs to be investigated in order to determine what happened, how the accident could have been prevented, whose negligence caused the accident, and who’s to blame. Conducting an investigation on your own is difficult, especially if you’re seriously injured. As such, it’s smart to hire an attorney who can travel to the accident scene, track down eyewitnesses, take pictures, bring in accident reconstruction experts, and more.
• You need to file an insurance claim. If you have insurance, you should give your insurance company notice of your accident, even though you were hit while riding your bike. You should also make sure that the at-fault driver’s insurance is notified of the crash, too. Eventually, you’ll need to go through the formal process of filing a claim in order to recover compensation – our lawyers can help.

Being hit by a driver who doesn’t have insurance is one of the worst possible things imaginable – even worse than the fact of being hit alone. If the driver who hit you doesn’t have insurance, though, there may still be some sources of compensation. These include, but are not limited to, your own policy’s PIP or uninsured/underinsured insurance, the insurance of a third party, a lawsuit directly against the at-fault party, your health insurance, and more.

If a person is under 16 years of age and they are riding a bicycle, they are required to wear a helmet. That means that you do not have a legal obligation to be helmeted while riding in Portland. That being said, wearing a helmet is always a good idea. If you are in a crash, wearing a helmet can reduce your risk of sustaining a traumatic brain injury – a leading cause of death in bicycling crashes. If you weren’t wearing a helmet and you suffer a traumatic brain injury, the insurance company may make an argument that you could have prevented the brain injury by wearing a helmet, and therefore that specific injury is partially your fault.

In some cases, both the cyclist and the driver are partially to blame for an accident. For example, perhaps the driver was distracted, but the accident occurred at night and the cyclist didn’t have lights on their bike. If you are found to be partially to blame for your accident, you should know that your fault is not a bar to your recovery. However, if you are found to be partially to blame, then your damages will be reduced in proportion to your degree of fault. So, if you’re found to be 10 percent at fault and your claim is worth $100,000, you can only hold the other party liable for 90 percent of that, or $90,000.

Determining the value of your claim is something that cannot be done in an instant – any attorney who tells you otherwise or makes grand promises about how big of a settlement they can get for you should be approached with caution. The value of your case depends on numerous factors, including the degree of your injuries, whether or not you contributed to the case, and other damages you’ve suffered. What’s more, even if you deserve to be paid a certain sum, what you’ll be able to recover is dependent on the amount of compensation that’s available through insurance policies.

While you don’t have to work with a bicycle accident attorney, doing so is a smart decision. When you work with an attorney, your attorney can handle all of the most important elements of your case, like opening an investigation into your accident, talking to the insurance adjuster on your behalf, and making a determination about fault and the value of your claim. Your attorney can also negotiate a settlement offer, and represent you in court if need be. Throughout the process, an attorney will be available to answer any questions that you have and make sure that your case is on track.