Unfortunately, there is not much protection for a cyclist when they get into an accident with a motor vehicle. In many cases the need for a bicycle accident lawyer is necessary in order for the person that was riding the bicycle to get the proper representation when they go to court for injuries that they sustain because of an accident they were in due to the negligence of another person.
What is a Bicycle Accident Lawyer?
The law is a very complex entity that has literally thousands – if not millions – of statutes, codes, revisions and stipulations. When a person that is unfamiliar with the law tries to tackle a court case without legal aid they usually get railroaded and end up walking away feeling defeated and ignorant.
With the ever growing and changing statutes of laws the need for an attorney that focuses all of their energy on one point of practice in particular is prominent. There are motorcycle injury attorneys, drunk driving attorneys, commercial trucking attorneys, and so on.
Basically a bicycle accident attorney is a lawyer that specializes in bicycle injury accidents because they are experts in that type of law.
In any event, when a person gets into an accident while they are riding on their bicycle they can become seriously injured because there is nothing to protect them from injury besides typical protective gear such as a helmet and gloves.
A bicycle attorney will have experience with accidents that result in severe injuries that take extended amounts of time to recover. As the healing process happens in the hospital, the attorney will take the steps necessary to protect the client and make sure that their needs are taken care of as best as possible while they are recovering from their injuries.
What is a Personal Injury Lawyer?
A personal injury lawyer is an attorney that specializes in cases that involve the personal injury of a person. In fact, a bicycle lawyer is a type of personal injury attorney because they deal with injuries caused by accidents that happened because of the negligence of another person, or other people.
An example of a personal injury would be if a person was riding their bicycle down the street in the bike lane within the boundaries of the laws that pertain to the area that they are in gets rear ended by a drunk driver that swerves beyond their lanes and enters the bike lane.
In this instance, the injuries from the accident are not critical and the cyclist is OK. However, in the real world that cyclist may have suffered from permanent damage because of the drunk driver.
Needless to say, the drunk driver will get legal charges against them and probably go to jail. Regardless of how much jail time the driver gets, none of it will compensate the cyclist for any injuries that they obtain as a result of the accident.
In this instance the cyclist suffers a broken arm and their $5,000 bicycle is totaled. The cost of the hospital visit, the loss of wages because of the broken arm, the pain of the injuries, the suffering and anguish of the cyclist and the cost of the bicycle are all at stake. A personal injury attorney that specializes in bicycle accidents would be a perfect person to contact for help and representation.
What Personal Injury Attorneys Do
Since each case that a personal injury lawyer will deal with is different, the way that they handle every case will vary from client to client. The primary function of the attorney is to represent the client in the court system, and protect them from the other side of the argument.
Most of the injury cases will involve an insurance company that has its own lawyers. The primary goal of the insurance companies is to leave the courtroom without spending any more money than they have to. If that means that the injured party goes away without being compensated, they are OK with that.
The defendants in the case will most likely try to dodge blame and shift the focus of the accident from the person who truly caused the accident to the person that was injured. They will want to bring up what the injured party had to do with the accident and minimize the injuries that were sustained.
A personal injury attorney will have the people on their team gather evidence, collect statements, search for facts and many other tasks that will ultimately be key points for the case that will not only prove the negligence of the other person involved, but generate a fair amount of compensation for the injured party.
What is Fair Compensation?
In the event of an accidental injury what is considered “fair” compensation can vary from one case to the next. For instance, a person could be the victim of a negligent accident and walk away with mild injuries with a small amount of damage to their vehicle. Another case could be from a person getting hit head on while driving on a freeway where they suffer from multiple critical injuries and a completely demolished vehicle.
Obviously the person that walked away with the miniscule amount of damage would not be entitled to as much compensation as the one that was in the critical accident.
Sometimes catastrophic accidents where there are critical injuries can add up to costing millions of dollars. Between hospital stays, medications, surgeries, loss of wages, and suffering the fair compensation could add up to several million dollars. After those million dollars are paid, the injured could only walk away with a couple of thousand dollars after they pay all of the hospital bills that they owe.
An attorney that specializes in injury will be able to collect all of the pertinent information regarding the case and present it to the judge and the court as an offer to settle the case. The defendants of the case can accept it or deny it and come back with a counter offer.
Bicycle Riders and Their Dangers
As most people are aware of, bikes do not have any outside protection to help them stay protected in the event of a collision. When a person is driving in a vehicle such as a car or a truck they are surrounded by steel, doors, glass, and other barriers that could protect them in the case of an accident.
Since cyclists do not have the type of protection that automobiles have they tend to get more serious injuries when they get into accidents. This is why it is important for a cyclist to have the help of an attorney that has experience with catastrophic injuries. For the people that tend to ride a lot, the best way to make sure that you have a great defense is to have a bike attorney on retainer that you already know and trust. Otherwise, if you are traumatically injured, you may not be able to make those kinds of decisions on your own. Food for thought.
Conclusion
It is pretty obvious that the only difference between a personal injury lawyer and a bicycle accident lawyer is that a bicycle lawyer specializes in accidents that involve cyclists. Although a bicycle accident can be considered a personal injury, if you hire a bicycle attorney to represent you, there may be a better chance of a successful case.