Did you or a loved one get hurt while riding your bike? Read these 3 bicycle accident tips, then call our Boise bicycle accident lawyers.
1. Bicycle Accident Case Value
One of the natural things people wonder about with bicycle cases is what the value of their claim is. “I’ve been injured by a driver or a bicycle product that was inappropriately manufactured. What am I going to recover for that?” That’s a natural question. The issue is you have to look at all the components.
There are some easy components to consider. We call those the economic losses – the lost wages or the cost of your medical expense, or even the cost of replacing your bicycle or the clothes you were wearing when you got hit by the car. Those things are pretty straightforward and we can evaluate those easily. There are more complex losses involved, however—the freedom that was taken from you to choose to go for a ride and the impacts that it’s had on you, for example. These are what we call non-economic damages. When you got hurt and were in the hospital, people don’t ask you, “Hey, how much did your medical care cost?” They ask you, “How are you doing? When are you going to get back to it? When are we going to see you on a ride again?” Those are the important things to help evaluate. Figuring those things out is complex. Everybody’s different. Everybody has a different lifestyle and different things that impact them and different ways that specific injuries have impacted them.
Evaluating a bicycle case is an art. It’s one of the things that we as practicing trial attorneys in Idaho work on. We work on these types of questions all the time when we’re trying to evaluate what we think a jury will do with your situation, and that’s something we have to bring to bear with our experience. We’re happy to talk to you about it. We probably can’t give you a value of your claim over the telephone, and if any lawyer actually wants to give you a value of your claim over the telephone, you should run away from that attorney. Talk to somebody who’s willing to do the work it takes to really understand what’s happened to you and really understand the value of your bicycle accident injury claim in Idaho. It can be different in Boise or Coeur d’Alene or Pocatello but we can handle them all. Give us a call. We’re happy to talk to you. We always like talking to cyclists.
2. Choosing a Bicycle Accident Attorney
One of the things people often ask is, “How do I pick a bicycle attorney in Idaho?” It’s actually a unique question. There are basic issues involved related to picking a good personal injury attorney for your injury case, such as looking for a trial attorney with real trial experience who knows their way around the courtroom. What you want is a lawyer who will go to the courtroom because the insurance companies that you’re dealing with know that those lawyers will go to the courtroom in Idaho.
In a bike case, if you’ve been on your bike and injured on your bike, you want something else, as well. You want an attorney who knows his way around bicycles, who has an understanding of cycling and the special needs of cyclists and the special losses that cyclists have when they’ve been injured by the actions of a motorist. That’s another thing you want to look for when you’re searching for your Idaho bicycle accident lawyer. You want to look for an attorney who knows their way around bicycles and knows their way around cycling.
If you have any questions or you want to know anything further about looking for a bicycle accident attorney in Boise or anywhere in Idaho, just give our firm a call. We’re happy to talk to you about your claim.
3. How Bicycle Accidents Differ From Car Accidents
A lot of people wonder if bike accidents or bike wrecks are different from a car crash where two cars run into each other. The answer is they are somewhat different. One, the cyclist is often exposed to substantially greater injury because they are not protected by the metal cage of the car. There are different laws that apply to cyclists, too.
In Idaho, we have a whole group of road use laws that apply to cyclists. These laws can be used to help protect you, but the insurance companies and the defense lawyers who are hired by the insurance companies to protect the drivers who have hurt you will try to use some of those laws against you, so you have to be careful about the application of the various statutes that apply.
From the perspective of what your damages are, things are about the same as they would be with a car crash case. We can calculate what the scope of your injuries are, what your economic losses are, and what the pain and suffering or the non-economic components to your damages are of your bicycle accident injury case here in Idaho. You have to recognize that juries sometimes look at cyclists and say, “Hey, you took it upon yourself to be out there on the roadway,” so trying a bicycle accident case before an Idaho jury can sometimes be something that takes special skills and special understanding.You need an attorney with the ability to deal with the jury and persuade them that it wasn’t your fault that that car came from behind you and ran you over.
We know that jurors sometimes do have those types of views, so trying a bicycle accident injury case in Idaho can present unique risks that require high level trial lawyer skills. We’re proud to say, here at this firm, we bring those skills to bear. We’re happy to talk to you about your claim, whatever situation you’re in right now. If you have a bicycle accident injury case anywhere in Idaho, we’re happy to talk to you. Just give us a call and talk to one of us.
Were you injured while cycling in Boise and have questions about these 3 bicycle accident tips? Contact our experienced Boise Bicycle Accident Lawyers at Hepworth Holzer today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
We are committed to helping individuals and families throughout Idaho navigate the world of personal injury litigation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Let us get results for you and your family.
Subscribe to us on YouTube