7 Mistakes That Ruin Personal Injury Cases
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If you’ve been seriously injured in any of the above-mentioned personal injury cases, please do not hesitate to reach out to us as soon as you possibly can. Your case will be treated as a priority. You will get strong and dependable representation from our Boise personal injury lawyers. We want to encourage you to reach out to us today to set up your free initial consultation. You deserve justice and we can help you get it. Call us today.
Boise Bicycle Accident Lawyers
We help people injured in cycling accidents throughout the state of Idaho
Have you been seriously injured in a bicycle accident caused by someone else? Victims of bicycle accidents are often in serious condition after they are involved in a collision with a vehicle. It is a scary and uncertain time for victims. Our Boise bicycle accident lawyers want to be there for you during this difficult time. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with your questions and concerns about your bicycle accident claim. Our Boise bicycle accident lawyers will give you your first free initial consultation when you call as soon as possible.
Boise Bicycle Accident Lawyers
Have you been seriously injured in a bicycle accident caused by someone else? Victims of bicycle accidents are often in serious condition after they are involved in a collision with a vehicle. It is a scary and uncertain time for victims. Our Boise bicycle accident lawyers want to be there for you during this difficult time. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with your questions and concerns about your bicycle accident claim. Our Boise bicycle accident lawyers will give you your first free initial consultation when you call as soon as possible.
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The Parties Involved in a Bicycle Accident Case
There are four parties involved in any given personal injury claim. It is no different for a bicycle accident then it would be for say a car accident. If you were harmed by a vehicle that caused your accident, then you are going to be the plaintiff of a bicycle accident claim. As the plaintiff you are asking for justice for the damages from which you’re suffering. You have every right to seek legal action if you’ve been harmed by someone else’s negligence.
The person who caused your accident might be a car driver, truck driver, or motorcycle driver. That person is going to be considered the liable party in your personal injury case. They are going to be the ones who are proven to be physically responsible for causing your accident and causing you harm. It’s imperative that this person be identified as soon as possible.
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The liable party is going to be represented by their insurance company. This insurance company is going to be fiscally responsible for your justice. They will have to provide you compensation for all of your damages. They are going to try to make it harder for you to get the results that you deserve. They will do everything in their power to devalue your claim.
Having strong Boise bicycle accident lawyers by your side is going to help you fight back against the insurance company and ensure that you have a fair result in your claim. The sooner you reach out to your Boise bicycle accident lawyers, the better. It is so important that you seek legal action right away.
Once you’ve brought your claim, your lawyers will start building a strong case against the liable party. You can assume that the insurance company is going to try to settle quickly and with a low offer. You should not take a lower offer. If you have a good lawyer by your side, they won’t encourage you to settle until you have full and fair results.
Things You Can Do to Strengthen Your Case
Being involved in an accident like this can make you feel helpless. But we want you to know that there are things you can do to strengthen your case.
We would first like to encourage you to seek immediate medical care. This is perhaps the most important part of any bicycle accident case. If you get immediate medical care, it means you were taking care of your injuries as soon as possible. That is good because you don’t want them to get any worse and you don’t want to suffer longer than you have to. You’re also strengthening your case by seeking immediate medical care because it shows the insurance company that they have no room to claim that you lied about your injuries. They like to try to claim that you lied, when you wait to see a doctor. You also have medical records that you can use as evidence to show the insurance company just how badly they’re insured hurt you.
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The next thing you should avoid doing in order to strengthen your case is speaking with the insurance company. The insurance company will reach out to you fairly shortly after your bicycle accident. Our Boise bicycle accident lawyers strongly suggest that you meet for a free consultation before you talk to the insurance company. In fact, you might find that you are encouraged not to talk to the insurance company for any reason. The insurance company is going to try to get you to give them a recorded statement, which is not going to help strengthen your case. They will actively try to get you to say something that will weaken your case. Let your lawyers handle communications with the insurance company so your case remains strong.
Frequently Asked Bicycle Accident Questions
How are bicycle accident cases different from car accident cases?
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.
How do I choose the right 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.
How do you determine the value of my bicycle accident claim?
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.
How long will it take to resolve my bicycle accident claim?
One of the things people are regularly concerned about when they’ve suffered an injury accident on their bicycle is how long the case is going to take. How long is it going to take to resolve my injury accident claim? It really depends. It depends on a lot of things. It depends on where it was, for one. It depends on the scope of your injuries, too. We want to understand fully what your injuries were. We want to make sure that you’ve fully recovered and reached a level of maximum medical improvement, where we know how you are and we know how you’re doing.
We can resolve things related to the damage to your bicycle itself pretty quickly, but as far as how long it’s going to take, it can take quite awhile for some cases. If the insurance company is unfair or if the driver is trying to fight their claim and say what they did wrong wasn’t really wrong, you end up having to go to court. It can be quickly or it can take a long time; it depends on the facts in your situation.
If you have any questions about your accident claim and how long it might take in Idaho, just call us at the firm. We’re all happy to talk to you about your claim and what the process might be in your situation.
Is it a good idea to speak with the insurance company after a bicycle accident?
Idaho insurance companies will almost always reach out after your bicycle accident to talk to you. One of the things they’ll tell you is you need to give them a statement. I can tell you right now that that’s a mistake. You do not want to just give a written or oral statement to one of these insurance companies. Why is that? It’s because they’re not looking to help you. They’re looking to use something against you. They’re looking for you to say something that they can use to minimize the amount of money that they are ultimately going to pay. They will minimize it down to zero if they can.
Like many, cyclists injured by a car want to treat the system fairly. They think that they should just be able to explain what happened and accept responsibility, even though they did nothing wrong. That insurance company is going to use that statement against them one hundred percent of the time. The insurance company for the driver of the vehicle that caused personal injury to you on your bicycle in Idaho has no obligation whatsoever to you. They can mislead you. They can lie to you. They can misdirect you.
It’s very important, before you ever talk to an insurance company, to talk to a good trial attorney about your case. Give us a call and let us help you understand your situation before you go and talk to the insurance company. Talking to the insurance company without being prepared is a mistake every time. If you have any questions about this, give us a call here at the firm and let us talk to you about your situation.
What common mistakes do people make in their bicycle accident cases?
People make some pretty straightforward standard mistakes when they have a bicycle accident injury case here in Idaho. It’s things we see regularly. Usually those mistakes are because the injured person is trying to be a decent person. They’re trying to treat everybody honestly and fairly and not make complaints. Often, they’ll admit that they did something when they really didn’t do anything wrong. They don’t realize that the insurance company is not there for them. You’re not in good hands if you’ve been injured by an All State driver, and State Farm is not your good neighbor if a State Farm-insured car has hit you on your bicycle. They’re looking to minimize the amount that they pay you, not take care of you.
One of the things people do wrong is they talk to the insurance company ahead of time without really preparing and thinking about it. When we’re in the trial process and we get ready to have a witness talk to the defense lawyer, we’ll spend hours and sometimes days getting the witness ready. If you haven’t spent your time thinking about what questions they’re going to ask you, and what they want to know and why they want to know it, then you’re going to make a mistake in talking to that insurance company representative.
Another thing people do wrong with some regularity is they don’t really get all the medical care they should or the follow-up they should. Sometimes, you just want to wave off the medical care, disregarding the doctor who said you should do this or you should have this follow-up therapy. If you’ve injured yourself – fallen off the roof of your house and done something to yourself – maybe that’s okay, but it’s very important in an insurance claim situation if you’ve been in a bicycle accident injury, that you follow up with that medical care and do what the doctor says. Why? Because that insurance company for the other side will want to use it against you if you admit you haven’t really taken care of the damages that you’ve incurred. They’ll say it’s your own darn fault that you’re feeling bad still.
Those are a couple of the major mistakes people make over the course of their bicycle accident claims that we have seen here in Idaho. If you have any particular questions, you want to talk about your case, just give us a call here at the firm. Any of us would be happy to talk to you.
Do I have a claim if I was partially at fault for my bicycle accident injuries?
When you’re involved in a bicycle accident, it’s natural to think, “Maybe I did something a little bit wrong. Even though that driver put me at much more risk, I should have stayed stopped. Maybe I have some responsibility for this injury accident I had. Can I even still bring a claim?” The short answer is yes, you can. Why is that? It’s because in the world of Idaho bicycle injury cases, Idaho operates using what’s called comparative responsibility or comparative fault. What that means is who has what share of responsibility for the accident?
The term lawyer’s use is the apportionment of liability or the apportionment of responsibility, and we speak about in percentages. We ask juries to do this all the time. Was the driver 100% at fault? Was the driver 75% at fault, and the cyclist 25% at fault? Are they both equally at fault, 50/50? Is it 60/40? There’s no magic calculation. It’s hard to evaluate, sometimes. This is a thing that an experienced quality trial lawyer can help you understand if you have a case where you think you may have some responsibility.
Give us a call. We’re happy to talk to you about apportionment of responsibility and the comparative fault components of your claim. We can help you figure out whether it’s a claim that you should still pursue, even though you might have done something a little bit wrong, if the driver did more wrong than you. We look forward to talking to you.
Does my auto insurance protect me in the case of a bicycle accident?
Cyclists are often surprised to learn that their own auto insurance can come into play if they’ve been injured by the negligent actions of a driver while they’re out riding their bike. There are various coverages that can come into play. You have to realize that not just the bad guy’s insurance but your own coverage, including your underinsured motorist coverage, comes into play.
What’s underinsured motorist coverage or uninsured motorist coverage? They’re related. They’re types of coverages that you can purchase for yourself that protect you from the actions of a negligent driver. If that negligent driver doesn’t have enough insurance and causes substantial injury to you and if you’ve purchased underinsured motorist coverage, you have protection against those losses. It’s really protection for yourself.
Much like your helmet is protection for yourself or riding with a camera can be protection for you, your underinsured motorist coverage is protection for you. That same applies with uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is for situations in which the driver has absolutely no liability coverage at all and you have purchased coverage to protect yourself. The reality is, both underinsured and uninsured motorist coverages are very cheap here in Idaho. This Idaho insurance does a great job of taking care of you.
Our recommendation is that you look at your budget, and what you can reasonably afford, and buy as much underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage. This is particularly true for cyclists in Idaho but buy as much coverage as you can reasonably afford within your own budget because you’re taking care of yourself from the actions of other people who have been negligent or who drive dangerously. If you have a question about insurance coverage, just give us a call. We’re happy to talk to you here at the firm.
Call Our Boise Bicycle Accident Lawyers Today
We understand that this is a very difficult time for you after you’ve been involved in a bicycle accident. We want to assure you that we are there for you every step of the way. You deserve strong and dependable legal representation and we want to provide that for you. Please do not hesitate to call us as soon as you can. We will set you up with your first free initial consultation and get you started on taking legal action to get the justice that you deserve. Call us today.
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