Why you need an attorney for your motorcycle accident claim

Personal injury claims from accidents involving motorcycles are handled differently from accident claims involving car accidents and it takes a skillful, experienced attorney to help you navigate the process. At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we have handled many motorcycle accident claims and have seen over and over how these types of claims are treated by insurance companies.

One of the things we have seen in motorcycle cases is a potential client will call, or a family member of a potential client will call and one of the first things they will say is “are we in trouble, can we even make a claim?” And when we ask, “Why would you say that?” their answer is because the driver of the motorcycle wasn’t wearing a helmet. If you are not wearing a helmet and are involved in an accident, this doesn’t stop your claim! This is a type of insurance “roadblock” or what we call insurance law – sometimes insurance companies will just say things that aren’t necessarily correct. In fact, there is no law in the State of Ohio that requires experienced motorcycle operators to wear helmets. Additionally, there is a law that says the lack of wearing a helmet can’t come into evidence in a civil case.

How are motorcycle accident claims different than auto accident claims?

In a typical auto accident such as a rear end collision, we typically don’t have to worry about the conduct of our client. You were sitting at a stop sign and someone hit you, you did nothing wrong. In a typical motorcycle case, to use a baseball analogy, it seems like our clients are starting off with two strikes against them. Insurance companies see a motorcycle claim and will often use stereotypes such as “your guy was speeding on his motorcycle” or “your guy was driving recklessly”. There seems to be a stereotype with insurance companies and motorcycle claims in terms of the drivers’ actions.  

Another difference between motorcycle accident claims and auto accident claims is, in the auto wreck cases when Jane Doe gets rear ended, no one is concerned or looking into Jane Doe’s background. In our motorcycle accident claims we feel our clients are sometimes unfairly “pigeonholed” into typical motorcycle stereotypes. We often hear “your guy is a reckless, Evel Knievel, wild driver” or “your driver is a member of a motorcycle gang”. These are stereotypes we have to combat right at the start to move insurance companies off of these roadblocks and actually looking into the case on its own merits.

What are the challenges in motorcycle accident claims?

One of the biggest challenges in a motorcycle accident claim is convincing the insurance company that this is a serious matter. When you are rear ended in a vehicle hopefully seatbelts are on and airbags deploy, and while you can still have very serious injuries, you are still somewhat protected in your vehicle. In a motorcycle accident, oftentimes when the smoke clears, you are not on your motorcycle anymore. What happens at the scene of an accident is very important to explain to the insurance company.

At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we will take the time to investigate what happened after an impact, where was our client ejected at, where did our client land, where did our client hit before they landed, how far from the bike were they thrown? We have even seen in some of our motorcycle cases where our clients have been impacted so hard, they were thrown out of their shoes.

The photos, the documents, bodycam footage and other evidence in a motorcycle case can really illuminate the serious nature of what happened out on the road that day versus a typical rear ender car accident.

The clock is ticking, don’t wait to contact an attorney

If you are involved in any type of accident where you have personal injuries, don’t hesitate to contact a personal injury attorney. Waiting only hurts your case! Oftentimes someone will contact us 3 weeks after the collision, and while that is not a long time to the average person, to a personal injury attorney, that 3 weeks feels like 3 years because evidence starts disappearing. Once the team at Willis, Willis & Rizzi gets involved, immediately evidence preservation letters will go out which ensures that important evidence will not be discarded or deleted. This primarily pertains to video footage. Footage is on a loop and quickly disappears as it is not practical to save long periods of video footage data. When we sign up a new client a few weeks after the accident, they will often say “there’s a camera right there at that overpass”. While the client may be correct there is a camera at that overpass, the video footage is only saved for 3 days so unfortunately the evidence is gone.

Time matters in these cases. What separates Willis, Willis & Rizzi from our competitors is, when they sign up your case, they move on to signing up the next 50 cases because their business model is one of volume. When we sign up your case, we immediately begin working on preservation of evidence, because preservation of evidence equals more dollars for your claim.

Why choose Willis, Willis & Rizzi for your motorcycle accident case?

At Willis, Willis & Rizzi if we take on your case you will get our full attention – we will hit the ground running. We want to be the “lead dog” in that Alaskan sled dog team in going out and getting any body cam or dash cam footage. We will go out to the scene and get all the necessary measurements. If it is a highway accident, there may be Ohio Department of Transportation camera footage available.

While our competitors are moving on to sign up more motorcycle cases, when you sign with Willis, Willis & Rizzi, we are immediately working on your motorcycle case.

Call us today at 330-535-2000 to speak to a personal injury attorney today.