Laredo Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Laredo Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman Explains Your Rights After You Have Been Injured in a Bike Wreck

Every day in the state of Texas, hundreds of thousands of bikers hit the road on their motorcycles – from ear-splitting choppers to putt-putting scooters. With so many motorbikes on the road, some of them are going to be involved in accidents – it’s a statistical certainty.

If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence – whether someone’s simple inattention or a more severe form of negligence like drunken driving – then you likely have the right to pursue compensation for the harm you’ve been forced to suffer from the party or parties who caused the accident. If this has happened to you, then you need to know your rights and the legal options available to you. If you’ve lost a family member in a fatal motorcycle accident, then you need to know the methods you have at your disposal for bringing the responsible party to justice.

Laredo motorcycle accident lawyer Michael Grossman and his team of specialists at Grossman Law Offices have been helping injured Texans recover from motorbike accidents for over 20 years, so we know how challenging and stressful it can be to bounce back from your injuries and get your life back to where it was before. We’ve helped hundreds of injured people secure many millions of dollars for the injuries they’ve suffered or the loved ones they’ve lost, so we know how to help you. We want to help you better understand the legal process you are about to undertake, so that you have the best chance of securing the compensation to which you are entitled after being injured or losing a loved one in a West Texas motorbike wreck.

Motorcycle Accidents are Vastly Different From Car Wrecks

Dramatically, one needs only to look at the damage caused by the wrecks to see the difference between motorcycle wrecks and automobile accidents. To put it plainly, people who are involved in motorcycle accidents are simply at greater risk of harm than those who are secured inside a car. In 2009, 434 motorcycle riders were killed in wrecks according to statistics released by the Texas Department of Transportation – that’s 14 percent of all traffic fatalities in the state. Furthermore, 5,800 motorcyclists suffered serious injuries in accidents. Two-thirds of all motorcycle accidents in the state of Texas result in serious injury or death. No matter how well a motorcycle functions and rides, its construction lacks an outer frame to provide protection to the rider and any passengers.

The legal process to seek restitution for injuries suffered during a wreck is complicated by the increased hazard presented by motorcycle wrecks. Many car wreck claims can be settled through the insurance claims process without involving an attorney or filing a lawsuit. When it comes to the more serious injuries that tend to be involved with motorcycle wrecks, insurance companies often put forth a much greater resistance to fairly compensating the victim because to do so would be to surrender much more money than is typical in a car wreck. Often times, motorcycle accident victims must have the help of a knowledgeable and experienced Laredo motorcycle accident attorney. You could be forced into settling for far less compensation than you deserve, or possibly nothing at all, if you don’t have assistance from an attorney with years of experience with similar cases. Both insurance adjusters and defense lawyers count on their ability to take advantage of the inexperienced.

Texas Motorcycle Accidents that Result in Injuries

While always dangerous, motorcycle accidents don’t always have tragic results. In many cases, riders only suffer cuts, scrapes, bruises, and road rash. While motorcycle wrecks can end up in death, spinal cord trauma, or traumatic brain injuries, road rash, when the rider topples on his or her bike and skids along the street, scraping away a portion of skin. If not properly treated, road rash can easily become infected. Road rash reveals the importance of seeking immediate medical attention after being injured in any sort of accident. If allowed to fester and worsen, road rash can develop into a much more serious problem. Thus, if you don’t pursue medical care for your injuries, you could transfer liability from the negligent party who caused the accident to yourself due to the negligent mistreatment of the condition. The court will not allow you to hold someone else responsible for a condition that was complicated due to your own negligence. By dealing with the injury with haste, you can protect yourself from further harm and document the full extent of the harm you have sustained.

Since motorcycle accident victims are usually thrown from the vehicle due to the open nature of the vehicle, many victims of motorbike wrecks sustain much more severe injuries. Thrown riders rarely come to rest softly and usually break bones along the way. Granted, it’s not comparatively expensive to repair broken bones. But, if a rider does any kind of manual labor for a living, then he or she will be forced to miss work and lose salary while recovering from the broken bones. Through a personal injury lawsuit, a portion of these lost wages can be recovered.

In the most severe injury situations, motorcycle accident victims need lifelong medical treatment, therapy, and accommodations after suffering spinal cord injuries, brain trauma or disfigurement. Scars and broken bones are bothersome, but burns and amputations are obviously far worse, with burns calling for painful recovery. Amputations, moreover, greatly diminish the victim’s quality of life. Motorcycle accident victims have the right to be compensated not only for their physical injuries and financial travails but also for the emotional and mental trauma they’ve suffered.

Texas is not among the 20 states that have mandated helmet use for all motor cycle riders, as the Lone Star State only requires helmets to be donned by motorcycle riders who are less than 21 years old. By taking a training course and insuring one’s self for at least $10,000, any Texas can avoid wearing a helmet. A lot of people like to ride motorcycles because of the freedom they feel while they are strapped to the back of their hogs. However, the facts are plain and simple: it’s much safer to ride a motorcycle while wearing a helmet. When a motorcyclist wears a helmet, his or her chances of suffering paralysis or some other form of lifelong debility diminish substantially. In many cases, injuries are so severe from motorcycle accidents that the victims are left in serious financial straits following the accident. On the other side of that coin, when the price of the treatment rises with the severity of the injury, the insurance carrier has that much more incentive to fight the claim. In other words, your need for the help of a skilled Laredo motorcycle accident lawyer rises incrementally with the extent of the damage you suffer.

When you’ve been injured in a West Texas motorbike wreck, bills can run from the hundreds to the thousands and even the millions depending upon whether you need treatment and care for a short time or few months, or a lifetime. Insurance adjusters handle claims like yours for a living, and they know to manipulate inexperienced people like you. You need a skilled and seasoned Laredo motorcycle accident attorney who has extensive experience with the compensation process to guide you in order get what you deserve. When you have suffered due to someone else’s negligence, you can’t take the chance that you will be tricked into accepting less than you deserve.

Fatal Texas Motorcycle Wrecks

When you process the statistics provided by the Texas Department of Transportation, you can see that more than one person per day die on average in motorcycle accidents. In other words, if this tragedy has befallen your family, then you are not alone. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make your loss any easier to take. At Grossman Law Offices, our Laredo motorcycle accident lawyers can help you ensure all of the parties who caused or contributed to the cause of your family member’s death is brought to justice and forced to pay for the loved one they have stolen from your family. You may pursue restitution through a wrongful death lawsuit if someone else’s negligent behavior caused the death of your loved one. Determining who is to blame isn’t always easy; however, because several different parties could be responsible in whole or in part for any motorcycle accident. In many cases, you will need the help of a wizened Laredo motorcycle accident attorney merely to determine who caused the accident and from whom you can pursue compensation.

When a loved one has been killed in a motorcycle accident, the surviving family members may seek both wrongful death damages and survival damages through a wrongful death lawsuit. Wrongful death damages are intended to allow surviving spouses, children, parents, and some dependent relatives to seek compensation for the losses they’ve incurred individually as a result of the death of their loved one. Such wrongful death damages may include funeral expenses, medical bills incurred by the deceased before he or she died, mental and emotional distress, loss of financial support supplied by the victim before dying, and loss of consortium, parental guidance, and familial. Individual claims can be filed for each one of these family members who suffer losses. Conversely, the closest living relative of the deceased is the only family member who can seek survival damages, which may include lost salary for work missed while the victim would have been in recovery, lost future earning capacity as a result of possible long-term disabilities, the mental trauma the victim would have coped with while dealing with the injury, and the physical pain and suffering experienced during the accident itself. While thinking about money may seem distasteful after a member of your family has died, there’s additional motivation to file a wrongful death lawsuit. There’s a far more universal reason to file a wrongful death lawsuit. By bringing the negligent party to justice and making them pay, you can provide the necessary encouragement to convince the negligent party to change the fatally flawed behavior. In most fatal motorcycle accidents, no criminal charges will be filed against the negligent party, unless the driver was drunk, under the influence of drugs, or intentionally caused the accident. You and your family have a very important responsibility to bring the wrongdoer to justice, so that you can prevent the negligent party from continuing his or her dangerous behavior and potentially robbing other people of their loved ones.

In addition, as we’ve already discussed it’s not always to put a finger on the cause of a wreck. Liable parties can include the driver of any of the vehicles, the maker of a defective vehicle or vehicle component. If you’re going to accurately sort through all of all of the possible reasons a fatal motorcycle accident may have occurred, then you will need the assistance of a professional investigator, like the skilled Laredo motorcycle accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices. For two decades, our lawyers have been investigating motorcycle accident cases and finding the evidence we need to prevail with litigation. We understand how quickly evidence tends to disappear or become altered in motorcycle accident cases, so we begin our professional investigation as soon as we’re hired. Our investigators rush to the scene of the wreck as soon we’re hired. We sequester and examine the motorcycle and any other vehicles involved in the accident, and we find and interview any available witnesses. Searching the scene of the accident, we will uncover any pertinent physical evidence, as well as, video or photographic documentation of the wreck, and we’ll scour through every police report. If the evidence is there, then we will find it.

Motorcycle Accidents Involving Drunken Drivers

In the state of Texas, the laws involving drunken driving accidents, known as dram shop laws, allow the injured victim of an accident or his or her family in the case of a wrongful death to seek compensation from the drinking establishment who over-served the drunk driver – depending upon the facts of the case. When the blood alcohol concentration of someone drinking alcohol in the state of Texas reaches .08 percent, that person is considered legally intoxicated, and it’s illegal to be in public while intoxicated, let alone behind the wheel of a car. In turn, Texas bars, restaurants, and other businesses where alcohol is distributed must actively attempt to identify when patrons have obviously reached the legal limit. If you or your loved one has been negligently served past the point of intoxication by a drinking establishment, and then you get into a wreck, you can pursue compensation from the drinking establishment. This law holds up both for a drunken driver who injures himself (with a first party dram shop claim), and when a drunken driver hurts someone else (with a third party dram shop claim). Dram shop claims are not filed in replace of taking action against the drunken driver, but in addition to it. At Grossman Law Offices, we haven’t just been dealing with motorcycle accident litigation, but we’ve also spent the past 20 years helping people with a variety of dram shop claims. Thus, we have the knowledge and skills to help you.

Defective Motorcycles and Product Liability

In recent years, boutique chopper shops have popped up all over the country. While many of these motorcycles are well-made, the level or craftsmanship on the whole has gone down and defective motorcycles are becoming a much bigger problem than they’ve been in the past. When bikes, or their parts, malfunction, the results can be disastrous wrecks. Just like the old adage indicates, “when something goes wrong on a motorcycle, it goes very wrong.” Even when the bike has been properly built and operates as intended, riding a motorcycle isn’t easy. A defective bike can endanger its rider at high speeds.

If a defective bike causes an accident due to a design or assembly flaw, then the victim may seek damages from the manufacturer using a product liability lawsuit. On the other hand, if an accident occurs as a result of the breakdown of a component part like the tires, brakes, or suspension, then victim can seek compensation from the maker of the part and the bike. As a result of part malfunctions, personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits stemming from motorcycle accidents often have multiple defendants.

Once your attorney has identified the cause of the accident as being a defective motor bike or one of its parts, he or she will need concrete physical evidence and expert testimony to win a product liability case. If your accident occurred due to a malfunctioning accelerator, then you will need the defective system in question and the help of a qualified engineer who convince the jury exactly how the part failed to perform its duty and why the manufacturer should be held liable. To be admissible in court, the physical evidence must be properly secured and preserved for trial.

If you don’t have experience with these cases, then it’s not exactly easy to find expert witnesses, they don’t gather in one spot in Laredo like migrant workers. Only through decades of experience handling similar cases can a Laredo motorcycle accident attorney develop consulting relationships with the right expert witnesses. At Grossman Law Offices, we’ve come to learn we can rely upon our stable of mechanical, engineering, and medical experts to testify in motorcycle accident cases no matter what the details of the case.

Lack Proper Motorcycle Maintenance and Deceptive Representation of Condition

When an accident results from a professional mechanic failing to provide proper service to the vehicle, then the victim or the victim’s family can file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit against the mechanic. When it comes to the art of motorcycle maintenance, many mechanics are unsupervised and self-trained.

Even more so, some disreputable people will attempt to sell used or damaged motorbikes, that are hazardous as sold. For instance, we were recently consulted by a man who had been sold a motorcycle only to discover that it was not handling as it was intended. Wanting to rectify the situation before it worsened, the man took his bike directly to his mechanic who quickly discovered that the radiator was defective, the triple tree was cracked, and a damaged frame had been hidden with spray paint and tape. By tricking this man into buying a previously wrecked motorcycle, the dealership violated the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. However, the dealer would have been in much worse shape if he had gotten into a wreck, for it would have been on the hook for punitive damages.

Overcoming Bias in Motorcycle Accidents

Sadly, if you were injured due to someone else’s negligence while you were riding a motorbike, you will have to overcome the prejudice of the jury. Due to biker gangs and they way they’re portrayed in the media, many Texans mistakenly believe that bikers are careless motorists who are inclined to recklessness, speeding, and dangerous behavior. Since insurance adjusters and defense lawyers prey upon these prejudices, deflecting as much of the blame as possible on the biker, him or herself. By getting the jury to believe that the biker was more than 50 percent responsible for the accident, the defendants can avoid all liability in this state.

Sadly for anyone injured in a motorcycle wreck where injuries tend to be severe, the insurance companies’ efforts to resist paying a claim tend to scale upward with the amount of damage suffered by the victim. When the prejudice against bikers is factored in, it can very difficult to get you deserve from an insurance company without the help of a skilled Laredo motorcycle accident lawyer. You will be taking on skilled and experienced insurance adjusters and defense attorneys, and you need someone with the same experience to protect your rights. After handling motorcycle accident cases for two decades, our attorneys at Grossman Law Office know how to convince juries to focus on the facts of the case and ignore their prejudices.

As another facet of society that often suffers from negative preconceptions, the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices sympathize with the modern motorcyclist. We know that most bikers are just normal citizens who enjoy the freedom on the back of a hog – not some lawless thug. Due to the dangers of riding motorcycles, we know that bikers have to be concerned with safety… or they die. On the other hand, we’re also aware you can’t win a case without a significant amount of evidence. To find that evidence, you must have a thorough investigation conducted by a skilled professional. Not only do you need an attorney to find the evidence but then use it to develop a full-proof case that forces a fair settlement or a sizable verdict. If you don’t have a clever and capable Laredo motorcycle accident attorney who knows how to find and use compelling evidence, your family will not attain the restitution it deserves. You will be lucky if you end up with anything at all.

Taking on Aggressive Insurance Adjusters

Like we’ve said, insurance adjusters are solely interested in increasing company profits and not in helping you receive compensation for the harm that has been done to you. To secure bonuses and get ahead, they must deny claims or discover new and different ways to reduce their value. These people have made names for themselves by bilking people just like you out of the compensation you deserve. They will rely on the prejudice of the jury and try to convince them that the biker caused the wreck. In order to get you to mistakenly admit your own liability, they will hound you with a series of befuddling questions for the purpose of getting you to slip up and admit your own liability or make your injuries seem far less severe than they are. Failing that, then the insurance adjuster will point the finger at a third party – anyone besides their policyholder. The insurance company isn’t foolish enough to try to fight your claim without an expert – it will employ a team of skilled attorneys who know how to conduct a fruitful investigation to yield evidence that incriminates someone else besides their client.

Of course, nothing is more threatening to your ability to be compensated than an insurance adjuster who looks like your friend. When they’re acting like they’re’ trying to help you receive compensation, then you really have to beware. You need to be very wary of any settlement offer they have made to you before you have hired a Laredo motorcycle accident attorney. If they think you have a strong case, then they try to trick you into surrendering your right to sue in exchange for a settlement offer that is far less than you deserve. You need to consult with an attorney before you sign away your right to sue. In order to differentiate between a fair offer and a con job, you need the help of someone who has accumulated years of experience handling similar cases. You need to hire a seasoned and knowledgeable Laredo motorcycle accident lawyer, or you will likely be taken advantage of by the insurance company.

How Grossman Law Offices Can Help You

There’s a wide variety of services Laredo motorcycle accident attorney Michael Grossman, and his associates at Grossman Law Offices can offer you, if you have been injured or a family member has been killed in a motorcycle accident, including:

• We’ve developed a thorough understanding of motorcycles and motorcycle law after 20 years handling these cases.
• We can connect you with a medical professional who will set up a manageable payment plan if you fear that you can’t afford to see pay your medical bills or seek treatment.
• We have a long track record of success. We know how to prove the negligence of the party who caused your accident.
• We don’t only deal with motorcycle wreck; we also litigate drunken driving cases, so we won’t back down from the demands of building a dram shop case against the drinking establishment.
• We not only personally understand the highly technical aspects of motorcycle wrecks, but we have relationships with a wide variety of experts who can translate the mechanical jargon into something the jury can understand and accept.
• We will get the jury to concentrate on the evidence and the details of your case and forget the prejudices they have.
• With a long track record of success winning motorcycle accident cases, we have earned reputation as a law firm to be respected. Thus, defendants and insurance companies are often more than willing to work out a favorable settlement rather than risk going to court.
• We know the insurance company’s tricks, and we can shield your rights and interests. We will act as a buffer between you and the insurance company, protecting you from their unfair settlement offers and obtrusive questions. We won’t allow our clients to hurt their claims by mistakenly saying something they regret.

After 20 years of dealing with all kind of motor vehicle accidents, Laredo motorcycle accident lawyer Michael Grossman and his associates have accumulated the knowledge, seasoning, and history success to successfully lead you through the compensation process. If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident, call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-338-0170. We can give you the opportunity to discuss the details of your accident with a trained professional. Once we’ve listened to your tale, we can answer any questions you may have and review your legal options. You can’t afford not to call us now.