Canoga Park Motorcycle Accident

You’ve heard it time and time again. Motorcycles are dangerous. You get it; but since you’re a reasonable person, always follow traffic rules, know how to handle your motorcycle, and wear proper protective attire, you feel relatively safe. But you can’t control how other people drive in your hometown of Canoga Park and Southern California as a whole. All it takes is one careless driver updating their social media status to change (or end) the life of a motorcyclist. So it can be truly devastating when the negligence of another party is to blame for your accident.

Regardless of whether you’re on two wheels or four, the first thing you need to do after any accident is to seek appropriate medical attention as soon as possible. Motorcycle injuries tend to be quite serious; but even if you think it’s no big deal, there may be underlying injuries (such as concussion) that don’t show up right away. You’ll want a clear picture of your injuries both for proper recovery and to help with your injury claim.

We’ll take a look at how liability is established after a motorcycle accident, different types of damages that may be available, and the importance of working with an experienced Canoga Park motorcycle accident lawyer at Walch Law when you’ve become injured.

In most cases, the cause of a motorcycle will be negligence. When a party is negligent (careless, more or less), it means they owed you a duty of care—a term for the legal responsibility to act in a reasonable manner—but breached that duty, resulting in your injury or injuries. Since injury claims can’t erase what happened, the best you can do is seek monetary compensation for your losses. When someone is determined to be liable, they must pay you for the losses that result from your injuries, which are referred to as damages.

Although you likely won’t go to court for a motorcycle injury claim, your Canoga Park motorcycle accident lawyer will want to put together an air-tight claim in order to have the best possible leverage when it comes time to negotiate a settlement.

In order to establish the other party’s negligence, you’ll have to show the existence of these legal elements:

1. The defendant (at-fault party) owed a duty of care to the plaintiff (the injured party)
2. The defendant breached that duty
3. The plaintiff’s injuries were in fact caused by this breach
4. The defendant’s actions were the proximate cause of the injury (if not for the careless driver, the accident never would have happened)
5. The plaintiff suffered actual damages, such as bodily injury

Keep in mind that you may be contacted by the at-fault party’s insurance company soon after the accident with a settlement offer. But it may be too low and you may not have a full assessment of your injuries, so you should therefore wait until you’ve had a chance to speak with your attorney. Also, as indicated above, not all injuries present themselves immediately following the accident.

If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident, chances are you’ve suffered quite an ordeal. Hopefully you’re wearing a highly rated helmet and leather gear and taking other safety precautions. In any event, you’ll want to tabulate all of the losses you’ve suffered as a result of your injuries, which may include things you wouldn’t have even considered right away, such as the impact of the injury on your future ability to earn a living and the pain and suffering you may have endured while recovering. And if riding your motorcycle defined much of your life, you could also collect damages for a diminished quality of life.

While your attorney will help you fully assess the value of your claim, damages may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Disfigurement or permanent disability
• Pain and suffering
• Diminished future earning potential
• Loss of consortium (intimacy and affection)

Being involved in a traffic accident is scary enough. But when you’re struck by a car or truck while traveling at high speeds on two wheels, the impact can be downright terrifying. Even if your injuries are treatable, you may suffer lost income from missing work, a long road to physical recovery, disfigurement, or even permanent loss of earning capacity. Learn more about your claim by contacting the legal experts at the Law Offices of Gary K. Walch, a Law Corporation today.