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Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Jackson Township, OH
Were you injured in a motorcycle accident in Jackson Township, Ohio? You may be entitled to compensation for your injuries through an auto insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit against the party responsible for the accident.Â
Motorcycle crashes often leave victims with significant injuries that rack up high medical bills and leave them out of work for extended periods. However, an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer can help you seek the compensation you need.
Contact the Flickinger Legal Group for a free consultation with a member of our legal team about your Jackson Township accident. During our meeting, we’ll review the cause of the accident, explain your options, and walk you through the next steps to take.
Common Causes of Motorcycle Accidents in Jackson Township
Understanding the causes of motorcycle accidents is crucial for holding the at-fault parties liable for your losses. Some of the most common causes of motorcycle accidents in Jackson Township include:
- Motorist Negligence: Many motorcycle accidents result from other motorists not giving riders the respect and space they deserve or not paying attention to their surroundings. Drivers may attempt to pass riders in their lane, follow too closely behind them, or not look for them when turning at intersections, which can all lead to collisions.
- Poor Road Conditions: Uneven pavement, loose gravel, and other road defects can cause riders to lose control of their motorcycles and crash. Government entities are responsible for maintaining the state’s roads and may be liable if these conditions contributed to the accident.
- Defective Parts: You may be able to hold motorcycle or safety equipment manufacturers strictly liable for your losses if a defect contributed to your injuries. For example, a brake failure or a helmet that doesn’t work as advertised could have caused or worsened your injuries.
To prove that another party was responsible for your injuries, our lawyers will gather diverse pieces of evidence, including traffic camera footage, eyewitness statements, expert testimony, accident scene photographs, and your medical records detailing your injuries.
Injuries Caused by Motorcycle Accidents
Because motorcycle riders don’t have the protection of a metal frame surrounding them, seat belts, or airbags, they can suffer severe injuries in accidents that would be relatively minor for car drivers and passengers. Their injuries can also be caused by the initial impact with another vehicle and the secondary impact with the pavement.
Some of the most common injuries suffered in motorcycle crashes in Jackson Township include:
- Road Rash: This abrasion injury results from a rider sliding across the pavement after a collision. Road rash can be a severe condition with a high risk of infection and requiring extensive surgery, including skin grafts. Wearing proper riding gear can reduce the risk of this injury.
- Broken Bones: Motorcycle accident victims can suffer from a wide range of broken bone injuries, including simple fractures, compound fractures, and comminuted fractures. The most common broken bones sustained in these accidents are the wrists, forearms, collarbones, ribs, legs, and ankles.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries: TBIs are caused by blunt force trauma to the head and can occur even if you are wearing a helmet. However, helmet use can reduce the risk of these injuries. They can result in a wide range of symptoms and may cause permanent physical and cognitive disability in particularly severe cases.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: Spinal cord damage can range in severity from chronic pain to partial or complete paralysis, often depending on whether the spinal cord is pinched or severed. The placement of the damage along the spine also affects the severity of the injury, with damage higher up the spine affecting more of the body.
Compensation Available to Injured Riders
Injured motorcycle riders can seek various forms of compensation through their auto insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. This compensation primarily falls into two categories: economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages refer to the compensation you seek for your medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and other losses with tangible value. Determining the value of your economic damages involves adding up your past expenses related to the accident and estimating your future expenses.
Non-economic damages refer to the compensation you seek for your losses with intangible value, like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and the impact your injuries have on your daily life. While there are multiple ways to calculate the value of your non-economic damages, one of the most common is to multiply your economic damages by a number between one point five and five, depending on the severity of your injuries. The more serious the injuries, the higher the number.
Challenges to Seeking Compensation After a Motorcycle Accident
Motorcycle riders often face multiple challenges when seeking compensation for their injuries. The best way to overcome these challenges is to work with a skilled attorney with plenty of experience handling cases similar to yours.
Liability Coverage Policy Limits
In Ohio, all vehicle owners must have at least the following amounts of liability coverage as part of their auto insurance policy:
- $25,000 per person for bodily injury
- $50,000 per accident for bodily injury
- $25,000 per accident for property damage
If your losses exceed these amounts, or multiple victims are splitting the insurance money, your ability to recover the compensation you need could be limited. However, a motorcycle accident lawyer may be able to help you seek additional compensation through other means.
For example, you may be able to file an underinsured motorist claim if you have underinsured motorist coverage as part of your auto insurance policy. You may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party directly. Or your lawyer may be able to identify additional parties to hold liable.
Assumption of Fault
Some insurance companies automatically assume that motorcycle riders are at fault for accidents because they believe all riders are reckless riders. We know this isn’t the case and that the vast majority of riders obey traffic rules and take necessary safety precautions. However, due to biases about riders, it’s even more important to be able to present robust evidence showing that you were not at fault when filing a motorcycle accident claim.
Modified Comparative Negligence
If you were partly to blame for the accident, your compensation could be reduced by a percentage equal to your degree of fault. This rule is known as comparative negligence. Ohio has a modified version of comparative negligence that also bars victims from recovering any compensation if they are more than 50 percent at fault for the accident. An experienced motorcycle accident lawyer can help you maximize your compensation by presenting evidence that reduces or eliminates your fault for the crash.
How Long Do I Have to File a Motorcycle Accident Claim?
Under Ohio’s statute of limitations for personal injury, motorcycle accident victims have two years to file insurance claims or lawsuits against the parties responsible for their injuries. You must file within this period or risk losing your right to seek compensation.
FAQ to Motorcycle Accident
The lawyers from our law firm have heard many questions from clients who have brought us motorcycle accidents over the years. We’ve answered some of those we frequently hear for you to give you some information about your potential claim.
One of the most pressing questions that prevents injured motorcycle accident victims from hiring an attorney is the worry that their actions contributed to the cause of the crash. For example, when a rider not wearing a helmet gets into an accident, they may not pursue the compensation they deserve because they fear not wearing a helmet will compromise their claim.
While it is true that your actions can impact your case, that doesn't mean you'll miss out on valuable compensation. Ohio follows a regulation called modified comparative negligence. In civil cases, this rule means that as long as your share of fault for the accident does not exceed 50 percent, you cannot be barred from recovering compensation for your injuries. However, compensation will diminish by the same percentage as your level of fault. If a jury finds a rider ten percent responsible for causing the accident, their compensation will be reduced by ten percent.Â
While the modified comparative negligence rule only applies to court cases, insurers use it to help guide their estimates of the value of a Jackson Township motorcycle accident claim.Â
Having an aggressive Jackson Township motorcycle accident lawyer from our law firm advocating for you can work to maximize your compensation by using evidence to demonstrate how the lion's share of the blame rests with the other motorist.
Yes. Ohio law requires that all motorcycle riders and passengers under 18 wear a DOT-approved motorcycle safety helmet. Riders with a "novice" license are also required to wear a helmet. Motorcycle operators over the age of 18 are not required to wear a helmet while riding. Still, it is recommended that all riders and passengers wear a snug-fitting helmet to protect themselves from death and traumatic brain injuries.
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While helmets for older and experienced riders in the state are not mandatory, all motorcycle operators in Jackson Township and Ohio must use protective eyewear, such as goggles or a face shield, if their motorcycle does not have a permanent windshield or windscreen.
In most cases, an insurer is going to ask you to provide them with a recorded statement following a Jackson Township motorcycle accident. It is in your best interest to refuse to give a recorded statement until you talk to a lawyer about your case.
Often, an insurer will attempt to use mistakes or errors in your statement to discredit your claim, diminishing its value or denying it outright. Discrepancies, errors, or failing to remember specific details can jeopardize your claim and potentially be used against you. Not understanding the full extent of your injuries or using throw-away phrases like "I feel fine" can also hurt your claim and make it challenging to recover fair compensation for your injuries and medical expenses.
Never give a recorded statement to an insurer without first consulting with an experienced Jackson Township attorney from our law firm.
It is understandable that you want to recover compensation for your injuries as soon as possible. However, the length of time it takes to settle a Jackson Township motorcycle accident case can vary. In some instances, a case may settle out of court in a matter of months. More complicated cases or cases involving life-altering or extensive injuries can be more time-consuming and may take months to years to resolve.
A Jackson Township motorcycle accident attorney familiar with the local court system can offer you a more accurate time frame of how long it may take to resolve your case.
Contact Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Serving Jackson Township
Our lawyers attend multiple biker events year-round throughout the state and have a close connection to the biker community. We’re committed to providing injured bikers with the legal support they need.
If you were injured in a Jackson Township motorcycle accident, contact the Flickinger Legal Group for a free consultation with an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer. We can even travel to meet you at your home or schedule a meeting over Zoom if you cannot make it to our office.