When the driver was to blame for your motorcycle accident injuries, you can be entitled to financial compensation for your injuries. However, what you were doing at the time of the accident can also correlate with how much money you may receive for your injuries. For example, if you were partially to blame for the accident, you can have your compensation reduced or eliminated.
Not wearing a motorcycle helmet is not the same thing as bearing some of the blame for the accident, but it does affect the severity of your injuries. If you were not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, you can expect that the insurance company will try to move aggressively to reduce the amount of money that they will need to pay you.
Remember that the insurance company is not the ultimate arbiter of how much money you may receive for your motorcycle accident injuries. They may propose paying you a certain amount, but all it is will be a settlement offer. The insurance company is not always right, and they often work to protect their own financial interests at the expense of yours. If the insurance company is pushing their hand too far, you can always fight back with the help of a motorcycle accident attorney.
If you do not yet have a motorcycle accident lawyer representing you, now is the time to contact one to schedule a free initial consultation. A skilled Vero beach motorcycle accident attorney can establish your legal right to financial compensation, and then they can work to protect it when the insurance company tries to compromise it. The only time that you ever have to pay a motorcycle accident attorney any money is when you receive a settlement or jury award in your case. If you do not receive any money, your motorcycle accident attorney gets nothing for their time and services.
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How Motorcycle Accidents Can Cause Serious Injuries
Motorcycle accidents, on the whole, cause even more serious injuries than you may suffer in other types of motor vehicle accidents. First, you may have been seriously hurt by the impact in the initial crash with the car. Second, you may have been thrown to the pavement from your bike, suffering serious injuries on impact. There is very little to protect you from the direct force of the impact. You may wear safety gear and a helmet, but they cannot forestall all motorcycle accident injuries. Roughly 75 percent of motorcyclists will suffer some type of injury in an accident, although the severity may vary.
Head Injuries Are Among the Most Severe Effects of a Motorcycle Accident
Injuries to your head are one of the biggest risks in a motorcycle accident. The impact to your head can cause a traumatic brain injury. Motorcycle accident brain injuries range from concussions (which can lead to symptoms for an extended period of time) to permanent damage. You may suffer a diffuse axonal or a coup contrecoup injury from the force and impact of the crash. Then, you may be left with life-changing symptoms and effects that can cost you valuable functions and perhaps the ability to work.
Motorcycle helmets have been shown to work in reducing the severity of some head injuries or even helping prevent them altogether. Studies show that motorcycle helmets are roughly 35 percent effective in preventing fatalities, and they are 26 percent effective in avoiding injuries that will require transportation to the hospital. Motorcycle helmets are designed to cushion your head and reduce the impact to your brain and skull in an accident. They are specially designed according to Department of Transportation standards, and they contain several levels of protection.
Motorcycle Helmets Do Not Always Prevent Head Injuries from Occurring
However, motorcycle helmets are not completely effective in preventing all injuries, no matter what the insurance company may say. Even if you were wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, chances are that you would have suffered some type of injury, as very few motorcyclists will walk away from an accident completely unscathed. There is a common misconception that motorcycle helmets will keep you completely safe in the event of an accident. Insurance companies often try to take advantage of it when you file a claim by acting very aggressively to try to reduce your compensation (or attempt to eliminate it altogether) if they learn that you were not wearing a motorcycle helmet at the time of the accidents. If you have suffered any type of head injury when you were not wearing a helmet, the insurance company is always going to say that it was caused by your failure to take protection, regardless of whether it is actually the case.
You May Not Be Required to Wear a Motorcycle Helmet
While it may be the prudent thing to do, wearing a motorcycle accident helmet is not always required by law. Some states only mandate that bikers under a certain age wear a helmet when they are on their bike. Regardless, if you are over the age where a helmet may be required, you will not be breaking the law by not wearing a helmet. Even if you were required to wear a helmet, it still does not completely negate the fact that the driver involved in the crash was negligent, and you may still deserve some compensation.
If the laws of your state do not require you to wear a motorcycle helmet, it becomes a personal choice of yours. In states that do not have mandatory helmet laws, only seven in ten riders actually wear a helmet. You will not be breaking the law if you ride your bike without a helmet, even though you may be doing something that is not entirely advisable. However, you will be taking a risk of suffering a more serious injury than you otherwise will have in an accident. You may be risking damage to your legal case, since you may give the insurance company grounds to dispute some of your claim for damages. Insurance companies already have enough of a bias against motorcyclists to begin with, and you will be giving them more ammunition to make your claim more difficult than it already is, leading to an even more difficult fight.
Helmet Usage Does Not Determine Liability, But it Can Affect Damages
The failure to wear a motorcycle helmet should not affect your liability claim. What happened in the accident are still the facts, and whether you were wearing a helmet or not does not change what the driver did to injure you. Their negligence stands on its own. Whether you wore a helmet had nothing to do with the wrongful actions that the driver committed to cause the accident. However, your failure to protect yourself, while it will not bear on liability for your accident, may be reflected in your damages. The insurance company will use the fact that you were not wearing a helmet as leverage against you in practically every single case, even if you did not suffer a head injury.
The insurance company may argue that the driver was not the cause of all of your injuries. Although the driver may have been to blame for the accident itself, they will claim that your not wearing a motorcycle helmet made your injuries worse than they otherwise would have been. While they may still pay you something for your injuries, they will try to reduce your overall amount of compensation. They may delve closely into your injuries and try to make their own determination of what may have been avoided had you been wearing a helmet. Even though wearing a helmet is not required by law, the insurance company will have the right to do this.
You Would Need to Know How the Lack of a Helmet Affected Your Injuries
The insurance company may overstate the impact in which the lack of a helmet caused your injuries. They may take the fact that your head was not protected as a cue to be very aggressive in downgrading your offer. Know that the insurance company does not always get the final say in your case.
A motorcycle accident lawyer can work with expert witnesses to determine how your injuries may have been made worse by not wearing a helmet. This step will give you the information necessary to push back when the insurance company tries to unreasonably reduce your financial compensation. The question will be whether you would still have been injured if you were wearing a helmet and what the severity of those injuries may have been.
You have the right and ability to negotiate your financial compensation with the insurance company. Just because they are suggesting one thing now, it may just mean that they are taking an opening position in negotiations. Even if you were not wearing a motorcycle helmet, there is nothing that says you cannot still work with the insurance company to get them to raise their offer. You stand a much better chance of receiving more compensation when you hire a motorcycle accident attorney to deal with the insurance company.
You Can Always Let a Jury Decide the Matter
If the insurance company is still taking too hard of a line in settlement discussions, you can have a jury hear your case in court. Your motorcycle accident attorney can file a lawsuit on your behalf, and an objective jury will decide how much compensation you are due. However, you are always taking a risk when a jury decides your case. They may agree with the insurance company, or they may even further reduce the amount of compensation that you may be awarded.
From your standpoint, you should never draw any assumptions about whether you can receive motorcycle accident compensation and how much you can get when you were not wearing a helmet. You should let a motorcycle accident lawyer advise you of how it may impact your case and fight for you to receive as large of a settlement check as possible.
Always contact a motorcycle accident attorney as soon as you can after you have suffered an injury in a crash. You may find yourself under pressure from the insurance company if they have reason to believe that they can blame you for the accident to save money at your expense. A motorcycle accident attorney works to stand up for your legal rights and push back when the insurance company tries to make you the issue. The insurance company might take advantage of you if you do not have a motorcycle accident lawyer to fight on your behalf. They will certainly succeed in greatly reducing your compensation, leaving you with pennies on the dollar for your injuries, even if the failure to wear a motorcycle helmet had little to do with how you were actually hurt.
How a Motorcycle Accident Attorney Helps Your Case, Call Today
When you hire a motorcycle accident attorney for your case, they will perform a number of important functions. Their overall job is to work to maximize your overall compensation by persuading either the insurance company or jury to ensure that you are fully paid. Along the way, they will fight back when you are being wrongfully or unreasonably blamed for any aspect of your motorcycle accident.
Whether it is gathering evidence that may show that the driver was at fault for the accident to negotiating over your actual amount of compensation, your Vero Beach personal injury attorney will handle all the important details. Along the way, they will work with you when you need to make key decisions in your case, such as whether and when to settle with the insurance company. You should reach out to a motorcycle accident lawyer as soon as possible after you have suffered an injury so they can be at their most effective. It does not cost you anything upfront to hire a motorcycle accident attorney, and they are paid nothing unless you win your case.