Information and Insight for Injured Iowans

On hot summer days like this I remember the good ol’ days riding my 50cc minibike down the ditches, jumping the culverts.   Thank God there were no cars turning in front of me then.  My biker clients now don’t ride in the relative safety of a grassy ditch along a gravel road.  Unfornately, they face bad drivers on the roads - seems like more and more of them.  

Mistakes can easily be made throughout the process of a motorcycle accident claim. A critical thing to remember to prevent mistakes is that motorcycle accidents are very different than other car accidents. Hiring an attorney without expertise in motorcycle accidents is unwise and can cause you to fall victim to an insurance companies’ tricks of trade - at least we have seen some of this happen here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

There are many specialized factors that affect motorcycle accidents in Iowa and throughout the United States. In order to represent you properly, an attorney must have knowledge of the dangers bikers face on the road, the special injuries bikers face and how those factors affect your ability to recover damages. Not every attorney has the experience you need. Even those attorneys who advertise their expertise in “Personal Injury” or even “Motorcycle Accident” law do not all have the same level of experience with motorcycle accident cases.

For instance, one injury that is common in motorcycle accidents, but which is not widely understood is a “Close Head Injury.” This condition is caused by the sudden trauma that can occur to the brain during a motorcycle accident. It can also be very difficult to diagnose because in a closed head injury, there is no fracture to the skull and the damage often does not appear on medical tests like a CT scan or MRI. A closed head injury often times severely impacts a person’s ability to live or work normally and such an injury caused by another person entitles the victim to damages. The biggest mistake bikers make immediately after they have been involved in a crash is that they think their claim is just like any other ordinary traffic accident claim. IT’S NOT. An experienced motorcycle accident attorney understands closed brain injuries and knows what steps to take to help a victim receive compensation for this debilitating condition.

Insurance companies know which attorneys have experience with motorcycle accident claims and know that if you have one of these attorneys they will not be able to use their unfair tactics against you. Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell which attorneys have the experience you need. 

To learn about other mistakes to avoid in a motorcycle accident claim and how to find an experienced motorcycle accident attorney, go to Iowa Motorcycle Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.