Were you seriously hurt while riding a motorcycle? Read these 3 motorcycle accident injury tips, then call our Tampa lawyers today.
1) Car Accidents Vs Motorcycle Accidents
One of the big differences between an automobile accident and a motorcycle accident is if you are riding on a motorcycle, you will generally not have personal injury protection coverage. Contrarily, if you’re involved in an automobile accident, either a pedestrian hit by a car or in a car struck by another car, personal injury protection coverage which we shorthand call PIP coverage. Generally, PIP covers 80% of the allowable amount of your medical bills and 60% of your gross wage loss up to a maximum of $10,000. In terms of PIP, there are a couple of important rules to remember, and that is you have to get treatment within 14 days of an accident, and if you do not have an emergency medical condition, then your PIP coverage will be reduced from $10,000 down to $2,500.
One of the big differences between handling a motorcycle case and an automobile accident will be who’s going to pay for your medical bills and your wage loss because in a motorcycle case where you were riding a motorcycle either as the driver or as a passenger, there will likely not be any PIP coverage.
- If you are riding a motorcycle, usually, you will not have personal injury protection coverage
- If you are involved in a car accident you will generally have personal injury protection coverage
2) Choosing the Best Attorney
In the state of Florida, if you’re involved in a motorcycle injury case due to the fault of someone else, you want to make sure you do your research. You want to make sure that you find a lawyer, like ours here at Morgenstern & Herd, who have handled other motorcycle injury cases, who’s familiar with the laws, the prerequisites for motorcycles, and what kind of coverages you need. You want to make sure you do your research. The internet is used by everybody for information, so you should do it and go to the websites that talk about lawyers and their credentials, like Martindale-Hubble, Avvo, and find out information about your attorney.
3) Injured Without A Helmet
In the state of Florida, if you’re a motorcycle rider, you’re not required to wear a helmet. There’s no prerequisites that you do so, and you’re not prohibited from filing a claim or bringing a lawsuit if you’re injured due to the fault of someone else while you’re riding your motorcycle. The problem is, there are certain injuries that you could sustain for which the failure to wear a helmet could be used against you. For example, if you get a head injury, the defense insurance company can take the position that your damages would’ve been less if you had that helmet on. It works for and against you because there are also neck injuries that can be made worse by wearing a helmet, which is one of the things that, when we handle motorcycle cases here at Morgenstern & Herd, we use against a carrier who wants to assert that your head injury wasn’t caused by the accident, but it instead was caused by your failure to wear the helmet.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured in a crash and have questions about these 3 motorcycle accident injury tips? Contact a Florida motorcycle accident lawyer at Morgenstern and Herd today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation. Let our experience work for you.
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