3 Motorcycle Accident Questions

Is it ever a good idea, especially in Arizona, to talk to the insurance adjuster, the company for the other driver’s insurance? A motorcycle accident victim called our office the other day and posed that very question to one of our attorneys. What the attorney said is the short answer is no. The insurance adjusters have had lots of practice in dealing with people who are in motorcycle accidents. They’ve come up with some pretty clever ways of getting you to talk and give them information.

You’ve heard the phrase, “whatever you say can and will be used against you.” That applies when you’re talking to insurance adjusters. Even if they don’t take a recorded statement, they’re still writing down everything you’re saying. A polite answer to a simple question after your health in their reading becomes that you are on your way to a full recovery even if that’s far from the truth.

By the way, remember, on your social media, if you’ve just got out of the hospital and the next day they’ve got a picture of you climbing Mount Everest, it’s probably not going to help your case. Take it easy. Follow what your physical therapist says, and don’t try to conquer Mount Everest soon until we settle your case.

With regards to insurance adjusters, we never let our clients talk to insurance adjusters about what happened, about their injuries. If they want to ask questions of our clients, we insist that it be in writing. That gives us total control over what the questions are. No surprises. It’s not going to hurt your case.

Again, insurance adjusters, they’ve learned how to get people to talk. They’ll say your bike got smashed up. You put a lot of money into that. You probably want to get it fixed. You’ve got to give me a statement, otherwise I can’t get your bike fixed.

Note, they don’t promise they’re going to do it. They just say you’ve got to do it if you want me to consider it. That’s why call us first. We can avoid you saying something that inadvertently can hurt your case. Talk to us first and then after that if you still want to give a statement, at least you’ll be more informed or have us represent you and then you don’t have to give them a statement. Your bike will still get fixed. We’ll take care of that for you.

Remember, if you’re a victim of a motorcycle accident in Arizona, give us a call. The call is free. The information is free. It can make the difference between a few thousand, tens of thousands, and in a few cases millions of dollars by talking to us first. Understand that you’re a victim of a motorcycle accident. We’ll work with you. We’ll, so to speak, ride with you until your case is closed successfully because we really do care about you.

How do you choose the right motorcycle injury lawyer? For one, you need an attorney and firm that understand motorcycle riders.

There aren’t that many law firms like that out there, but there’s some that hold themselves out as the go-to motorcycle accident attorneys. Usually what they end up doing is the bills are so much higher than the insurance company limits that most of what they do is just negotiate with hospitals and stuff to try to get the amounts that they have to pay back less so their client ends up with a couple thousand or 3,000 in their pocket so they don’t end up with 0.

What we do is we’re looking for insurance that isn’t obvious, so not just the at-fault driver. The attorney explained this the other day when somebody called in in this situation. There’s what’s called underinsured motorist coverage. That can be available when it’s not obvious.

As the attorney explained the other day to a motorcyclist that was involved in a serious accident, the other driver only had $25,000. Their medical bills were way more than that. Do you own any other vehicles that have full coverage and might have this uninsured motorist coverage? They did own some other vehicles that had full coverage. Unfortunately, they did not have underinsured motorist coverage, which sometimes we can actually make a claim against the agent who didn’t give them that coverage.

That’s kind of a big mistake. We can get an expert to say if they knew they were a motorcycle rider and they have a policy on their truck, I should have had underinsured motorist coverage. If they didn’t, that’s a professional mistake. We can make a claim on the agent’s own insurance policy. There are other ways that we can find additional insurance.

Even if you’ve been told that’s all there is, there’s just $25,000 or $50,000 or whatever, call us and let one of our attorneys review that situation and see if we can find some additional insurance coverage. If we do, it’s like free money, found money. Another way, as an example, the attorney explained, is if there’s somebody else in the household, a relative that has a vehicle with full coverage. The motorcyclists may be able to use that coverage and not even affect the insurance rates of their brother or their father or their mother. Then there’s even ways beyond that, but you need to call and let one of our attorneys analyze the situation.

We can tell you if that’s a possibility or not. All those things go into just take the easy money, the quick money, and then are they out of there? That’s probably not the motorcycle injury attorney that you want. Can they tell you about situations?
We had one where a motorcyclist had a very serious injury. The insurance policy was only $100,000. The person who was at fault had a house that was totally paid off. In addition to the $100,000, we got them to pay several thousands of dollars more on top of that. Is the other law firm willing to do that?

Another way that you can tell if you’ve got the right motorcyclist law firm is what do they do if you do get $100,000 or $500,000 or in rare cases $1,000,000? We had a situation where a 20-year-old was riding a motorcycle with a friend and they both got hit by an older lady. She had $100,000 insurance limits. Our client got $100,000 and his friend got $100,000.

The difference was we had our clients’ money put into a lifetime annuity, and he’s still getting money today. His buddy, who was riding behind him, blew all of his money in less than a year.
That’s another thing to look out for. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of what you really want to look for if you’ve been in a motorcycle accident. Ask the deeper questions. Don’t necessarily be impressed with that Harley in the office. Ask a few more questions.

You’ll make the right decision. Remember, the call is free. The information is free. If you’ve been injured while riding a motorcycle, even if you’ve been told there’s no more insurance, give us a call. We do care about you, even if we don’t ride motorcycles ourselves because that’s our own choice. Call us.