A cycling accident can turn your peaceful and orderly life upside down with all the physical injuries, financial burdens, and emotional distress that it brings. A timely and correctly filed bicycle accident claim can ease that toll and help you recover a fair settlement for your hospital bills, lost wages, and other related expenses.
Filing a personal injury claim is more complex than it seems. We’ll cover the key aspects, share insights, and provide practical tips to help you secure a fair outcome.
Key takeaways
- A bicycle accident claim varies from situation to situation. It is vital to figure out which type of claim to file to secure maximum compensation.
- You have to determine a negligent party before you start the legal process. In the majority of cases, an in-depth understanding of local laws is required.
- It is important to assess and calculate all potential damages and losses to recover a rightful bicycle accident settlement.
What Is a Bicycle Accident Claim?
A bicycle accident claim is a request for fair compensation for all the injuries, losses, and damages that an injured victim has sustained as a result of an accident. The types of claims may vary depending on the underlying conditions of the incident and the scale of damages inflicted.
For instance, a wrongful death claim will differ from a defective product claim or unsafe riding conditions request. The main aim of an average claim is seemingly straightforward — to recover proper bicycle accident settlement. However, because of the intricacies of local laws and insurance policies, it often takes a professional bicycle accident lawyer to win the case.
How Do You Solidify Your Bicycle Accident Claim?
To file a success-oriented bicycle accident claim, you must act promptly. The process usually starts right at the accident scene. The more meticulous and precise your actions, the higher the chances of obtaining the rightful settlement you deserve.
Call Emergency Services
After you’ve been in a bicycle accident, no matter the visible extent of your injuries, you should contact 911 and let them know about the incident. They will dispatch medical emergency services and law enforcement to document the crash and provide necessary first-aid assistance to the victims.
The shock and general commotion after the bike accident may mask such severe injuries as internal bleeding, concussion, whiplash, and other health conditions. Let the responding medics check you out thoroughly and document everything. Medical records will serve as palpable evidence and help you build a solid insurance claim.
Document the Accident Scene
Every detail counts when you need to file a bicycle accident claim. If your injuries allow it, you should gather as much visual evidence as possible. Take pictures of the following:
- Your wounds
- Damaged property
- Location
- Road conditions
- Weather
Take shots from different angles to make sure nothing is missed. Proper documentation will strengthen your future insurance claim.
Collect Contact Information
If there are any involved parties, such as drivers and witnesses, it is always a good move to ask them for their contact information. Write down the driver’s address, phone number, insurance policy number, driving license number, and other personal details. You can also record eyewitness statements. They will serve as unbiased confirmation of events that have led to an accident.
File a Police Report
Accidents that involve serious injuries and significant damage must be reported to the police. So, you shouldn’t leave the accident scene before you give the statement. You can obtain the police report later and include it in the bicycle accident claim. Official documents like that strengthen the case.
Contact Insurance Provider
Even if you are 100% sure that the accident wasn’t your fault, you must notify the insurance company about it. However, you should be careful about how you lay out the details of the incident. Stick to bare facts and don’t admit your fault in any way — insurance companies may use it against you and reduce the amount of your bicycle accident compensation.
Call a Bicycle Accident Lawyer
While minor incidents may seem like they don’t require legal assistance, it is never a waste to consult an experienced attorney. Besides, it is hard to predict a complex process without professional assessment. Many legal advisors work on a contingency basis, so hiring a lawyer won’t cost you anything unless they manage to obtain fair bicycle accident compensation.
What Are the Main Types of Damages in Bicycle Accident Claims?
Not every injured victim realizes that the damages they can recover go beyond their medical bills and property damage. In fact, there are three major types of damages to file a bicycle accident claim for:
- Economic Damages
- Non-Economic Damages
- Punitive Damages
The last type of damages — punitive — is the rarest since its primary aim is to punish the responsible party and prevent similar acts in the future. An at-fault party has to be viewed as extremely negligent, reckless, or determined to cause serious harm in the accident.
Economic Damages
This type of damage is aimed at eliminating the financial toll of palpable monetary losses a cyclist undergoes after an accident. For instance:
- Medical costs: You don’t have to deal with mounting medical bills on your own. All past and future medical expenses, including hospital stays, ongoing therapy, surgeries, and other medically relevant costs, can be recovered.
- Lost wages: When you temporarily lose the source of income because of the inability to go to work or suffer a decrease in earning capacity as a result of the crash, the responsible party’s insurance company is bound to fully reimburse the losses.
- Property damage: If your expensive mountain bike or any other personal belongings of value get destroyed or damaged in an accident, you should include the cost of the replacement or repairs in your bicycle accident settlement.
Non-Economic Damages
Some losses sustained in a bicycle accident are intangible, but that does not mean that you can’t recover full compensation for your nonmonetary damages. With professional legal guidance, it is possible to obtain the following losses:
- Pain and suffering: It is close to impossible to reflect the amount of physical pain an injured bicyclist has to deal with in a quantifiable amount. However, a well-versed personal injury lawyer can gather evidence, expert conclusions, and other proof that backs your claim and is reflected in a rightful bicycle accident settlement.
- Emotional distress: Often, victims of bicycle accidents have to manage such severe psychological conditions as mental anguish, PTSD, anxiety, depression, loss of joy in life, etc. These psychological traumas have a direct impact on the decrease in a person’s quality of life inflicted by the incident and require fair compensation.
How Do You Prove Negligence in a Bicycle Accident Claim?
The process of establishing liability is often tangled and complex, no matter how obvious the at-fault party seems to be. Usually, four main aspects can help you prove the other party’s negligence. They are the following:
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Duty of care
It is a legal obligation to act in a certain way. For instance, all drivers and other road users must follow the approved traffic laws, governmental entities must ensure safe riding conditions, and manufacturers must produce quality items.
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Breach of duty of care
If either of the involved parties fails to comply with their obligations, they breach them. Suppose a distracted driver exceeds the speed limit, a local municipality fails to fix a broken traffic sign, or a manufacturer sells a vehicle with a defective brake system — they violate their legal obligations.
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Connection or causation
When you file a bicycle accident claim against a liable party, you must provide sufficient evidence that their actions have led to an incident. There are different types of proof to base your case on — digital evidence, witness statements, bicycle accident reconstruction, expert conclusions, etc.
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Personal losses
Lastly, the victim has to prove that the sustained damages are the direct aftermath of the other person’s negligent actions. Your medical records, repair bills, lost wages, and other documentation can prove that.
What Does a Bicycle Accident Insurance Claim Process Look Like?
Dealing with insurance companies is never an easy task. Every insurance adjuster acts in their interests, often trying to reduce the amount of your settlement if not to discard it entirely. The better you understand the process, the easier it will be to recover fair compensation.
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Step 1
The process starts with a timely notification of the insurance provider about the accident. Some claims have strict deadlines, so time is of the essence, and you shouldn’t postpone the deed.
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Step 2
Most insurance companies provide special accident claim forms that have to be filled out. You have to be attentive when filling those. Provide all the required information and make sure that all the details are correct. The simplest mistake can delay your settlement.
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Step 3
Sometimes, insurance providers will request additional documents or details to further process your bicycle accident case. That is why you should check the status of your claim regularly.
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Step 4
Very often, insurance claims get lowballed. This means that the insurer wants you to settle for a minimal reimbursement that may not reflect the full scale of your damages. So, you should be prepared to negotiate these offers until you obtain a just settlement.
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Step 5
After you are offered rightful compensation, you can agree to close the case.
Conclusion
One can’t be prepared for a cycling accident and the hassle it can bring into your everyday life. However, knowing your rights and obligations takes you a step closer to a successful resolution of your claim. Furthermore, you don’t have to engage in this legal battle alone. If you are seeking legal guidance that will assist you in claiming maximum bicycle accident compensation, contact our team for a free consultation today!
Since his academic days at the UC Berkeley School of Law, Robert Goldwater has remained a committed advocate for victims of other people’s negligence. His tort law background, together with his unquenchable thirst for justice, helped young Robert found a now-successful law firm – Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group, gathering same-minded and promising attorneys from all over the country.
