How to Gather Evidence After a Motorcycle Accident
Whether you decide to take your motorcycle accident case to trial or accept a settlement, getting the best results depends on gathering and presenting strong evidence. Knowing that you have evidence in your favor can make the other party (or their insurance company) accept a larger settlement because they know it could convince a jury to pay out a lot more.
To put yourself in the best position after a motorcycle accident, you should start gathering evidence immediately. Here are some of the steps you should take to preserve key evidence of your motorcycle accident. If you’re injured, ask family, friends, or riding buddies to help.
Take Notes
Your recollection of events may not be perfect, but it will likely be an essential part of your motorcycle accident lawsuit. However, memories can begin to fade right away, so you should try to record what you remember about the motorcycle accident immediately. If your phone is still working, you can record your thoughts in a short video or type notes. Otherwise, you can write down what you remember.
Don’t forget to take notes about all the other evidence you are collecting. Your impression of the people, places, and items can be very helpful later.
Talk to the Other Driver(s)
After jotting down what you remember about the accident, talk to the other driver or drivers involved in the accident, if you can. At a minimum, get their names, license numbers (including the driver’s license number and car license plate), and insurance information.
If other drivers are freely giving other information, record this as well. However, don’t offer additional details yourself. It’s especially important that you don’t express feelings, make judgements, or level accusations. These subjective expressions could be used against you, and they might escalate emotions in an already tense situation.
Collect Names and Information from Witnesses
If there are other witnesses of the accident, get their contact information. Having neutral witnesses to the event can help your case. If they will let you record them, you can collect brief video statements. Even if the video itself isn’t admissible in court, it can let you – and other parties – know what witnesses might say in the event of a trial. A collection of video testimony supporting your version of events can be a powerful tool to help you get a large settlement even without going to court.
Take Pictures and Video
Take as many pictures of the accident scene as you can. Work quickly, because it is often the goal of law enforcement to move accidents from traffic and clean up the scene, especially if no one was killed in the accident. Take a variety of pictures, including close-ups and distance shots to give full context to the images. Pictures don’t help if people don’t know what they’re looking at.
Video can also help give context to the images as well as to your account of events. It can be worth it to return to the scene of the accident after it’s cleaned up to take video of the normal traffic pattern, if this matters to your case.
Contact Local Businesses and Other Camera Owners
You may not have captured footage of your accident as it happened, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not out there. These days, there are many cameras that might have been recording the scene as your accident happened. Common places to look for cameras that might have recorded the accident include:
- Local businesses
- Homeowners
- Witnesses
- Municipalities
With private owners of cameras, it’s important to contact them quickly. In many cases, their cameras might be set up to automatically delete footage after a certain amount of time if not marked to be saved.
Document All Expenses
It’s important to get medical care after your motorcycle accident even if you don’t think your injuries are that bad. You might be in shock or have suffered injuries whose severity is much greater than you know. Having a doctor listen to your symptoms and examine your injuries can help you detect serious injuries so you can get the care you need to avoid possible complications.
Once you see a doctor, it’s important to keep track of all your medical expenses. Don’t throw away any of your bills. Don’t forget to include incidental expenses such as travel to appointments, eating out because you can’t cook, lost wages, and wages of household help you had to hire.
Contact a Motorcycle Accident Attorney
The above are examples of how you can collect evidence after a motorcycle accident, but that’s not always enough. Fortunately, there are ways to get even more evidence to support your case. To get this additional evidence, you might need the help of a motorcycle accident attorney.
A motorcycle accident attorney can tap into additional sources of information to help your case. The exact information they seek will depend on the specifics of your case, but it might include:
- Data from vehicle event recorders
- Video from municipal traffic cameras
- Information from investigation of other drivers’ records
- Motorcycle accident reconstruction
- Medical expert testimony
A motorcycle accident attorney knows what information can make a difference in your case, and they will collect it to help you get the best results.
Why Choose Pushchak Law After a Motorcycle Accident
If you have been injured or lost a loved one in a motorcycle accident, you will benefit from the help of a motorcycle accident lawyer. Help collecting important evidence is just the beginning. A motorcycle accident lawyer can help you understand the severity of your situation and how to ask for the full compensation you deserve.
Brian Pushchak has made motorcycle accidents a primary focus of his practice. By specializing in this type of case, he has honed his skills and procedures to better help his clients dealing with the severe outcomes associated with a serious motorcycle accident.
In addition, you will benefit from our exclusive Informed Decisions™ Approach. We start by taking the time to listen to you and your goals. Then we recommend an approach designed to help you achieve those specific goals and priorities. We will also give you our personal contact information so that you can reach us whenever you have questions, concerns, or decisions to make about your case. You are always in charge of your case – we will make recommendations regarding the best strategy for your case, but the final decision regarding how we proceed will always be yours.
To learn how much we can help in your case, schedule a free initial consultation at Pushchak Law in Denver today.
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