Understanding Your Rights After a Motorcycle Accident
After your motorcycle accident, you might feel powerless and lost. However, our system is designed to protect you after your motorcycle accident with specific rights that you can use to get the compensation you deserve from those who caused your accident.
Here are some of the rights you have, and how you can use them to protect yourself.
Right to Not Speak After a Motorcycle Accident
After your motorcycle accident, the police will ask for a statement. You should give them a basic, factual answer. Resist the temptation to explain what you think the other driver was thinking, and don’t supply your own emotional and mental state. These are unnecessary and could be used against you when you are trying to get compensation from the other driver.
In addition, you have the right to not say anything that you feel might be used to infer that you committed a crime. Don’t lie about the events, but don’t volunteer any additional information. If you can’t answer the question honestly without self-incrimination, you can refuse to answer.
If a police officer wants to give you a sobriety test, you can refuse to take it, along with the preliminary breathalyzer test. However, the officer might take this as probable cause to arrest you on suspicion of DUI, and then you will have to submit to a breathalyzer or blood test or else face serious consequences.
Right to a Fair Settlement from Your Insurance
When you get insurance, you enter into a contract with your insurer. That contract gives you the right to expect that they will pay you the amount that you are owed under the terms of your coverage. This includes compensation for your injuries as well as protection from paying for someone else’s injuries if you have that level of coverage.
However, insurers aren’t always eager to follow through on their obligations. They may try to avoid paying what you are owed. If that is the case, a motorcycle accident lawyer can help you pursue the compensation you’re owed.
Right to Pursue Damages from the Responsible Party
In addition to getting compensation from your insurance company according to the terms of your insurance policy, you can pursue compensation from any other driver or motorcyclist involved in your accident if you think that they were responsible for the accident.
Most often, you will pursue compensation from the driver or drivers who caused an accident. However, in unusual cases you might also pursue compensation from:
- The owner of the car or truck if different from the driver
- A driver’s employer if they were on the clock at the time of the accident
- Ride organizers if you were on a poorly organized group ride
- People responsible for roadway hazards that caused or contributed to an accident
If the driver was not the owner of the vehicle they were driving, you might be able to get compensation from the owner as well. However, you will have to prove that the owner was responsible in some way. For example, if the owner let the car be registered in their name because the driver’s numerous accidents or DUIs made it too hard to get coverage. Worse, if the driver had a suspended license, but the owners let them use the car anyway.
Similarly, you can pursue compensation from the driver’s employer if the employer is somehow responsible. This might include encouraging the driver to be on the road for more hours than is safe, or if the driver was drunk from a work party.
If you were on a poorly organized group ride which caused the accident by pushing people to ride for too many hours, encouraging alcohol consumption among riders, or encouraging unsafe riding, you might pursue compensation from them, too.
Finally, you might get compensation from anyone responsible for roadway hazards that caused or contributed to the accident.
No matter where you seek damages, you are entitled to both economic and noneconomic damages.
Pushchak Law Can Help Protect Your Rights
If you need help protecting your rights to compensation after a motorcycle accident, Pushchak Law can help. We specialize in motorcycle accidents – it’s a primary focus of our practice. We believe that focusing our efforts on this type of case helps us give our clients better results from their lawsuits, including better odds of getting higher compensation for all their injuries. If you want someone who can help you get the best possible outcome for your case, Brian Pushchak has extensive experience helping people just like you to get great results following their motorcycle accident.
You will also benefit from our unique Informed Decisions™ Approach focused on helping you achieve the best possible outcome. In this approach, we start by listening carefully to you about the circumstances of your accident and what you hope to achieve with your lawsuit. Then we will advise you how to achieve that goal based on our extensive legal experience and knowledge about motorcycle accidents.
We care about you and want you to get what you want from your lawsuit. We will give you our personal contact information so that you can reach us at any time with questions, concerns, or decisions about your lawsuit. With our Informed Decisions™ Approach, you always retain control of your lawsuit and have final say on the strategy used. We are just here to help you.
To learn more about how Pushchak Law can help you get compensation following your motorcycle accident, please contact us today for a free initial consultation. We serve clients in Denver and the surrounding areas of Colorado.
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