Vehicle accidents are terrifying experiences, and they can leave victims wondering what to do in the aftermath. This is particularly true for motorcyclists who may have been injured in an accident caused by another driver. Do motorcyclists need to contact an attorney right away?
The answer to that question is generally “yes.”
Motorcyclists typically face unwarranted negative biases from every party involved in their case. This can completely affect the outcome of an insurance settlement or even a personal injury verdict if their case gets that far. Here, we want to discuss the time frame for hiring an attorney after a motorcycle accident in Philadelphia.
Call an Attorney the Day of Your Crash
If you or somebody you love has been injured in a motorcycle accident, we strongly encourage you to contact an attorney the day of the accident if at all possible. That said, your number one priority must be to seek medical care. Any person involved in a motorcycle crash needs to be evaluated by a qualified physician right after the incident occurs. Please understand that the signs and symptoms of many motorcycle accident injuries do not appear until hours or even days after the crash occurs. There are various reasons why we do not want you to wait until you feel pain to seek medical care.
If you wait to seek medical care, this could be used as evidence by insurance carriers that you were not really injured in the actual motorcycle accident. The longer you wait to seek care, the more of an opportunity you give the insurance carriers to say that your injuries were caused by something else.
After you receive medical care, or even while you are waiting to see a doctor, you need to pick up the phone and call an attorney. When a motorcycle accident lawyer in Pennsylvania gets to work on your case, they will begin the process of obtaining and gathering evidence immediately. The reality is that there is a significant amount of evidence that will begin to disappear very soon after an accident occurs. After this evidence is gone, there is often no way to get it back and use it to help bolster your case against aggressive insurance carriers or during a personal injury trial.
An Attorney Will Gather Evidence and Prepare the Demand Letter
A motorcycle accident lawyer will have more resources than the accident victim when it comes to these situations. An attorney can use the resources to gather all of the following evidence:
- Photographs taken at the scene of the crash
- Video surveillance from any nearby cameras
- Statements from eyewitnesses
- Statements from other drivers and passengers
- The accident report
- Vehicle “black box” data
- Mobile device data
An attorney will also ensure that the motorcycle accident victim is evaluated by trusted medical and economic experts who can help calculate the total expected losses. Using all of this evidence and the information from the financial experts, an attorney will prepare a demand letter to be sent to the insurance carrier. This will typically begin a negotiation process between your attorney and the insurance carrier. Please understand that the insurance carriers are not your friend, and they will be looking to find any reason to deny your claim or to pay out as little as possible. An attorney will work to negotiate the best possible settlement for your situation.
However, if the insurance carrier refuses to offer a fair settlement or denies the claim altogether, an attorney will be fully prepared to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver and their insurance carrier. The personal injury lawsuit process in Philadelphia can be complicated, but an attorney will be able to handle every aspect of these situations.