According to the CDC, more than 1,000 Americans die in bicycle accidents each year. Another 130,000 people are injured in bicycle accidents.
Riding a bicycle can be a fantastic form of exercise. It can also be a wonderful way to get around without doing any harm to the environment.
But if you’re ever involved in a bicycle accident, it can cause a lot of chaos to occur in your life. That’s why you should strongly consider hiring a bicycle accident lawyer to represent you in the aftermath of a bicycle wreck.
Hiring a lawyer to assist you in following a bicycle accident is going to benefit you in so many ways. Today, we’re going to make the case for hiring an attorney to help you by laying out the top reasons to do it.
Here are 13 reasons why you should hire a bicycle accident attorney.
1. They Can Evaluate Your Bicycle Accident Case
If you were involved in a bicycle accident recently, you might be able to collect compensation for it. This money can be used to pay for things like medical bills, bike repairs, lost wages, and more.
But before you start trying to pursue it, you should have a bicycle accident lawyer look over your case. They’ll be able to let you know whether you have a case in the first place.
In states like California, you’re going to need to meet some basic requirements to file a bicycle accident case. Discover more information on how you can find a bicycle accident attorney who can help you see if you’ll meet them.
2. They Can Come Up With a Plan of Action
If a bicycle accident lawyer believes you might have a strong enough case to file a claim, they’ll ask if you would be interested in being their client. If you agree to do it, they’ll then be able to create a plan of action for you.
They can use their previous experience to tell you how much money you might be able to collect. They’ll also let you know what the best way to go about trying to get it would be.
In some cases, they’ll advise you to try to work out a settlement deal with an insurance company. In others, they’ll encourage you to be ready to take your case all the way to court.
Either way, they’ll have a better idea than you do on how you should go about pursuing your bicycle accident case.
3. They Can Tell You Who to Communicate With
There will be people who will want to touch base with you to talk about your bicycle accident. For example, the local police department might want to chat about it if they’re thinking about filing criminal charges against someone else. An insurance company or even multiple insurance companies might want to speak with you as well.
It’s going to be difficult for you to figure out who you should and shouldn’t talk to. This will be especially true if you were injured badly in a bicycle accident and you’re on the road to recovery.
A bicycle accident attorney can tell you who you should communicate with and what you should talk to them about. It’ll help you avoid saying something that could affect your case.
4. They Can Communicate on Your Behalf
There might be times when a bicycle accident lawyer will tell you that you should shy away from discussing your case with anyone. Instead, they’ll advise you to let them do the talking with the police, insurance companies, etc.
This will be a best-case scenario for you. You won’t have to do anything other than just sit back and let your lawyer handle everything.
You’ll be able to spend more time focusing on the recovery process following your bicycle accident as opposed to communicating with others. This alone might make hiring a lawyer to represent you well worth it.
5. They Can Try to Get You a Settlement
More often than not, you aren’t going to have to take your bicycle accident case to court when you have a lawyer in your corner. They’ll try to settle your case out of court to make the process easier on you.
A bicycle accident attorney will get in contact with the insurance company that they think should be on the hook for your compensation. They’ll try to hammer out a settlement deal with them to help everyone avoid having to go to court.
This is another aspect of hiring an attorney that will make doing it well worth it. You may be able to collect compensation from an insurance company with little to no work on your part.
6. They Can Let You Know If a Settlement Is Fair
A bicycle accident lawyer is typically going to be able to get an insurance company to make some kind of settlement offer to you. Even if it’s on the lower end of the spectrum, they’ll be able to bring something back to you to discuss.
From there, a bicycle accident attorney can let you know if they think a settlement offer seems fair to them. They might tell you that it’s a fantastic deal that you would be crazy not to take. They might also tell you that it’s a lowball offer that should be higher.
It’ll be nice knowing you have a bicycle accident attorney who can shed some light on how fair a settlement offer really is. You might not be able to figure it out on your own if you don’t have a legal background.
7. They Can Negotiate a New Settlement
There is a pretty good chance that you might not be thrilled with the settlement offer that an insurance company makes to you. If this is the case, you can direct your bicycle accident lawyer to go back and continue to negotiate on your behalf.
If negotiating isn’t in your wheelhouse, you’ll like having an experienced lawyer on your side who can do it for you. They might be able to drive a hard bargain and get an insurance company to agree to pay you a certain amount of money.
Simply having this lawyer on your side will make your case look more legitimate and increase the chances of an insurance company agreeing to settle with you for the price you want them to pay.
8. They Can Take Your Case to Court
Just because you have a bicycle accident lawyer working for you doesn’t mean an insurance company is going to agree to a settlement offer they don’t think is fair. But not to worry! You can always let your lawyer know you want to take your case to court.
Many bicycle accident cases don’t ever make it to a courtroom. But if you’re not satisfied with your compensation, you’re more than welcome to escalate things to the next level.
9. They Can File the Proper Paperwork
Taking a bicycle accident case to court is going to call for you to do a ton of paperwork. But guess what? Hiring a bicycle accident attorney is going to take this job off your plate.
Great bicycle accident lawyers are well-versed when it comes to filling out the right paperwork and filing it in the right courts. They’ll be able to take care of all this behind the scenes so that you don’t have to give it a second thought.
10. They Can Gather the Necessary Evidence
If you take a bicycle accident case all the way to court, you’re going to need to gather evidence that supports your side of the story. You will need to work with your bicycle accident attorney to get it together.
You won’t have to do this all on your own, though. Your lawyer is going to let you know what you can do to help. But for the most part, they’re going to be responsible for bringing together as much evidence as they can.
They’ll be able to use their resources to get their hands on things like surveillance videos. They’ll also be able to call on eyewitnesses and experts to testify so that they can build a strong case for you.
11. They Can Create Arguments for Your Case
While your bicycle accident lawyer is working on creating a strong case for you, they’ll also stay in touch with an insurance company just in case they want to settle. At the same time, they’ll be busy crafting compelling arguments that showcase the fact that you deserve to be compensated.
As they do this, they might need to ask you questions about your bicycle accident or have you provide them with additional documentation. All of this is going to help them come up with the best arguments that they can use in a courtroom.
As you can imagine, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for you to do all this on your own. Having a bicycle accident attorney help you will make the process so much easier for you.
12. They Can Help You Collect Compensation
If an insurance company is somehow able to convince a court that you were responsible for a bicycle accident, taking your case to court could backfire on you. But if you get to this point, there’s a very small chance of this happening.
The odds of you not being able to collect any compensation will be low. It’ll just be a matter of how much compensation you’re going to be able to collect.
Your bicycle accident lawyer will work as hard as they can to get you the money they feel you deserve. Their goal will be to get you more money than you could have settled for out of court.
At the end of it all, you should be left with at least some money to pay off your medical bills, bike repairs, etc. Unless you completely drop the ball and hire the wrong lawyer, this will be the least they can do for you.
13. They Can Make It Possible to Overcome a Bicycle Accident
If you’re going through the trouble of taking a bicycle accident case all the way to court, you probably sustained some pretty bad injuries during it. These injuries are going to linger and potentially last for a long time if you don’t do anything about them.
Hiring a bicycle accident lawyer to represent you will free up time to focus on healing. You’ll be able to work with doctors, nurses, physical therapists, etc. to restore your health.
You’ll also find that your mental health will be better following a bicycle accident when you have a competent attorney working for you. They’ll be able to reassure you that everything is going to be okay while also working on getting you paid so that you don’t have to worry about covering medical costs and other expenses on your own.
Not hiring a bicycle accident attorney could do the opposite and cause harm to both your physical and mental health. It’s just one more reason why hiring a lawyer makes all the sense in the world.
Contact a Bicycle Accident Lawyer Today
If you were in a bicycle accident in recent weeks, you should get the medical treatments you need to heal. You should also actively search for a great bicycle accident lawyer to take on your case.
This might be the only way you’re able to convince an insurance company to give you the compensation you deserve. Your attorney will work tirelessly to make sure you don’t have to go through this process alone.
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