San Antonio Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Common Motorcycle Injuries

Motorcyclists are relatively unprotected compared to other drivers on the road and therefore more likely to face severe injuries including:

• Soft tissue injuries: These can impact the shoulder, knee, or elbow muscles, and joints and cause lifetime pain.
• Whiplash: This can result in nerve damage to the neck, brought about by the sudden impact, even concussion-like symptoms. If not properly treated, it can result in long term discomfort and pain.
• Spinal injuries: These are common with whiplash and even more so at high-speed crashes. These can result in limited mobility, long term pain, or paralysis. Some require extensive and costly medical treatments.
• Broken bones: Breaks from the blunt force trauma or the impact with asphalt can cause broken bones. In severe cases, the broken bones are combined with burns. Even minor fractures or bone spurs can lead to infections if not properly treated.

Steps to Follow After a Motorcycle Accident

If you were involved in a motorcycle accident, you need to take whatever legal steps are afforded you by your case. For example: if you were involved in a motorcycle accident, you would need to get a copy of your police report from the San Antonio Police taken at the scene of the crash.

After that, you have to seek medical attention from San Antonio State Hospital, Northeast Baptist Hospital, Methodist Hospital|Texsan, or St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital. Even if you don’t feel injured now, you still need to have a professional complete a diagnosis of your injuries and provide you any treatments as necessary.

Why Medical Care Matter so much

In the state of Texas, one of the ways in which your case might be hindered is if you failed to get medical care after the accident. Certain injuries, if not treated immediately, can get worse.
If, for example, you had some minor lacerations or neck injuries that you failed to get treated and the lacerations became infected, and now the injuries required additional medical care, the courts might not agree to the other party covering your medical bills. After all, had you sought care immediately, your bills and treatment may not have been so high.

When accidents happen, you can help your San Antonio motorcycle injury attorney by taking pictures of anything you can, including the damages to your motorcycle, other vehicles involved, your injuries, where the accident took place, etc. You should also keep track of the progress of your injuries and any compounding bills, medical or otherwise, with documentation to corroborate said bills. This will make it easier for your attorney to justify a settlement.

How My Lawyer Help During My Case

San Antonio injury attorney can help you during your case by acquiring evidence you might not as easily be able to get. For example, you can ask for copies of your medical treatment for injuries sustained during the accident. But, your doctor might have only listed the injuries and failed to use keywords useful in an accident case. These are the keywords that link the likely cause of the injuries to the documented injuries. In such situations, your attorney will know what is missing and be able to reach out for a personal statement to include with your medical records.

Similarly, part of a good case in Texas is establishing negligence. As a civilian, you might find it challenging to get copies of cell phone records for the other driver to prove that they were texting at the time of impact. However, an attorney will have an easier time acquiring such records through legal channels.

Perhaps most importantly, a San Antonio motorcycle injury lawyer can work with insurance companies on your behalf.

How Insurance Companies Work

If you were involved in a motorcycle accident, you have to work with the insurance company of the other drivers. This could be the motorcycle owner’s insurance if you were in another vehicle involved in the crash, or the insurance company of the other vehicle if you were the motorcycle involved in the accident.

While the insurance agents with whom you work might seem friendly initially, maybe even supportive, they are not there to work with you fairly. They might also use the phrase “we accept responsibility” to give the appearance that they are working with you.

But they receive training on how to offer the lowest possible settlements for motorcycle accident claims. After all, insurance companies are businesses and businesses have a bottom line. Now, you are under no obligation to accept the lower settlement they offer you, but the tactics used can be intimidating. Perhaps you don’t know that the settlement is too small or maybe you don’t know how to negotiate for a better price.

The more serious your claim, the higher the amount of compensation you deserve and the more likely it is that the insurance adjuster will try to get a settlement immediately.

In any case, it is best to talk to a motorcycle injury attorney as soon as possible after an accident. You should have an attorney work with the insurance adjusters directly. Any time you speak with the insurance adjuster, they can take recorded statements with loaded questions, and if you answer them unknowingly, they can work against you.