Receiving Compensation for Your Motorcycle Accident Claim
If you’ve suffered a personal injury due to the fault of another party, you may be wondering what your chances of obtaining compensation are. This is especially true if you’ve been in a motorcycle accident because riders are at risk of particularly severe injuries. After all, they don’t have the protection of a vehicle frame or airbags. When a motorcyclist is in a wreck, they’re subject to a lot of different forces that don’t impact drivers and passengers in four-wheel vehicles.
There are a lot of potential reasons why your accident occurred. It could have been the fault of a distracted or impaired driver. Something could have fallen off the back of a truck that you couldn’t avoid. Whatever the reason, you could be entitled to a substantial amount of money if the accident was caused by someone else’s negligence.
The Law Office of Arye P. Corbett would like to share information that will give you a better idea of what kinds of compensation you may be able to obtain for the injuries you’ve suffered. If you would like to learn how we can fight for your rights to help you get the money you deserve, please contact us online or call (561) 948-3700 for a free consultation.
Types of Compensation in a Motorcycle Accident Claim
There are two main types of compensation that accident victims will typically pursue in a personal injury case – economic damages and non-economic damages. In some instances, victims may also be eligible for punitive damages. Here’s a brief look at all of them.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the tangible financial expenses that arise due to an injury. They are typically very easy to calculate so they’re straightforward. The following are a few examples of economic damages:
Medical bills – Every medical expense associated with your injury will fall under the category of economic damages. Not only do your medical bills include the cost of your hospital stay, but also any prescription medicines you have to take, and any long-term care you may need.
Lost wages – You may be able to obtain not only the money you’ve missed from work already, but any future wages you may miss because of your continued recovery. If you will no longer be able to do your old job, you may also be able to obtain compensation for your lost future earnings.
Property damage – This includes the cost of repairing or replacing not only your motorcycle, but also any personal items that may have been damaged in the accident.
Non-Economic Damages
These are a little trickier to calculate because they’re not tangible, but instead subjective. These can include pain and suffering and emotional distress. Pain and suffering damages could include negative side effects from medications you need to take for the discomfort related to your injury. Emotional distress encompasses all of the non-physical suffering you’re experiencing. You may not be able to sleep or focus. And you may be under a great deal of stress due to your injury.
Punitive Damages
Although rare, punitive damages may sometimes be awarded in a motorcycle accident case. Punitive damages are much, much higher than either economic or non-economic damages. They’re meant to punish the negligent party, especially in egregious situations. You may receive punitive damages, for instance, if a drunk driver caused your accident. Florida law caps punitive damages at either $500,000 or triple the amount of compensatory (economic plus non-economic) damages – whichever amount is larger.
Factors that Affect Personal Injury Compensation
As you might expect, personal injury compensation can be very complex to forecast. There are a lot of different factors that will determine how much money you may be able to get. Here are just some of them.
Settlement vs. Trial Values
The insurance company of the negligent party will offer you some sort of settlement. If you don’t believe that offer is fair, then you and your motorcycle accident attorney may have to take that insurer to court. Despite what you see on television, personal injury cases rarely go to court. Lawsuits take a long time and cost a lot of money. As long as you have a skilled attorney, there’s a very good chance the insurer will eventually offer the compensation you deserve.
Liability
Florida is what is known as a pure comparative negligence state. This basically means that the amount of compensation you receive will be reduced by the percentage of fault you’re assigned for the accident.
Let’s say, for instance, that the court decides you were 10% to blame for the accident. If you would have been awarded $200,000, you’ll lose 10% ($20,000) of that amount. You’ll receive $180,000 instead. This isn’t to say that will happen, of course. The negligent party could very well be 100% to blame for your injury. This example is just used to illustrate one of the factors that could potentially impact the amount of compensation you receive.
Severity of Injuries
As you’re probably all too aware, motorcycle injuries tend to be extremely serious, even life altering. If you have a severe injury, you’ll more than likely receive more compensation than if you would have suffered a minor injury.
Motorcycle Bias
The unfortunate fact is that motorcyclists are often assumed to be to blame for an accident. Much of this bias comes from television and movie portrayals of bikers as being reckless adrenaline junkies. Even though this isn’t the case at all, that could play a role in the amount of money you receive. That’s why it’s critically important you hire an attorney who knows how to defeat those biases.
How are Damages Calculated in a Motorcycle Accident Case?
This is a very common question we receive. Whether you’ve been in a car accident, a motorcycle accident, or you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident, you want to know how insurers determine payout amounts. There are typically two methods insurance companies use – the per diem method and the multiplier method.
The per diem method basically calculates the value of each day (per diem is the Latin translation for “per day”) of your recovery. It typically takes into account how much you make every day.
The multiplier method will typically result in much more compensation. It’s a very involved process, but, in a nutshell, it calculates all of the quantifiable damages you’ve incurred and then multiplies that amount between one and five. The more serious your injury, the higher the multiplier. In some particularly devastating instances, such as when a victim suffers a permanent brain injury or paralysis, the multiplier may go higher than five.
Contact a Boca Raton Motorcycle Accident Attorney
Trying to navigate the complexities involved in a motorcycle accident is nearly impossible for a non-attorney. To obtain the most compensation possible, you’ll need the help of a skilled, experienced professional. Arye P. Corbett has that skill and experience to get you maximum compensation for your motorcycle accident injuries.
Call (561) 948-3700 or use our online form for a free case review, and to learn more about how we may be able to get you the compensation you deserve.