Riding a motorcycle brings a sense of freedom and adventure, but it also comes with unique risks and challenges. If you’ve been involved in a motorcycle accident, you deserve a legal team that understands the intricacies of motorcycle laws and the specific needs of riders.
At Beck & Beck, we are dedicated to standing up for Missouri motorcyclists. Our experienced motorcycle accident lawyers are committed to fighting for your rights and securing the compensation you deserve. We know how to navigate the complexities of insurance claims, medical bills, and legal proceedings so you can focus on your recovery.
Don’t let an accident sideline your life. Let us help you get back on the road to recovery with the justice and compensation you’re entitled to. Contact our St. Louis office today at 314-451-7586 for a free consultation.
- Car Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Whiplash
- Spinal Injuries
- Catastrophic Injuries
What Damages Can I Collect for a Missouri Motorcycle Accident?
If you’ve been involved in a motorcycle accident in Missouri, you may be entitled to various types of damages, depending on the specifics of your case.
Economic Damages
- Medical Expenses: This includes the cost of hospital stays, surgeries, doctor visits, physical therapy, prescription medications, and any future medical care related to the accident.
- Lost Wages: Compensation for income lost due to your inability to work while recovering from your injuries.
- Loss of Earning Capacity: If your injuries impact your ability to earn the same level of income in the future, you may be compensated for this loss.
- Property Damage: Costs associated with repairing or replacing your motorcycle and any other personal property damaged in the accident.
Non-Economic Damages
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation for the physical pain and emotional distress caused by the accident and your injuries.
- Emotional Distress: This covers psychological impacts such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from the accident.
- Loss of Consortium: Compensation for the injuries’ negative impact on your relationship with your spouse or family.
Factors Affecting Your Compensation
The amount and types of damages you can recover will depend on several factors:
- Severity of Injuries: More severe injuries typically result in higher compensation.
- Degree of Fault: Missouri follows a comparative fault system, meaning your compensation can be reduced if you are found to be partially at fault for the accident.
- Insurance Coverage: The limits of the at-fault party’s insurance policy and your own insurance coverage can impact the total compensation available.
Steps to Maximize Your Compensation
- Seek Medical Attention Immediately: Ensure all injuries are documented and treated.
- Gather Evidence: Collect police reports, witness statements, and photographs of the accident scene.
- Keep Records: Maintain detailed records of medical treatments, expenses, and how the injury impacts your daily life.
- Consult a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer: An experienced attorney can help you navigate the legal process, negotiate with insurance companies, and advocate for your rights to maximize your compensation.
Missouri’s Trusted Auto Accident Attorneys
- Caring legal counselors. Beck & Beck is a family firm with family values. We truly care about our clients.
- Personable professionals. We’re not your typical suit-and-tie attorneys. We grew up on a farm and worked our way through college and law school running a small asphalt sealing business. We’re regular guys that enjoy helping people take on the corporate bully insurance companies.
- We do it all. You focus on getting better and taking care of your family while we work to resolve your case quickly and completely, so you can move on with your life.
- Extensive experience. We only handle auto accident cases, which gives us in-depth knowledge of the relevant laws.
- Cases handled by partners. We’ll never pass your case off to a paralegal because we’re “too busy.” A partner handles your case.
- Honest and responsive. We’re always honest with our clients and provide frequent case updates. Additionally, we return all calls promptly.
- Medical and financial assistance. We have doctors who will treat you, even without health insurance. We’re also experienced in hospital bill reduction. We can even help you receive a living expense loan to cover expenses while you wait for a settlement if needed.
How an Attorney Can Help Your Motorcycle Crash Case
In some motorcycle wrecks, there can be multiple liable parties and sources of potential compensation. That’s why you need an experienced attorney to look over all the evidence.
It’s possible the at-fault party is the manufacturer of a faulty motorcycle part or a repair shop that performed shoddy work. The liable party could also be an employer who failed to provide adequate employee training or someone else altogether.
A qualified motorcycle accident lawyer can thoroughly investigate the crash and protect evidence crucial to your case. For instance, your attorney may need to send a demand letter to a trucking company to preserve critical documents if you were hit by a cargo truck.
During the course of the investigation, your legal counsel can gather and present all of the available evidence to help prove liability. This can include:
- Accident scene photos
- Medical records
- Reports from law enforcement who arrived on the scene of the accident
- Statements from eyewitnesses who saw the motorcycle wreck, as well as statements made by the other driver at the scene
- Vehicle maintenance and service documents
- Video from dash cams, nearby businesses, traffic cameras, etc.
After visiting a doctor for a full checkup, the most important step following a motorcycle crash is to call an attorney. To protect your legal rights, you need to know exactly who is responsible for your injury and then have your attorney place an overall value on your damages.
From there, a skilled lawyer can negotiate any potential settlement or file a lawsuit against the negligent party responsible for all your damages. With an attorney’s help, you can potentially recover costs such as lost wages and other work benefits, medical bills, and non-economic damages such as emotional suffering.
Meet The Team
Attorney & Founding Partner Get to know attorney Paul Beck and find out what motivates him to work hard for his car accident clients in Missouri by reading his profile here. Read More +
Attorney & Founding Partner Learn more about attorney John Beck's education, background, and commitment to helping car accident victims in Missouri by reading his bio here. Read More +
Motorcycle accidents often involve serious injuries or death because there is nothing protecting the driver other than a helmet. If the driver is hit by a vehicle or falls off while trying to avoid an accident, his or her body takes a direct blow. Approximately 75% of all motorcycle accidents involve an injury or death. It is not uncommon for a biker to sustain multiple injuries, translating to the need for extensive medical treatment and various types of rehabilitation as well as time off of work. Sometimes these injuries are so severe that they are permanently debilitating, preventing the person from returning to work and performing at the same functional level as before the crash. The catastrophic expenses associated with prolonged medical treatment and intense rehabilitation, combined with lost wages, can financially ruin anybody, including those individuals who were under the impression that they had plenty of savings before the crash.
Our Missouri Motorcycle Accident Injury Lawyers Are Here To Help
If you have suffered physical and/or emotional injuries due to the negligence or carelessness of someone else (usually another driver), you should consult with an experienced motorcycle accident attorney. All licensed drivers—regardless of whether they are in a car, truck, or motorcycle— have a duty to drive safely and to follow the laws and rules of the road.
Where do you begin to sort out all the problems that come with an accident? What if the motorcycle was your only means of transportation and is no longer drivable? How will you get around? Who will pay to have it fixed? Who will pay your medical bills, and who should you see if you are told that you need to see a specialist? You can’t work. How will your monthly bills get paid?
We understand that an accident creates an overwhelming life crisis fraught with many unknowns for the person who has been injured. Our job as motorcycle injury attorneys is to provide you with the practical and legal advice you need to address and resolve these distressing worries. Our goal is to relieve you of handling the many complex concerns involved in a motorcycle injury claim so that you may focus on what is far more important: recovering from your injuries and resuming a healthy life.
How Can Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Help You?
What You Should Not Do Following A Missouri Motorcycle Accident
Don’t Sign Anything
Don’t Underestimate Your Injuries
Don’t Let The Insurance Company Record You
Don’t Be Swayed By Anything The At-Fault Driver’s Insurance Company Suggests
Especially if they discourage you to seek representation, or make you low-ball offers.
Any offer you accept is final, there is no going back if your injuries worsen ofver time. may preclude your right to further compensation should your injuries worsen over time. A lot of people are discouraged from seeking the help of a personal injury attorney because they don’t think they can afford it. This is not true!
Don't Wait Too Long Before Hiring A Motorcycle Accident Attorney
Once the other party notifies their insurance company, things will move quickly. Without proper representation, you may be forced to deal with the other party’s insurance company directly. And if you are inexperienced, your case may be sunk before it has a chance of ever getting off the ground.
Frequently, the insurance company will use under-handed tactics if you do not have proper representation including:
- Withholding payment for a rental car even if the other driver is at-fault, and your motorcycle has been damaged to the extent that it is no longer drivable.
- Offering to reimburse you for your damaged or totaled motorcycle at a value less than what it was worth.
- Denial of full or partial responsibility for the crash.
- “Foot-dragging” in verifying insurance coverage.
- Denial of all or some of your bills related to the accident.
- Denial of bills related to the type of medical care you sought and needed for your injuries, such as specialty medical care, chiropractic treatment and/or physical, occupational or speech rehabilitation.
- Denial of lost wages for the time you had to take off work while recovering. This includes compensation for disability payments as well as vacation and personal days even if your employer paid for these during your absence.
- Refusal to include provision for ongoing or additional medical and/or rehabilitative treatment should you need it or if further complications related to your injury, such as osteoarthritis, are likely to arise.Such treatment may extend for years or even a lifetime, but should be included if medically predicted.
- Denial of your injuries because you did not seek immediate medical attention or there were noticeable gaps of time from one doctor visit to the next over the course of treatment.
- Refusal to acknowledge your injuries as “acute” or having been caused by the crash.
- “Foot-dragging” in spite of knowing that your medical bills are mounting.
- Treatment that is intimidating, disrespectful, untruthful, apathetic—could care less about the consequences for you—and unprofessional, such as refusal to answer calls.
Unless you are highly skilled in personal injury law, trying to match your negotiating skills against those of the insurance company will surely be intimidating for you. The insurance company negotiates settlements in personal injury cases every day. They make their living doing so. The average person is not trained to properly evaluate their own motorcycle accident case. They will have no experience comparing the value of the case with actual jury verdicts or settlements in other similar motorcycle accident cases.
In our experience, motorcycle accidents often have large damages because being in this type of accident usually results in much more severe injuries.
Have You Been Injured In A Missouri Motorcycle Accident?
If you’ve been injured in a Missouri motorcycle accident you should speak with an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact us online or call our office directly at 314.530.2769 to schedule a free consultation. We help car accident victims throughout the state of Missouri including Columbia, Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis, Kirksville and Cape Girardeau.
Paul Beck
Helping car accident victims and personal injury clients throughout the state of Missouri .
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OFFICES
St. Louis Office
8770 Rose Ave
St. Louis, MO 63144
Phone: 314-470-4928
Florissant Office
125 Graham Rd.
Florissant, MO 63031
Phone: 314-789-8369
