Bicycle Accident Attorney in San Diego, CA
A bicycle accident with a passenger vehicle’s driver can cause devastating injuries. While you may think that the strong bike infrastructure, including updated bike trails, offers a safe way to get around and avoid traffic, some drivers may not take the precautions they need to take around bicycle riders. Suddenly, you may find yourself dealing with severe injuries, including a long road to recovery and all the medical bills and financial challenges accompanying those losses.
If someone else’s negligence caused your bicycle accident, you might have the right to compensation for those injuries. Contact our San Diego bicycle accident lawyers at Rawlins Law to discuss your right to compensation.
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San Diego Bicycle Accident Guide
- Compensation
- What You Need to Know
- The Statute of Limitations on Bicycle Accident Claims
- What to Do After
- Bicycle Accident FAQ
- Contact a Lawyer Now to Learn About Your Rights
Rawlins Law: Help for Bicycle Accident Victims
After a bicycle accident, you may need to file an injury claim to help you recover compensation for your injuries. If you try to file that claim on your own, however, the insurance company may make it very difficult for you to actually get the full compensation you deserve for your injuries. At Rawlins Law, we strive to help our clients maximize the compensation they can recover for their injuries.
Ethical, Honest Legal Services
When you connect with a lawyer over your bicycle accident claim, you want to feel confident that the firm will offer an honest, trustworthy assessment of your claim and your needs.
At Rawlins Law, we pride ourselves in providing honest and ethical services to all our clients. We want to provide you with a real breakdown of what to expect as you deal with your injury claim and help you recover the compensation you deserve rather than misleading you about the compensation you can expect from your bicycle accident claim.
Proven Results
At Rawlins Law, we have a proven history of results from past clients that help showcase how we can offer our skills to future clients and their needs. We have recovered millions of dollars for our past clients and aim to bring the same high level of service and support to our future clients.
Affordable Legal Representation
Finding the support you need after a devastating bicycle accident should not leave you scrambling financially. At Rawlins Law, we understand the challenges our clients face, including the financial losses often associated with serious injuries.
We start with a free case evaluation to allow us to go over your case and assess the compensation you may deserve. Then, we work with most bicycle accident clients on a contingent fee basis, meaning you do not have to pay for legal services until we win.
Did you or a loved one suffer serious injuries in a bicycle accident? Let Rawlins Law help with your claim. Contact us today at (858) 529-5872 to get started.
Compensation for a Bicycle Accident: How to Break It Down
When you suffer serious injuries in a bicycle accident, you may need to look closely at the compensation you should expect for those damages. How much compensation can you get for bicycle accident injuries? It may depend on several factors related to your claim, including who caused your accident. In many cases, the insurance policy that covers the liable driver will limit the compensation you can recover for your injuries.
At Rawlins Law, we help our clients take a closer look at what damages they sustained as a direct result of their bicycle accident so that we can include all those damages as part of the claim.
Medical Costs
Often, after a bicycle accident, medical bills can grow extremely expensive. Your medical bills may reflect the severity of your injuries and the extent of the treatment you need to recover. For example, if you suffered a spinal cord injury in your bicycle accident, you may have higher medical bills than if you simply suffered a broken bone or road rash.
Likewise, complications in your recovery can further increase your medical costs: if you need extra surgical procedures or medical support, it can lead to higher overall medical costs. Talk to your lawyer about your current medical costs from your bicycle accident and any anticipated future medical costs so that you can include them in your claim.
Income Losses
Did your bicycle accident prevent you from going back to work? In many cases, patients discover that their injuries make it very difficult for them to move forward with their usual work tasks, especially if they have long-term limitations related to their injuries. If you had to miss time at work, it might have substantially impacted your overall income. At Rawlins Law, we help our clients calculate the value of those lost wages to include as part of an injury claim.
Pain and Suffering
Most injury claims, including bicycle accident claims, also offer the opportunity to include compensation for pain and suffering as part of the claim. At Rawlins Law, we know that some of the greatest challenges you may face have nothing to do with your finances. We aim to ensure that you get reasonable compensation for those losses and the more direct financial challenges you may have had to deal with after the accident.
Bicycle Accidents: What You Need to Know
Bicycle accidents can occur for many reasons.
- Poor overall bicycle infrastructure. While San Diego, for example, continues to improve bike infrastructure throughout the local area, it still has several areas that prove difficult for bike riders to access or that may prove difficult to navigate safely.
- Driver distraction. Distracted drivers may not notice the presence of bike riders around them, which can increase the risk that they will cause a devastating accident.
- Driver negligence. Many drivers struggle to share the road safely with bike riders. They may grow frustrated by what they perceive as a slower-moving part of traffic or struggle to share the road safely. Unfortunately, negligent drivers may engage in dangerous behaviors like speeding past the bike rider.
- Children playing in the street. Often, drivers do not take adequate precautions when driving through neighborhoods, which may raise the risk of an accident with a child on a bicycle.
- Dangerous intersections. San Diego includes a number of dangerous intersections, including University Avenue and 52nd Street, El Cajon Boulevard and 36th Street, and more.
Those bicycle accidents can result in severe injuries, including brain injuries, broken bones, head and neck injuries, and road rash. Often, bicycle accident victims will require substantial medical treatment to recover as much as possible from those injuries.
The Statute of Limitations on Bicycle Accident Claims
To seek compensation for the injuries you sustained in a bicycle accident, you need to file a claim before the statute of limitations expires. In California, you have up to two years after the accident date to move forward with a claim. However, several exceptions to the statute of limitations may allow you additional time to proceed with your claim. For example, if a child suffers injuries in a bicycle accident, the state tolls, or pauses, the statute of limitations until the child’s eighteenth birthday.
What to Do After Your Bicycle Accident
After a bicycle accident, you may struggle to figure out what comes next, including how you can best protect your right to compensation. All too often, accident victims struggle with the insurance company to get the compensation they deserve.
Following these steps increases your odds of recovering reasonable compensation for your injuries.
- Always report the accident to the San Diego police department, even if you do not think you sustained any injuries. A police report can prove essential to establishing liability for the bicycle accident.
- Talk to a lawyer as soon after the accident as you can. A lawyer can help guide you through the claim process and give you essential insights regarding how to take your next steps and file your claim.
- Keep up with the medical bills you have already paid and any other medical bills as they come in. Copies of those bills can help establish the financial challenges you have faced because of your accident.
- Listen to your medical care provider and follow any instructions. You may have to avoid certain activities while you recover or participate in certain procedures to help increase your odds of fully recovering. If you ignore those instructions, it could limit the compensation you can recover.
At Rawlins Law, we aim to provide all our clients with comprehensive advice about how they can best navigate the bicycle accident claim process and all the challenges that may accompany it.
Bicycle Accident FAQ
When do I need a lawyer to deal with a bicycle accident claim?
A bicycle accident in San Diego, including one in an intersection like Market Street and 6th Ave, that involves only property damage can usually go through the liable driver’s insurance company with relatively little trouble. Suppose you suffered any injury in your bicycle accident. In that case, you may want to work with an attorney to increase the odds that you will recover the full compensation you deserve.
You may also want to contact a lawyer if:
- The insurance company denies liability for the accident.
- The insurance company denies the full extent of your injuries.
- You have difficulty getting in touch with the insurance company or getting answers to questions about your claim.
- The insurance company delays payment for your claim.
A lawyer can also answer any questions about your bicycle accident claim. If you need answers to questions about your rights, get in touch with an attorney for a free case evaluation related to your bicycle accident.
I did not have a helmet during my bicycle accident and suffered a brain injury. Can I still file a claim?
Under California law, bike riders under 18 must wear helmets any time they head out. However, bike riders over 18 do not legally have to wear helmets. You have the right to file a bicycle accident claim any time someone else’s negligence leads to a bicycle accident with injuries or property damage.
However, the insurance company may attempt to claim that you contributed to your injuries by choosing not to wear a bicycle helmet. A lawyer can help you fight for the full compensation you deserve for any injuries associated with a bicycle accident, including injuries that may have occurred because you neglected to wear a helmet while riding.
My child suffered injuries while riding a bike due to a driver’s negligence. Can my family pursue compensation?
Under California law, children under 18 cannot file an injury claim for themselves. However, you can file an injury claim on your child’s behalf. You may have until two years after your child turns eighteen to move forward with a bicycle accident claim since California law tolls, or pauses, the statute of limitations until a child reaches the age of 18.
California also ensures that the funds from an injury claim get used for the best interests of the injured child. After your San Diego claim ends, the funds from the claim will go into a trust, and the court will appoint a guardian ad litem to help oversee the administration of those funds and ensure that they get used for the child. You may need to establish how you intend to use any funds removed from that trust, including removing funds to help cover the cost of medical treatment for a child who sustained severe injuries in a bicycle accident.
Contact a Bicycle Accident Lawyer Now to Learn About Your Rights
Dealing with a bicycle accident claim on your own can cause a great deal of frustration. Many people have no idea how much compensation they should expect or how to best pursue it. At Rawlins Law, our personal injury lawyers can help guide you through the process and make it easier to deal with your claim. Contact Rawlins Law online or at (858) 529-5872 to receive your free consultation.
