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A bicycle crash can change your life in seconds. You may be facing painful injuries, medical appointments, missed work, and calls from insurance companies while you are still trying to understand what happened. It can be difficult to know whether you need an attorney or whether you can handle the claim yourself.
Not every bicycle crash leads to a personal injury case. But when injuries are serious, fault is disputed, evidence may disappear, or an insurer is pressuring you to settle, speaking with an experienced bicycle accident attorney can help you understand your rights and protect your ability to recover fair compensation.
We often compare a successful personal injury case to a three-legged stool. The first leg is legal responsibility. Another person or company must have breached a duty of reasonable care and caused the crash. The second leg is injury and damages. The breach must have caused an actual injury or loss. The third leg is collectability. There must be insurance coverage, sufficient assets, or another practical source from which compensation can be recovered. Like a stool, a case cannot stand securely if one of these three legs is missing.
An attorney evaluates all three legs. That includes investigating who had a duty to use reasonable care, how that duty was breached, whether the breach caused the injuries, the full extent of the damages, and what insurance policies or other sources of recovery may apply.
You should consider contacting an attorney when a bicycle crash results in emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, broken bones, a head or brain injury, significant scarring, physical therapy, or continuing medical care. Serious injuries may affect your health, work, independence, and quality of life long after the initial medical bills arrive.
A fair claim must account for more than the bills you have already received. Depending on the circumstances, damages may include future medical care, rehabilitation, lost income, reduced earning ability, pain and suffering, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life. An attorney can work with medical providers and other qualified experts to document those losses before the claim is resolved.
If the driver denies causing the crash or the insurance company denies the claim, legal representation becomes especially important. An insurer may argue that the cyclist was difficult to see, failed to obey a traffic rule, entered the roadway unexpectedly, or otherwise contributed to the collision.
An experienced attorney can investigate the crash, obtain police and medical records, interview witnesses, examine photographs and video, and consult an appropriate expert when necessary. The goal is to determine what the evidence actually shows about each person’s duty of reasonable care and how the crash occurred.
Evidence can disappear quickly. Surveillance footage may be overwritten, road conditions may change, damaged property may be repaired, and witnesses’ memories may fade. Commercial vehicles may also contain electronic information or camera footage that is not kept indefinitely.
Prompt investigation allows an attorney to photograph the scene, preserve the bicycle and other physical evidence, locate witnesses, request available video, and send notices directing the appropriate parties to preserve relevant records. Waiting too long may make it harder to prove who breached a duty of care and caused the crash.
A collision involving a delivery vehicle, company car, bus, or commercial truck may involve more than the driver. Depending on the facts, the driver’s employer, the vehicle’s owner, a contractor, a maintenance provider, or another company may share legal responsibility.
Commercial cases may require review of driver qualifications, work schedules, maintenance records, safety policies, electronic data, and applicable regulations. The businesses and their insurers may begin investigating immediately, so it is important for the injured cyclist to have someone preserving evidence and protecting the cyclist’s interests as soon as possible.
When a cyclist is killed, the family is left with grief as well as difficult legal and financial questions. A wrongful death claim may require proof of negligence, identification of the person legally entitled to bring the claim, and careful documentation of the losses caused by the death.
Wisconsin law determines who may bring a wrongful death claim, what damages may be recovered, and when the claim must be filed. Different deadlines may apply depending on the circumstances. Families should obtain legal advice promptly so evidence can be preserved and no deadline is missed.
Being accused of contributing to a crash does not automatically end your claim. Wisconsin uses a comparative negligence system. A cyclist’s recovery may be reduced by the cyclist’s percentage of causal negligence, and recovery can be barred if the cyclist’s negligence exceeds the negligence of the person from whom recovery is sought.
Because comparative-negligence issues depend on the evidence and the parties involved, they should be evaluated carefully. An attorney can investigate the allegations, identify the duties that applied to everyone involved, and challenge an unfair attempt to shift blame to the injured cyclist.
An insurance adjuster may ask for a recorded statement, broad access to medical records, or a quick settlement before the full effect of the injuries is known. What you say can later be used to question your account of the crash or the seriousness of your injuries. Once a claim is settled and a release is signed, you generally cannot return for additional compensation if your condition worsens.
Before giving a recorded statement or signing a release, consider speaking with an attorney. A lawyer can communicate with the insurer, determine what information should be provided, investigate available coverage, and evaluate whether a proposed settlement reflects the full value of the claim.
Even when another person clearly breached a duty of care and caused a serious injury, there must be a practical source of payment. The obvious source may be the driver’s automobile liability policy, but it may not be the only one. Depending on the facts, coverage may also be available through an employer’s policy, a commercial policy, an umbrella policy, or the injured cyclist’s own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.
Identifying every potentially responsible party and every applicable policy is an important part of evaluating a case. This third leg of the stool – collectability – helps determine whether a successful claim can produce meaningful compensation for the harm caused.
The best time to seek advice is often before evidence disappears, a deadline approaches, or an insurance company obtains a statement or signed release. An early consultation can help you understand whether the three essential legs of a case are present: a breach of the duty of reasonable care, injuries and damages caused by that breach, and a practical source of recovery.
Bremer and Trollop Law Offices, S.C. represents injured people and families throughout Central and Northern Wisconsin. We handle bicycle, automobile, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, premises liability, wrongful death, dog bite, farm accident, nursing home abuse, and product liability cases. Contact us to discuss what happened and learn about your legal options.
If you are recovering from an injury, you need to focus on regaining your health. You should not have to negotiate with stubborn insurance companies or compromise with a defendant.
A Wausau personal injury lawyer could lessen the stress and complications associated with collecting compensation, allowing you to recover fully. Call today to learn more about your options.
