Monmouth County Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
Being involved in a motorcycle accident can leave you with severe injuries, expensive medical bills, and other expenses. Serious injuries from the crash could also leave you unable to go back to work, making it harder to afford these and other expenses. If you were severely injured in a motorcycle accident, you could be entitled to financial compensation to help cover these expenses.
Monmouth county motorcycle accident lawyer Jerry Friedman can help you file insurance claims and – if the situation calls for it – a lawsuit to recover the compensation you need. Call our law office today to set up a free case consultation and learn more about the claims you can file. Our phone number is 1-800-529-4464.
Suing for Motorcycle Accidents and Injuries in Monmouth County, NJ
Victims of motorcycle accidents are often encouraged to use their insurance to get compensation. However, many insurance policies and claims do not pay as much as the victim needs, and they may have to file a lawsuit instead of using the insurance system. When you file an insurance claim in NJ, you typically make a claim against your own insurance policy unless your injuries meet a certain threshold or your case involves permanent injuries. If that is the case, then you could be entitled to claim additional damages by pursuing a lawsuit.
In an insurance claim, you typically can claim compensation for medical bills, lost wages, vehicle damage, and other economic costs, but you cannot claim compensation for pain and suffering. You also typically need to pay a deductible out of pocket and may get coverage for only a percentage of your damages. If your injuries are severe enough, you can avoid these limitations by going to court instead.
In a lawsuit in court, you can claim the full value of any damages you faced, including pain and suffering. In these kinds of motorcycle accident lawsuits, the damages could be higher, but the burden may be higher too. Getting compensation from a court means you need to first prove to a neutral jury that the other driver was responsible for the accident, and you need to prove what damages you faced.
Proving Fault in a Monmouth County Motorcycle Accident Case
To get compensation in court after a serious motorcycle accident, you need to prove that the other driver was at fault for the crash. To prove fault, you typically point to traffic violations or other safety problems that the other driver caused. For instance, a driver who hit your motorcycle after running a red light or while speeding can often be held liable for a crash.
Defendants in motorcycle accident cases will typically try to shift blame to the motorcycle rider. They often rely on stereotypes about motorcycles to paint driving a motorcycle as a dangerous activity, and they try to blame victims for crashes by saying they put themselves at risk by driving a motorcycle instead of a car. These arguments are often baseless and have no support in the law. Our Monmouth County motorcycle accident lawyer fights against these kinds of defenses all the time and works to protect motorcycle riders from victim-blaming.
Ultimately, the court needs to see evidence and proof to accept either side’s claim in a motorcycle accident case. Your testimony and the testimony of any other victims or witnesses will help tell the jury what happened. Any photos of the accident scene can also show which driver hit the other one, how the vehicles were positioned, and what traffic violations might have caused the crash.
Talk to an attorney about what other evidence can help prove your claim and how we can present the evidence to the court to argue that the other driver was at fault.
Who Pays Damages in a Monmouth County Motorcycle Accident Case
If you can prove that you suffered damages because of the other driver’s mistakes behind the wheel, you can typically get a court to order them to pay the full value of these damages. The court will order compensation for any damages you can prove, including economic damages like medical expenses and lost wages. They can also order compensation for noneconomic damages like pain and suffering.
The defendant is typically the one ordered to pay these damages in an accident case. That means that the driver who hit you will have an order filed against them. If they have insurance – which is required in New Jersey – then their insurance policy will usually require the insurance company to step in and pay at least some damages for them.
Sometimes, you may be able to get compensation from other parties as well. In cases where you are hit by a truck driver or other commercial driver, the driver’s employer could be responsible for damages. If the driver’s accident occurred while they were on the clock, then their employer could be responsible for their negligence, allowing you to sue trucking companies and other delivery companies for the employee’s mistakes. Sometimes, this leads to additional damages from the company for their own issues in causing the accident. For example, problems with hiring a dangerous driver or overloading a tractor-trailer could lead to partial fault.
Call for a Free Legal Consultation with Our Monmouth County Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
If you were involved in a motorcycle accident in Monmouth County or anywhere else in New Jersey, Jerry Friedman may be able to help. Jerry is a motorcycle rider himself, so he understands the kinds of things that other drivers do to put motorcyclists at risk, and he fights for injured riders and their families. Call our Monmouth County motorcycle accident lawyer today at 1-800-529-4464 for a free legal consultation.
