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Re-enactments are almost as important, if not more important than in any other type of accident. The prejudice and perception is that all motorcycle drivers are, somehow, usually at fault for their own accidents. As soon as you retain the police report, someone needs to review that police report and see if a private investigator has to make certain measurements, or an accident reconstructionist has to determine who is at fault for the accident based upon the pictures that were taken by the police. If you have a case where there is a significant question about who is at fault, then preliminarily, the motorcyclist might have been at fault.
In cases where there are serious injuries, you may have to get a re-enactment done based upon the facts that you do know and try to prove to the insurance company or jury that the accident happened in such a way that your motorcycle driver was not more at fault than the automobile driver. In Kansas, you have to prove that the motorcyclist, if you are representing the motorcyclist, is less than fifty percent at fault in order for that motorcyclist to make a recovery from an accident. If the facts are such that the motorcyclist is more than 49 percent at fault, then the motorcyclist will not recover anything in Kansas. Therefore, in serious injury cases where there is a question of who did what, where and how, a re-enactment may be critical after a thorough investigation of all of the facts of the accident.
If it is the clear liability, you may be able to handle your case on your own. However, you need to understand the values and the facts that go into making up the settlement of a personal injury motorcycle accident. If you have never handled one of these types of situations or cases, then you probably are not going to know what is important or not to the insurance company or the jury in proving the level of damages you sustained in this accident. I always suggest to folks that they get an attorney involved or, at the very least, get a consultation with an attorney early on and see whether you need to retain an attorney.
You do not always have to hire an attorney immediately. You can talk to most attorneys who offer a free, no obligation consultation. That attorney can assess whether or not you need one and what they will be able to do for you in your particular case. Therefore, it may seem like it is a slam-dunk from the liability standpoint, but there usually is, with every insurance company, an issue as to what your damages are and how those can be proven. If you do not have proper documentation and you do not have the doctors saying the right things, you may not recover very much, if any, of your losses that you sustained in the accident. So at very least, get the consultation with an experienced attorney who handles motorcycle accident cases.
The difference is that the personal injury lawyer who has not handled motorcycle accident cases may not be sufficiently familiar with the workings of the motorcycle or familiar enough with the way to combat the prejudice that insurance companies and juries have against motorcycle drivers. If you do not present your case in a proper form to battle the prejudices that insurance companies and juries have towards motorcyclists, you are going to lose dollars on your settlement value. In addition, someone who is experienced in handling motorcycle accident cases will be familiar with the basic operation of the motorcycle and how that operation differs from an automobile.
The more experience you have with someone who has handled a motorcycle accident case to its conclusion, including a jury verdict, the greater the chances are that that experience will translate into a greater value in the settlement or resolution of your motorcycle accident case.
