If you’re in a motorcycle accident, maybe you’ll walk away unscathed. If so, consider yourself lucky. Some motorcycle accidents severely injure the rider or even kill them. That’s a risk you must accept if you choose this particular transportation method.

You may need to contact and hire a motorcycle accident lawyer in Sacramento if you’re facing a complicated legal situation after one of these wrecks. Having a lawyer to advise you can help you get past this difficult time in your life. 

You should know about some factors that can influence your motorcycle accident payout, though. We’ll talk about some of those now.

Fault and No-Fault States

You should know that your motorcycle accident payout sometimes hinges on whether you’re in a fault or no-fault state when the accident occurs. A fault state means the vehicle or individual who caused the accident bears legal responsibility. They caused the damage, so the state feels their insurance should pay for it. 

You might also live in a no-fault state. In such a state, it doesn’t matter who caused the accident when two vehicles collide, including motorcycles. The personal injury protection insurance you must carry will pay for the damages, at least up to a point. 

If a vehicle hits you while you’re riding your motorcycle in a no-fault state, you should get money from your personal injury protection insurance, assuming you’re following the law and carrying it. You can use that money to pay for your medical bills. It should also cover the motorcycle repairs. It may partially cover your lost wages if you must miss some work while you’re recovering.

If you’re in an at-fault state when a vehicle hits your motorcycle, though, you must get your payout from the other driver’s insurance company. That sometimes proves difficult. Insurance companies exist to make money. As for-profit companies, the more cash they pay out, the less their executives keep as bonuses. 

Because of this, an insurance company might do all it can to keep you from getting the money you’re due. That’s often why you should hire a lawyer following a motorcycle collision. You don’t know the law’s ins and outs, and an experienced motorcycle accident attorney does.

Insurance Companies Demanding Additional Documentation

If you do run into an insurance company that’s dragging its feet after your motorcycle accident, maybe they’re demanding more documentation or evidence that establishes the other driver caused the accident and not yourself. As you might expect, these situations happen more often if a vehicle strikes your motorcycle in an at-fault state.

If you’re not able to prove conclusively that the other driver caused the crash, an insurance company might offer you a settlement amount that’s less than you would like. It’s dishonest, but it’s not unusual. Again, the insurance company wants to keep as much money as it can.

If you hire a lawyer who can investigate and uncover irrefutable evidence that the other driver caused the collision rather than yourself, you can probably demand more money. Your lawyer can make a counteroffer on your behalf. If the insurance company doesn’t go for the deal, you can always take them to court. That’s tedious and time-consuming, but you might sometimes have little choice in the matter. 

Stubborn or Nonresponsive Individuals

You might also have an instance where the driver who hit you, not the insurance company, doesn’t want to pay you any money. Maybe they don’t have insurance, or perhaps they were driving without a license. If one of these individuals hits you, it instantly complicates matters.

First, you must track them down if they fled the scene. If that happens, they’ll face criminal charges, but that’s not your responsibility. You can go after them in civil court, though, and you’ll certainly need a lawyer for that.

If you’re in this type of situation, you might try to get a significant sum of money from the person who harmed you. They may not have insurance, but they still bear responsibility, and you deserve cash from them to pay for your medical bills, lost wages, and so forth. If you can establish that this person acted in an irresponsible manner, the jury might award you a sizable payout if they agree you were in the right.

Intoxication or Reckless Behavior

If the other driver ingested alcohol or used drugs before they drove, that might also impact how much money you get. If you can prove their intoxication, that establishes recklessness on their part. The court system frowns on that. Even if a jury awards you some money if the trial ever gets that far, the judge might increase the penalty to teach the other driver a lesson. 

If the other driver sped and hit your motorcycle while exceeding the speed limit significantly, they might face a reckless driving charge, or even depraved indifference if they ran you down and didn’t stop to help. If so, that is another situation where you can expect much more money than if a driver made an innocuous mistake and struck your motorcycle. 

In these situations, though, don’t expect to automatically collect the money you feel you’re due. Often, you won’t see that payout without hiring the right lawyer. That’s someone with experience in this area. Usually, you want not just an attorney with car accident experience but one with motorcycle crash experience specifically.

They can gather the necessary evidence to frame your situation in the most sympathetic possible way for the jury. They can show them your medical reports. They might admit the police report into evidence that shows the accident scene. Anything they can do to establish that you’re the victim can help you. The more you can show this accident upended your life, the more money you can reasonably expect. 

All these factors might come into play when you’re sorting out what happened following a devastating motorcycle accident. The cash you might collect won’t fix everything, but it can certainly help.