Our College Park bike accident lawyers have handled personal injury cases in Maryland since 1954. With over 70 years of experience, we are prepared to handle any bike accident case you may be involved in. Over the last decade, Maryland has averaged 816 bicycle-involved accidents each year. This is alarming for several reasons. First, the University of Maryland, and College Park in general, sees a high number of bikers each day. While this can be a convenient mode of transportation, particularly in warmer months, bicycles offer no protection against cars or trucks.
Consequently, we encounter several traumatic bike accidents in College Park every year. The positive side is that we are well acquainted with obtaining maximum client compensation. Pursuing a claim against a negligent driver can be tricky, particularly in bicyclist accidents. Bicyclists are not always viewed favorably by the general public, also known as the jury pool for a trial. Our job is to win you, by judgment or settlement, the amount in compensation you are entitled to under the law. This means proving, by a preponderance of the evidence presented, that the defendant is liable for your injuries and that you suffered those injuries.
Chances are, if you are reading this, you have already been in a bike accident in College Park. However, it is still valuable to provide free resources to avoid bike accidents in the future.
Damages will only be available to you in your personal injury case if we demonstrate that the defendant is legally liable for the accident. Then, we must prove damages. In any personal injury case, there are economic and noneconomic damages.
These are also known as special damages. Economic or special damages cover your tangible expenses due to your injury and accident. Typically, these include medical expenses, lost wages, and property damage. Although your property damage claim is separate from your personal injury claim, it is nonetheless compensable. And this makes sense. Why should you pay for the damage to your bicycle if you are not at fault in the accident? Well, you don’t. While this is separate from the claim we handle directly, we will advise you and the insurance company to ensure it is appropriately managed.
Medical expenses typically cover the majority of your damages. Mainly, if you go to the emergency room on the day of your accident, specific tests can run up the tab fast, leaving you owing thousands of dollars to various medical providers. Fortunately, so long as your doctor relates the treatment to your accident, the defendant is ultimately liable for these expenses. Thus, the higher the medical costs in your case, the more your case is worth.
Another crucial component of special damages is lost wages. If you cannot work due to your accident, missed time from work is compensable. There are typically two reasons why you may be unable to work. The first reason is you have an injury that prohibits you from performing your tasks. If a doctor writes a note that excuses you from work due to an injury from the accident, you may recover missed wages so long as you did not go to work and get paid anyway and only miss the time you were excused for.
The second reason is if you cannot work because your bike is inoperable because of the accident. In this instance, you still have a duty to mitigate damages. Thus, you must get your bike repaired or replaced within a reasonable time. Of course, what is reasonable is fact-dependent and ultimately a jury question.
These are also known as your general damages. General because they are less quantifiable than your special damages. We do not receive a bill from a medical provider detailing the exact cost to hand to the court at trial or the insurance company during negotiations. Instead, we must estimate your damages based on our experience of what judges and juries typically award in a given county for similar injuries. As a basic illustration, a broken clavicle or torn rotator cuff is worth more compensation than a strained back or bruised finger. Although, each injury entitles you to some compensation.
You may also have a claim for punitive damages. Although, in a bicycle accident in College Park, Maryland, this is unlikely. To recover punitive damages, we must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with an intent to injure, ill will, or evil motive. If that is the case, you may be entitled to significant compensation. However, the typical bike injury case in College Park is for negligence, not intentional conduct.
Some bike accidents are unavoidable. In these instances, the best thing you can do is follow the proper steps following your accident. But, to prevent a bike accident in College Park, there are steps you can take. For one, please make sure your bike is maintained. If not, it may fail you on the road, leaving drivers no time to react and avoid collision. Second, I would like you to plan ahead. Plan your route in advance. This may allow you to avoid specific hazards such as construction. With construction, bike lanes may be closed, making it exponentially more dangerous to bike on that road.
Third, avoid distractions. Anything related to your cell phone is a distraction. That may include music, podcasts, hand-free navigation, or phone calls. When you are riding a bike, the stakes are high. Higher than driving in a car most of the time.
A bike accident lawyer in College Park can help you organize your case, communicate with the insurance company, build your argument, and secure maximum compensation for your physical and financial injuries.
You might not know how to gather your medical records. You may also not fully understand the value of having all your medical records. We request your medical records from your various providers to build your case. Without sending those records to the insurance company, they have no objective basis for evaluating our case and making a settlement offer. While they may believe what we tell them, we need evidence to make a strong case. So, when we get your records, we thoroughly analyze them to evaluate the ultimate value of your case.
Once we have reviewed the records, we will send a demand package to the defendant’s insurer. Then, the insurance company takes approximately four to six weeks to evaluate our case and commence settlement negotiations. After exactly four weeks, we will begin to press them, and the talks can begin. 97% of personal injury cases settle. So, you want a skilled negotiator on your side who has decades of experience. Our attorneys have handled thousands of personal injury cases. Accordingly, we are acutely aware of the applicable laws in Maryland.
We’ll first need to investigate the accident to evaluate it best and negotiate your case. We have several ways of doing so. The simplest and sometimes most effective method is to obtain a copy of the police report, if there is one. The police do an excellent job of interviewing witnesses and creating a narrative of the accident. These are only sometimes admissible, and they are not always accurate. But they are one valuable tool that enables us to learn about your case. We also will speak with witnesses when preparing for trial. Witness testimony behaves as evidence at trial. Testimony to a jury is persuasive, making it necessary to investigate thoroughly.
This should be no surprise, but a veteran bike accident attorney in College Park can provide excellent representation in court. While only about 3% of plaintiffs already represented by attorneys end up at trial, the threat of excellent representation ultimately increases your case during settlement negotiations. The typical personal injury case takes two days at trial. You need a zealous advocate to defend your rights and secure favorable compensation for your injuries.
Our attorneys operate on a contingency fee basis. Our fee is contingent on whether we win your case. If we settle your case before filing suit, we charge a one-third fee of the recovery. If we do file suit, we charge 40%. This means consultations are free because we do not charge clients hourly. This is the standard in personal injury law. It works to benefit people, particularly college students, who may not otherwise have cash available for a hefty upfront retainer but still want justice served. Moreover, if we did charge an hourly rate, you may end up paying more than your case is worth. Accordingly, we are proud to offer this fee structure and will explain this further should questions arise.
At Gelb & Gelb, we are acutely aware of what is required to build a strong case and obtain maximum compensation for our clients. This has come from 70 years of exclusive personal injury law practice in Washington, D.C., and Maryland. You can call us today for a free consultation.