Fort Lee Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

The actions you take immediately after a motorcycle accident can determine how strong of a personal injury case you have. However, after such a traumatic event, it can be hard to think clearly. Below are some suggestions on actions to take after an accident.

• Remove Yourself from Danger: Immediately after an accident, you should leave your motorcycle where it is and get yourself to safety on the side of the road.
• Injury Assessment: Once you are safe, your health should be your number one priority. Even if you do not feel as though you are injured, you should still seek medical attention, as some injuries may not be readily apparent. Additionally, medical reports can serve as evidence of your accident for later personal injury cases.
• Report the Accident: You should always call the police after an accident. The police will make a report of the incident, which you can later use in court.
• Scene Documentation: Videos and photographic evidence of the accident scene, your injuries, and any property damage will be useful in a personal injury claim. Record your version of events, as accident memory documentation could also help with fault determination. Any other records, like motorcycle repair bills, can also be entered.
• Speak to a Lawyer: If you or someone else is injured in the accident, you should seriously consider contacting a lawyer. A motorcycle accident attorney in Fort Lee will protect your interests throughout the aftermath of the crash. We will help with evidence gathering, legal paperwork, insurance company negotiation, and if necessary, litigation in court.

Get in touch with a lawyer to provide you with the legal assistance you need for a successful compensation claim and put your financial worries at ease.

Unfortunately, motorcycle riding is inherently more dangerous than driving a car or truck. Motorcycle accidents can have life-changing results. A few of the most common causes of these tragic incidents are detailed below:

• Driving Under the Influence: Drugs and alcohol use diminish a driver’s reaction times and coordination. When a driver is less coordinated and less reactive, an accident is more likely to occur.
• Lack of Training: When a motorcyclist takes the road without proper training or licensing, the results can be tragic. A motorcycle is a complex machine, and a lack of training significantly increases the chance of an accident.
• Distracted Driving: Drivers are surrounded by distractions from GPSs to phones. When distracted, drivers take their eyes off the road, and this negligence can lead to horrible results.
• Reckless driving: Motorcycle riders and other drivers who violate road laws and regulations, such as running through lights or ignoring right of way at left-hand turns, causing intersection accidents.
• Speeding: One of the most common causes of road accidents is speed. Speed makes a car more difficult to control, leading to accidents. Speed also affects a crash’s severity.
• Weather: Motorcyclists can be subjected to snow, rain, and fog, depending on the season. These conditions decrease visibility and make the roads slippery, leading to more accidents.
• Road Hazards: Uneven pavement, road debris, and potholes can cause a motorcyclist to lose control. Motorcycles are small and inherently unstable, and they are more affected by these road hazards than cars.
• Driving While Fatigued: Fatigue can lower a driver’s reactions the same way alcohol does. This leads to accidents that injure both drivers and motorcyclists.
• Unsafe Lane Changes: When changing lanes, drivers frequently forget to check their blind spots and fail to use their turn signals. This is extremely dangerous to motorcycles, which can easily be caught in a driver’s blind spot, leading to serious injuries due to unsafe lane changes.

Motorcyclists can suffer from a wide range of injuries after crashes. A few of the most common injuries from motorcycle accidents are described below:

• Whiplash: One of the most common injuries for both motorcyclists and drivers is whiplash. This occurs when the neck is forced into a rapid back-and-forth movement.
• Road Rash: This injury occurs when skin is scraped on a hard surface. It is a type of friction wound. If left untreated, these injuries can result in serious complications like infections and nerve injury.
• Traumatic Brain Injuries: After a motorcycle accident, head injuries are common. These injuries are even more severe if the motorcyclist is not wearing a helmet.
• Sprains: A driver’s body can twist in a way that stretches and tears ligaments during an accident. These movements result in sprains that can take weeks or even months to heal. 
• Spinal Cord Injuries: An injury to the spinal cord can lead to paralysis, chronic pain, and even death. This is because the spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that transmit sensation data to the rest of the body.
• Internal Injuries: These injuries are frequently not immediately apparent and can take hours or even days after the accident for riders to notice them. If left untreated, these injuries can be life-threatening.
• Burns: One of the most common injuries in a motorcycle accident is burns that are caused by the exhaust pipes of the bike.
• Scarring: Cuts and road rash can permanently damage a motorcyclist’s skin. This can lead to scarring and can be so severe that it permanently alters and disfigures part of the cyclist’s body.
• Broken Bones: A fractured foot is a common motorcycle injury. Legs, arms, hands, and ribs are also often broken during an accident. 

New Jersey is a choice no-fault state when it comes to motor vehicle insurance. This means that the type of insurance you have–full tort or limited tort–will impact your ability to go after the other driver for non-economic damages. If you have elected a full tort policy, you can sue the negligent third party regardless of the severity of the injury. However, if you have elected a limited tort policy, then you can only go after a third party for non-economic damages if you “pierce the verbal threshold,” by showing that your accident resulted in death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement or scarring, displaced fractures, loss of fetus, and/or a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability. 

Regardless, to hold someone liable for an accident in New Jersey, you must prove that they acted negligently. In other words, you must show that the driver behaved recklessly or carelessly and that this behavior caused the accident. Negligence is shown by demonstrating that the responsible party acted in a manner that a reasonable person would not have. 

If a driver follows all the rules of the road, it is unlikely that the driver acted negligently. However, if a driver is speeding, failing to yield, failing to use their turn signals, texting and driving, or drinking and driving, they are acting negligently. 

Motorcycle accidents can be devastating and life-altering. Victims often feel crushed under the mounting expenses. However, victims can pursue two types of damages to help cover these expenses: compensatory and punitive.

Economic Damages:

These are monetary losses that can be directly linked to the accident. Economic damages are easily calculated as they are quantifiable. Examples of economic damages include:

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Loss of earning capacity
• Permanent disability
• Property damage

Non-Economic Damages:

• Pain and suffering damages
• Emotional distress
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium
• Disfigurement

Punitive Damages:

These damages aim to punish the negligent party. Courts rarely award this type of damages as you must show that the negligent party’s action is so egregious that it borders on criminal and shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others, especially in cases of wrongful death.

A person acts negligently when they act unreasonably and fail to exercise reasonable care. To prove negligence, you must meet the following elements:

• Duty of Care: Drivers have a duty to operate their vehicles safely and responsibly.
• Breach of Duty: If the driver engages in unsafe behavior, they have breached their duty. Police reports and expert witness testimony can be used to prove the breach.
• Proximate Cause: The driver’s actions caused the victim’s injuries. Accident scene photos that show damage to the victim’s motorcycle and any injuries can help prove proximate cause.
• Damages: The victim suffered actual harm as a result of the accident. Harm includes incurring medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages. Victims can prove damages by presenting medical bills, repair bills, and other evidence of loss. 

A statute of limitations is a legal timeframe for filing lawsuits. According to New Jersey law, plaintiffs have a two year window from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. For a wrongful death lawsuit, the timeframe is two years from the decedent’s passing.

This statute extends to those with uninsured motorist coverage (UM) who may be able to claim compensation in the cases of hit-and-run accidents or if the negligent party does not have insurance. As mentioned earlier, New Jersey is a no-fault state, meaning that drivers with no-fault auto insurance can be able to recover some medical expenses and loss of income in an auto accident regardless of fault, but some motorists may be still be able to claim UM benefits equal to their liability coverage.