Common Misconceptions Regarding Motorcycle Accidents In Illinois Injury Law, Motorcycle Accidents

Interviewer: When it comes to motorcycle accidents, what would you say are some of the top misconceptions people come up with that you often have to dispel during your initial consultation?

You Can Not Handle A Motorcycle Injury Case On Your Own

Rochford and Associates: The primary misconception is that they think that they may be able to handle it on their own and usually think that they can handle it on their own. The other misconception related to that is that the insurance company adjustor that they’re dealing with, whether it’s their own insurance company or the adjustor for the at-fault insurance company, would have the injured party’s best interests in mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve already talked about that a little bit. First of all, the person who’s injured, unless they have several other incidents from the past where they’ve been injured and they’ve handled their own case, is simply not going to be qualified to handle their own case. They don’t have the judgment. They don’t have the wisdom or the knowledge to make the right decisions.

It Is Difficult To Handle The Insurance Companies When It Comes To A Motorcycle Accident Case

That primary misconception is, “I can handle this on my own and the insurance adjustors will be honest with me and have my best interests at heart.”

Sometimes People Wait Too Long To Hire An Attorney For Their Injury Claim

The other misconception is that they can just listen to what the emergency room doctor said and just not worry about it for the next two or three weeks to see how they’re doing. They’re thinking that they’re going to be fine and a lot of times people wait too long to either hire a lawyer or to get back into a doctor after they leave the emergency room. They might wait those two weeks or three weeks thinking, in their mind, that they’re going to recover or get better and since they may not have a lot of experience with being injured, they have the mistaken belief that everything’s going to be fine.

The longer they put off getting treatment, the more that affects their case at a later time. The insurance companies will look at gaps in treatment, so for instance, if somebody puts off getting treatment for three or four weeks, the insurance companies will adopt the attitude that if the person was really in pain they would have gotten treatment right away. Most people do the exact opposite. They just keep thinking that it’s going to be better, and then they wait too long to get treatment.

Those are the major misconceptions or things that people mistakenly believe when they come into my office.

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