The Challenges Involved in Motorcycle Accident Litigation & Success Rate Injury Law, Motorcycle Accidents

Interviewer: What would you say is the most difficult aspect of dealing with a motorcycle accident case?

Majority Of The People Think That Riding A Motorcycle Is Not Safe Even If Traffic Laws Are Not Violated

Rochford and Associates: One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with a motorcycle accident injury case is people who don’t own a motorcycle and have never ridden a motorcycle don’t really show the same level of respect towards motorcycle riders as they might show towards somebody driving a car or a truck. In the back of their minds, there is a prejudice against motorcycle riders. There is a large segment of the population that doesn’t like motorcycle riders. They don’t think it’s safe. Let’s say it’s a parent, and they don’t let their kids ride motorcycles.

When those people are involved in making decisions concerning an injury case, for example, as a juror, that’s the one thing I worry probably most about: how the general public perceives people that are on motorcycles. We’ve all been riding down the road and we’ve all seen a motorcycle rider who has been, let’s say, reckless and kind of weaving in and out of traffic, and we wonder if that person’s going to be laying on the road two miles ahead of us by the time we catch up with him. There’s kind of this thought in the back of our minds that these guys are reckless and they shouldn’t even be on the road.

That’s one of the things that most people would never think about, but it is an issue in these cases.

It Is Not An Easy Job To Win Money On Your Motorcycle Accident Case In Illinois

Interviewer: With a motorcycle accident is it pretty easy to win money if I’m hurt, or is it going to be a battle?

Rochford and Associates: In today’s world, it’s never easy to get money on these cases. It was a lot easier to get money in these types of cases 30 plus years ago than it is now. These insurance companies have really, really gotten tough to deal with. They’re really paying close attention to the amount of treatment that an injured person gets, and it’s a struggle to get money on most cases. Now, on the catastrophic cases, the money comes easier. A catastrophic case means clear liability – it’s clearly the fault of the other driver. He pulled out in front of the motorcycle rider and the motorcycle hit the guy’s vehicle and the guy on the bike flew 30 feet up in the air, and he landed on the pavement and he’s dead or he’s paralyzed. In those cases the money’s a lot easier to come by because it’s clearly the other guy’s fault, and it’s a catastrophic case.

Cases Involving Soft Tissue injuries Are Hard to Win Money On

Most cases that we have, though, are what are called soft tissue injury cases. Those are cases where there are no broken bones. There are bruises and they’re hurting, but the x-ray shows everything’s okay. The MRI shows everything’s okay, but it’s their muscles and tendons and the soft tissue parts of their body that are hurting. Those are the cases that are hard to get money on. Usually we’ll get the bills paid. I mean, we can money on those cases, but there’s no easy money. Nowadays it’s just hard getting decent money on any case unless it’s catastrophic and there’s clear liability.

Initial Consultation & Doctors

Interviewer: Now, let’s say I were to have an initial consultation with you. I want to sit down with you, explain to you what the situation was with my motorcycle injury, and provide you with some documents and I’m going to say that I’m going to get some more documents pretty soon. I have pictures and evidence. Would you be able to give me a course of action we’re going to take? Can you kind of predict the outcome of it, or is it still pretty unpredictable even with that?

It Is Hard To Predict The Outcome Of A Motorcycle Accident Cases After The Initial Consultation With The Injured Party

Rochford and Associates: It’s hard to predict the outcome when I don’t know how much treatment you’re going to need, but if you’re hurting, if you’re in pain, the game plan is going to be, if you don’t have a doctor’s appointment scheduled, that you get one scheduled as soon as possible. What complicates a case early on is that if an injured person comes into my office and does not already have a doctor-patient relationship with a doctor. In other words, if I get a client come in that’s been injured in a motorcycle accident, or any type of accident, and that person doesn’t have a regular doctor that he or she goes to, then they need to either find a doctor to go to or I need to recommend somebody that they can go to.

Some Attorneys Can Also Recommend Doctors To Their Clients Because They Are Familiar With The Doctors That Good At Treating Injury Patients

I’d rather recommend somebody that they can go to because I’m familiar with the doctors that, in the local area, are good at treating injury patients. They understand auto accident or motorcycle accident injury cases, and they’re going to know how to treat the patient and they’re going to be open to treating the patient and open to dealing with the lawyer.

Some Doctors Are Reluctant To Deal With The Lawyers

One problem I run into in a lot of cases right off the bat is that they have a doctor that they’ve dealt with and that doctor’s not good at dealing with lawyers or doesn’t like dealing with lawyers or doesn’t like these types of cases because the doctor gets paid by insurance companies and he knows that the case is against an insurance company, so the doctor sometimes views my client or the injured person more as an enemy than as a patient. The doctors sometimes see my client as somebody who is trying to rip off the system. I want the doctor to have the right attitude in dealing with my client from the start. I don’t want the doctor to view my client as somebody that’s trying to screw the insurance company or that’s just out to make some money.

Doctors Like To Deal With Insurance Companies Because They Are The One Who Pay Their Money

A lot of doctors have this opinion because they hate lawyers. They like insurance companies because that’s who pays them their money. I want to make sure that the person gets the right doctor right off the bat. Now, if somebody comes in and they already have a good relationship with their doctor and the doctor is familiar with them, would recognize them in a grocery store, and trusts them, then that’s great. Go back to that doctor. But there are times where somebody comes in and they tell me who they’re going to go to, and I may attempt to persuade my client not to go to that particular doctor because I know from the doctor’s reputation and from dealing with the doctor in the past that he’s not a good doctor to have on injury cases.

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