A bicycle accident can be a life-changing event, causing severe injuries that result in permanent disability. If you were injured in a bike accident caused by someone else, you need an experienced bicycle accident lawyer who can help you seek fair compensation for the impact your injuries have had and will have on your life.
Contact Bartholomew, Shevlin & Flack, LLP, today for a free consultation with our highly qualified personal injury attorney. We’ll walk you through the process of seeking compensation from the at-fault party and help you understand your rights as an injured cyclist.
Some of the most common and serious injuries sustained by cyclists in collisions include:
Cyclists must be vigilant when sharing the road with motor vehicles, as they’re involved in many of the most common bicycle accidents. Frequent causes of accidents seen in Illinois include:
Bike accident victims can seek compensation, also known as damages, for their various losses, which are the negative effects of the accident and their injuries. This compensation falls into two categories: Economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are compensation sought for your tangible losses, including medical expenses, lost wages, and property damage. If a loss has an explicit value assigned to it, that compensation falls under economic damages.
Calculating your economic damages is typically as straightforward as your lawyer adding up your medical and repair bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket expenses related to the bicycle accident.
Non-economic damages are compensation sought for your intangible losses, such as pain, suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and permanent disability. These losses can be difficult to put a price on, as they don’t have objective value.
However, a knowledgeable and compassionate lawyer can assess the value of your intangible losses and help you seek fair compensation for the way those losses will affect your life in the future.
When you hire our Illinois bicycle accident lawyer to handle your case, we’ll begin by discussing the details with you and getting an understanding of the impact the accident has had on your life. We believe that understanding the person behind the injuries is crucial for providing you with the best possible support.
Our team will then investigate the incident to identify the at-fault party or parties and collect evidence to support your bicycle accident case against them. We’ll then submit a demand letter to the at-fault party’s insurance company, outlining the compensation you’re seeking and begin settlement negotiations.
You won’t have to deal with the insurance company once we’re handling your case. We’ll communicate with them directly and negotiate on your behalf. And if the insurance company refuses to cooperate, we’re prepared to take your case to trial to seek the compensation you need.
Below, we’ve answered some of the most frequently asked questions about Illinois bicycle accidents.
While Illinois doesn’t have a statewide bicycle helmet law, some municipalities have partial helmet laws. For example, some cities may require helmets for minors or those who use their bikes for delivery purposes.
Understanding the bicycle helmet laws in your area is important, as the at-fault party’s insurance company may try to reduce your compensation if you weren’t wearing a helmet. However, while you should always wear a helmet when cycling to protect yourself from severe head injury, failure to wear one when you are not required to should not harm your bicycle accident case.
Under Illinois’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases, bike accident victims generally have two years to file lawsuits against the parties that caused their injuries. This is a strict deadline and missing it will allow the court to dismiss your case without a hearing. If the case involves a municipality that period could be as short as one year.
Our bicycle accident lawyer can investigate the incident to identify the at-fault parties and file your lawsuits against them within the time limit to protect your right to seek compensation.
Illinois modified comparative negligence law may apply if you were partly at fault for the bicycle accident that caused your injuries. Comparative negligence reduces a plaintiff’s awarded compensation by their percentage of assigned fault for the accident. For example, if the jury finds you to be 25 percent at fault because you rode through a stop sign and got hit by a distracted driver, you could only recover 75 percent of your awarded compensation.
The state’s modified comparative negligence law also includes a 50 percent threshold for recovering any compensation. If you are 51 percent or more at fault, you cannot recover at all.
While this law applies only to compensation awarded through trial, insurance companies often point to it during settlement negotiations. For this reason, it’s crucial to have an experienced lawyer on your side who can maximize your compensation by collecting evidence that reduces your degree of fault for the accident in bicycle accident claims.
If you sustained injuries in a bicycle accident in Illinois, contact Bartholomew, Shevlin & Flack, LLP, for a free consultation with our experienced and knowledgeable bicycle accident attorney. We’ll review the details of your case, explain your options for seeking compensation, and answer any remaining questions you have.