At Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm, we protect your rights whenever you suffer an injury caused by the negligent acts of others.
Insurance companies exist to cushion people from calamities. However, whenever liability arises, necessitating compensation, the insurers do not settle the claims without a fight. To minimize losses, the companies sometimes pay deserving claimants low-cut settlements that don’t cover their damages. Reach out to a New Port Richey bicycle accident lawyer.
As a law firm with a track record representing personal injury victims, we understand their vulnerability in the face of powerful insurance companies. That is why our team members dedicate themselves to advocating for our clients’ rights to help ensure they receive the justice they deserve. Contact Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm today.
Bicycle Accidents in New Port Richey
Florida’s weather makes bicycling a popular activity across the state. Whenever you hit the roads, you meet cyclists riding to work and others cycling for fun or fitness purposes. The bicycling culture is so deep-rooted in Florida that 60 percent of the population lives within a mile of bicycle facilities.
For instance, in New Port Richey, dozens of trails (such as Suncoast, Upper Tampa Bay, Flatwoods Park, and Withlacoochee State trails) provide locals with miles and miles of cycling adventure.
But as much as cyclists derive immense benefits from the activity, hitting the roads also exposes them to dangers, such as accidents.
Heightened Risk of Injury
While accidents from rider errors, hitting animals, or falls due to poorly maintained roads are possible, most bicycle accidents involve car crashes. Unfortunately, when a bicycle collides with a car, the cyclist is most likely to get hurt, as the bike does not offer the necessary protection (seatbelts and airbags) to reduce the crash’s impact.
Injuries such as brain damage, neck and shoulder injuries, spinal cord damage, chest trauma, fractured/bones, and soft tissue injuries are common among bicycle accident survivors. These result in hefty medical bills, loss of income, emotional and psychological distress, among other losses.
Consult a Lawyer
If you suffered injuries in a bicycle accident in New Port Richey, you need an experienced bicycle accident lawyer to defend your rights and negotiate for a fair settlement. Meeting the medical expenses out-of-pocket while being unable to work can leave you in a deep financial crisis.
But this need not be the case. You may have a right to compensation as long as you can prove the at-fault driver’s liability.
Need to talk to an attorney? Contact us for a no-obligation case discussion, and let us review your case for free. Once our team establishes the facts and believes the at-fault party is liable, we can take over and handle all the legal details while you concentrate on getting better.
Why Hire the Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm
Having represented clients in numerous personal injury cases, we understand how disruptive an accident is. One moment of negligence by another motorist brings your life to a standstill and puts your future on a precarious balance. The best we can do in such moments is to pursue your compensation so that you can receive some financial relief to help you cope with the situation.
Choosing the Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm as your bicycle accident lawyer has various benefits.
No-Obligation Consultation
We hope to represent you, but we cannot guarantee that. First, we need to evaluate your case to determine whether it meets the necessary conditions for filing a compensation claim.
Liability for personal injury from bicycle accidents comes down to negligence. This means we have to demonstrate the at-fault party owed you a duty of care, breached the duty, and their breach caused your injuries.
If we establish these facts and there is enough evidence to support the claims, then we can fight for your right to compensation.
For this reason, we allow you to share the facts of the case with us to help us evaluate the strength of the claim at no cost whatsoever. This is our way of helping to ensure you do not shut the door of justice for whatever reasons.
On the same note, we charge our fees on a contingency basis, which we agree on at the onset. Under the contingency fees model, you only pay us attorney’s fees if we win the case.
Knowledge of Relevant Law
You could file a personal injury claim or even a lawsuit without a lawyer. However, the legal complexities of claim settlement can be too tasking and sometimes confusing. Letting a lawyer with experience in bicycle accident settlements handle your case gives you an upper hand on the negotiation table.
Insurance adjusters responsible for settling your claim are experienced in negotiating similar cases. Facing them on your own lowers your chances of receiving fair settlement significantly. Besides, you may not be privy to state laws that you can rely on to strengthen your case.
On the other hand, an attorney understands the tactics insurance adjusters lean on to deny claims or justify low settlements. They also understand the relevant laws and how they apply to your particular situation.
For instance, they may demonstrate how the driver infringed safety laws such as:
- Not giving a minimum of three feet of clearance when overtaking you
- Not yielding way to you before turning
- Failing to dim beam lights for you while approaching, etc.
Once the lawyer gets an account of how the accident happened, either from listening to your testimony, interviewing eyewitnesses, or observing CCTV footage of the accident if available, they can easily relate the incident to relevant laws and demonstrate the driver’s liability.
Establish Negligence
Bicycle accidents can have more than one negligent party. For instance, if the at-fault driver had the vehicle’s brakes replaced recently only to fail a few days, leading to the accident, the repair shop or the brake’s manufacturer might also be considered at fault for the accident.
In the same way, if the driver hit a pothole and lost control of the vehicle, thereby hitting you, the company responsible for road maintenance may also be liable for the accident.
For our clients, we analyze the case from all angles to establish the parties whose negligence may have contributed to the accident, then pursue them.
Proven Negotiation Skills
Proving negligence is only a part of the compensation claim process. Once you demonstrate the at-fault party’s liability, you must negotiate a fair settlement.
Usually, claim settlement involves a lengthy process of trading offers and demands back and forth. You require refined negotiation skills to keep the discussion flowing. Otherwise, the insurance adjuster might stick to a low offer and decline to increase the amount.
As negotiators, we know how to compute fair damages and negotiate strategically to get the insurance provider to pay a fair settlement. Legally, bicycle accidents qualify as vehicle accidents, so the resulting damages are similar to personal injuries in car accidents. Some of the damages we may seek, depending on your situation, include:
Medical Expenses
Once you talk to us, we not only concentrate on the legal side of things but also walk with you throughout your recovery journey. We would work closely with your doctor because we cannot close the settlement until you have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI). We need the doctor to provide this report.
As such, we include both ongoing and future medical expenses so that you are not left paying for your treatment out-of-pocket once the case closes. These may consist of consultation fees, therapy costs, nursing care expenses, medication costs, emergency room charges, etc. If there are any scheduled treatments or surgeries in the future, we also include the quotes in the claim.
Lost Wages
If the injuries resulted in hospitalization or grounded you at home, we can help you regain the lost wages. Usually, we compute the lost earnings based on your past compensation rates.
If the injuries are severe and likely to affect your earning ability, we also factor in the lost earning capacity. In this case, we would work with a financial expert to derive accurate computations of your future lost income, such as missed promotions, diminished earning ability, etc.
Pain and Suffering
We could also seek damages for the physical and mental distress you endure following the accident. Generally, pain and suffering vary depending on factors such as the nature and severity of the injury, the prognosis of future pain from the injury, etc. The impact of the accident and the injuries on your emotional and mental wellbeing also determines the amount you can recover.
Since pain and suffering is non-economic damage, meaning you cannot quantify it, we compute it based on past trends. Mainly, we quote it as a multiple of your economic damages.
Wrongful Death
In cases where a client has lost a loved one through a bicycle accident, we can help them recover wrongful death damages. These may include pre-death medical expenses, funeral and burial expenses, support for dependents, loss of companionship (for the spouse), etc.
Timely Claim Process
Once we take up your case, we are keen to adhere to the legal deadlines so that we do not miss out on filing a lawsuit should it become necessary. Generally, most personal injury claims settle through the out-of-court process. However, should the need arise, such as the insurance company failing to compensate fairly, we might need to file a lawsuit.
We can only do this within the set deadlines, known as the statute of limitations. In Florida, the statute of limitations for personal injury cases is four years from the accident.
However, if you plan to sue the government, you must file a lawsuit within three years, though there is a mandatory investigatory period of 180 days. Also, if you are pursuing wrongful death damages for a loved one, the statute of limitation is much shorter, which is two years.
Generally, we try to fast-track the out-of-court settlement process so that we do not get locked out of litigating the case should the need arise.
Protect Your Rights
You have at least two duties following an accident—seek medical attention and protect your rights.
Some of the things you ought to do to achieve the latter include:
- Reporting the accident – This helps create a police record that can leverage your evidence during settlement negotiation
- Collecting information and evidence – Collecting the necessary information and evidence is crucial following an accident. This could be the at-fault driver’s insurance and personal information, eyewitness contacts, photos of the accident scene and your injuries, etc.
- Preserving evidence – Do not be quick to fix your bike, wash or discard your clothing. These are handy pieces of evidence that can help strengthen your case.
- Keeping important documents – You should collect and retain all relevant documents that can help support your claim. These include police reports, witness statements, your accident journal and notes, medical reports and receipts, check stubs, etc.
Consult our lawyers immediately after an accident as they can guide you on the information and evidence you ought to collect and preserve. However, even if (for some reason) you do not have all the information at the moment, we can still build the case using what is available while gathering more where we can.
We do not promise to work a miracle to produce evidence, but once we look at the facts of your case and consider what you already have, we can work to build as much relevant evidence as possible.
Recover Damages for Your Bicycle Accident Injuries With Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm
Recovering compensation for injuries sustained in a bicycle accident never comes easy. With elaborate laws outlining bicycle safety rules for cyclists and other motorists, so many considerations go into proving liability.
After getting injured, the last thing you should worry about is the laws and how they stand to impact your case. Instead, entrust the case to a bicycle accident lawyer with experience in representing clients, specifically in New Port Richey personal injury lawyer, so you can concentrate on getting better.
At the Lucas, Macyszyn & Dyer Law Firm, we are ready to evaluate your case right away. Once you brief us on the facts, we can analyze the case, then advise you accordingly. If we believe the insurance provider(s) owe you compensation, we can develop the case and fight to protect your rights.
Past results do not define future results, but you can count on our 20-plus years of experience to afford you the best representation possible. Contact us at (727) 849-5353 for a free evaluation.