3 Questions To Help You Find The Right Motorcycle Accident Attorney

If you've been injured in a motorcycle accident bad enough to seek reparations, you probably will need to hire a personal injury lawyer. When selecting a lawyer to represent you, it's important to choose someone who is experienced in motorcycle accident claims and not just a generic attorney. After all, you're hiring an attorney for their specialized knowledge, specifically for their knowledge about laws regarding motorcycle accidents. Here are three questions to help you find a personal injury lawyer who has experience with motorcycle injury cases.

How many motorcycle accident cases have you taken on?

Many personal injury lawyers will be willing to represent you. Just because an attorney is willing to take on your case, however, doesn't mean they have lots of experience with motorcycle accidents.

Someone who regularly handles motorcycle accident cases will have represented several bikers in the past year, at least. They may not have hundreds of cases to list if they're small, but they'll have at least a few recent ones.

Do you also represent defendants in motorcycle accidents?

Most personal injury lawyers represent either victims or defendants, but not both. The most qualified attorney for your case won't take on cases where they represent defendants for two reasons. First, they'll have enough cases representing victims to keep them busy. Second, they'll have honed their skills specifically for victims' cases, and, therefore, they'll focus on those.

What is your average settlement?

Contrary to what news headlines might suggest, the typical auto injury settlements (motorcycle accidents fall under this category) is not a seven- or eight-figure sum. In 2013, The Law Dictionary reports, the average settlement was just $24,000.

The goal of this question is not to determine an attorney's abilities, since their settlements will be dictated by the cases they accept and not just their skills. By asking prospective attorneys this question, though, you can gauge whether they have experience with other cases like yours. If, for example, you only have minor medical injuries, a lawyer who has lots of smaller settlements might have represented many cases like yours. On the other hand, if you've sustained lifelong injuries, you might want someone who has experience with cases involving larger settlements.

If you've recently been in a motorcycle accident, you may be tempted to hire the first attorney you speak with and start filing your claim. Take time to ask several prospective personal injury lawyers these questions and to get more information, though, so you get the right person to represent you.