White Marsh Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcycle accidents are a daily occurrence in the United States. Victims of these crashes are often badly hurt and require immediate, emergency medical care. The cost of that care can easily reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, and the recovery process can be lengthy and physically and mentally taxing.

If you got injured while riding your motorcycle and do not know what to do next, get in touch with us. Our lawyers have handled many of these cases, so we know what to do to build you a strong case and give you the best shot at getting the financial compensation you deserve.

Rice, Murtha & Psoras can be reached at (410) 694-7291 for free case reviews from our motorcycle accident attorneys.

Things You Can Get Compensation for in White Marsh Motorcycle Accident Lawsuits

When you take defendants to court following a motorcycle accident – or any personal injury claim for that matter – the goal is to hold them accountable for the injuries they caused and get awarded appropriate financial compensation. In law, an “injury” can be many different things. The term encompasses far more than just physical maladies. When you start going over your claim with our motorcycle accident attorneys, it is important that you discuss all of the injuries you received because of your accident, not just physical ones.

Economic Injuries

Make no mistake about it: being involved in a motorcycle crash is going to cost you money.  Your bike may get seriously damaged or even totaled, and there is a good chance that other things you own may get injured as well. Anyone who has ever had to have their vehicle repaired knows that repair costs can add up very quickly once the repair shop starts looking things over. Accordingly, you can get financial compensation from the defendant for these costs.

Another form of economic injury is “lost wages.” This refers to any income you are not going to get because of the accident, including the time you have to take off work where you are not getting paid, a decrease in pay from needing to take a job that pays worse or losing the ability to work altogether because of your injuries. You can seek financial compensation from the defendant for lost wages after a motorcycle crash.

Mental and Emotional Injuries

Many injuries that victims of motorcycle accidents receive go beyond mere cuts, scrapes, and broken bones. The psychological toll that motorcycle accidents can take is just as serious as any physical injury. You can get compensation for these injuries even though they may not be as obvious at first glance. You can use things like medical records demonstrating that you sought help from a mental health professional.

Physical Injuries

Of course, the main reason that spurs many plaintiffs to file lawsuits after being in a motorcycle crash is being on the receiving end of very serious injuries. Fractures, internal bleeding, TBIs, and whole hose of other nasty injuries are possible in motorcycle crashes. In many cases, plaintiffs suffer life-altering injuries that will never truly go away.

Physical injuries have effects beyond things like pain. They often will prevent you from doing activities you enjoy or continuing your line of work, so there are many reasons that you can get compensation for physical injuries.

Punitive Damages

Thus far, we have discussed compensation based on various injuries – physical or otherwise – to your person. However, you can also get compensation based on the defendant’s actions. If the defendant has acted in a particularly egregious fashion, you can request punitive damages, which are meant to punish the defendant instead of getting you back to where you were before you were in an accident. To be awarded punitive damages, you have to prove that the defendant was more than merely negligent, so you should talk to our attorneys about whether seeking them is the right move in your case.

Calculating Damages in White Marsh Motorcycle Accident Cases

Once you know what injuries you are seeking compensation for, you have to actually specify the amount of compensation you are seeking. To calculate your damages, you can use any method you wish, including just “eyeballing” it. However, our lawyers recommend using one of two methods: the multiplier method or the per diem method.

The Multiplier Method

The multiplier method takes the more concrete things in your case – like medical bills – and multiplies them by a given number to quantify the value of the less concrete things you are seeking compensation for – like pain and suffering. For example, if you have $200,000 in medical expenses and property damage, our lawyers may decide that multiplying by 4 makes sense for your case. So, you would be seeking $200,000 in economic damages and $800,000 in non-economic damages for a total of $1 million in compensatory damages.

The multiple method is most frequently employed when the plaintiff has life-altering injuries that will never truly go away. Thus, the actual damages the plaintiff may receive can be quite high despite the apparent simplicity of the method.

The Per Diem Method

The “per Diem” method calculates damages differently. Instead of multiplying one time, this method comes up with an appropriate value that represents the effects of your injuries that you deal with every day and then multiplies that number by the number of days you are expected to deal with your injuries. This method is favored when the plaintiff is expected to more or less fully recover from their injuries at some point in the future.

Get Assistance from Our White Marsh Motorcycle Accident Attorneys Today

Call (410) 694-7291 and get a free review of your claim from Rice, Murtha & Psoras’s motorcycle accident attorneys now.