Hey, Tate Meagher here with the Meagher Injury Lawyers, Kentucky personal injury attorney. I’m here today to talk about the number one question I get from my clients who have been injured in a motorcycle accident: how much is my motorcycle accident claim worth?
No-Fault State and PIP Coverage
First thing you gotta look at is Kentucky is called a no-fault state. You may have heard this phrase before. What that means is under Kentucky law, insurance companies that write insurance in Kentucky are required to provide no-fault insurance. Virtually every single car owner, close to 100%, probably not exactly 100% as there are probably some people out there that have rejected this type of coverage, has what is called no-fault coverage. This is also called PIP coverage, and personal injury protection benefits.
No-Fault Coverage Details
What that means is that your insurance company through this coverage will pay for the first up to $10,000 of your medical bills and you can actually use that for some lost wages as well. Now, cars typically have this insurance coverage, but motorcyclists per Kentucky law don’t have to have it on their motorcycles. Because they don’t have it, they’re typically penalized for this, which creates a $10,000 offset on their case even though they don’t have this type of coverage.
Penalty for Motorcyclists
What that means is, for instance, if you get a $50,000 recovery on a case, you’re only going to get back $40,000 if the case settles for 50. So there’s a $10,000 offset on your case just for the fact that you’re driving a motorcycle that didn’t have no-fault PIP coverage on it. Unfortunately, motorcyclists are penalized under Kentucky law because of that.
Insurance Coverage Investigation
After that, the next thing you want to look at is how much insurance coverage is available to you. How much insurance coverage does the other driver have? Maybe there’s even some other insurance coverage out there that’s not immediately apparent. This needs to be investigated. I highly recommend you get an attorney to investigate this for you to determine how much insurance coverage is available for you if you’ve been involved in a motorcycle accident.
Assessing Damages
Next, you have to look at what type of damages you sustained as a result of your injuries in the motorcycle accident. The most common types of damages that are recoverable are medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Pain and Suffering
What we typically do with pain and suffering is look at historical data in the local jurisdiction where your case could be filed. We look at similar cases that have maybe gone to a jury trial or have settled in your local jurisdiction for people that had similar claims with similar injuries. We compare it to your case and look at that data to try to come up with a range of what your case might be worth for pain and suffering damages.
Comparative Negligence
After that, we have to look at the percentage of fault. Were you as the motorcyclist at fault at all for the accident? Kentucky is what is called a comparative negligence state. This means that you can still recover your damages even if you are at fault for the accident. However, if you’re determined to be at least partially at fault, your claim is diminished by the percentage of fault that you are determined to be.
Example of Fault Impact
For instance, if you’re in a motorcycle accident and a jury determines that you’re 25% at fault for the accident, your claim is going to be diminished by 25% of the amount of your damages. If the other driver is determined to be 75% at fault, you get to recover the rest of that 75% of your damages from the other driver’s insurance company, but you’re out that 25% that you were determined to be at fault.
Nature and Extent of Damages
Lastly, you have to look at the nature and extent of your damages. For instance, if you sustain very significant injuries to the point where you’re going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, that type of claim is obviously going to be worth more than, say, a person’s claim where they just suffered neck and back soft tissue injuries. Not to say that those types of claims don’t have value—they absolutely do. I would encourage you to reach out to an attorney if you’ve sustained neck and back soft tissue damages in a motorcycle accident. But they’re not going to have the type of value of a claim where someone is going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of their life as a result of their injuries.
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