North Dakota Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcycle accidents are known as some of the most devastating accidents that can happen, even if the rider was taking necessary precautions like wearing a helmet and following traffic rules.

Unlike car accidents, these incidents rarely result in minor fender benders because motorcycles expose their riders to injuries. A motorcycle accident can truly alter your life, both physically and financially, due to severe injuries like broken bones, lacerations, and brain or spinal cord damage.

If someone else's negligent driving creates the conditions for your crash, our North Dakota motorcycle accident lawyers can hold them liable. We can seek compensation for your medical bills, property damage, lost income, and other significant losses under personal injury laws.

Motorcycle accidents generally fall outside the no-fault system, which means injured motorcycle riders often face an uphill battle to cover their damages, no matter how clearly in the wrong other motorists were. That's why hiring an experienced lawyer can form the deciding factor between securing the resources to move on with your life or having to walk away with much less.

Call Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers’ North Dakota's motorcycle accident attorneys for your free consultation and learn how we can use our skills and resources to develop a winning strategy for your case. 

Award-Winning Motorcycle Lawyers In North Dakota 

At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we're proud to have a team of skilled, tenacious attorneys who understand motorcycle riders' specific challenges after an accident.

We know that the severe consequences of these accidents will also mean much higher legal stakes for victims and their families as they try to recover fair compensation. We've also seen firsthand how insurance companies make the motorcycle accident claims process as complicated as possible, often by using dishonest tactics.

Hiring Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers means you can protect your rights amid challenging circumstances. We're here to help you navigate the legal system as effectively as possible by investigating evidence of the at-fault driver's liability, substantiating your current and future damages, and negotiating with insurers to maximize the value of your claim.

It's also our job to answer your questions, explain what to expect throughout your claim, and generally provide peace of mind that we will protect your best interests. 

Common Types of Motorcycle Accidents in North Dakota

Motorcycle riders are highly vulnerable in any kind of accident due to not having the protective barriers provided by cars or trucks and certainly no airbags. That means they depend heavily on their fellow motorists to avoid creating dangerous situations, including scenarios where a collision doesn't happen. Still, the motorcycle rider suffers a bad crash trying to avoid one. 

The underlying causes of a motorcycle accident can impact factors like the seriousness of the victim's injuries, the right strategies for proving fault, and the overall best legal approach.

Some of the most common crashes we see in North Dakota include: 

• Head-on collisions: These accidents are among the most serious and potentially deadly due to the extreme forces involved at the point of impact when a vehicle crashes into a motorcycle from the front. Head-on collisions often happen due to the driver being distracted, impaired, or otherwise not in control of their vehicle, causing them to stray from their own lane of traffic. 
• No-contact accidents: Many motorcycle accidents fall into the category of no-contact because no actual physical collision caused them. However, if the rider crashes due to another motorist's erratic driving, like swerving or making a sudden stop, the motorcyclist can hold the at-fault driver liable. 
• Rear-end accidents: Tailgating drivers and distracted drivers who fail to notice when the motorcyclist ahead slowed down cause these crashes. Even at relatively low speeds, rear-end accidents can catapult the rider off their bike and result in serious injuries.
• Car door-opening accidents: Motorcycle riders in urban areas are at risk of dooring incidents where the driver or passenger in a parked car opens the door without checking for oncoming traffic, giving the rider no time to avoid colliding with the door and potentially getting injured. 

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Motorcycle Accident in North Dakota?

North Dakota operates under the no-fault insurance system, which typically requires each party involved in an accident to turn to their own insurer to cover their medical bills, lost income, and other expenses, regardless of who caused the crash. However, motorcycle accidents are a notable exception to this rule, which allows victims to pursue compensation directly from the at-fault party or their insurance company. 

This critical difference has advantages since it allows claimants to recover more damages than would have been available from tapping into their no-fault insurance policy. However, this also complicates the claims process because winning compensation would depend on establishing liability by proving negligence.

The unfair stereotypes of reckless or careless motorcycle riders can make this task more difficult, even when the facts of the accident don't support that perception.

An experienced motorcycle accident lawyer can overcome this bias by using solid evidence to meet the legal definition of negligence, which requires four elements.

• Establishing duty of care: All North Dakota motorists must operate their vehicles safely and take reasonable care to avoid harming others. This duty involves obeying traffic laws, signaling before changing lanes, remaining alert, and adjusting their driving to the road and weather conditions. 
• Establishing a breach of duty: The second element involves demonstrating that the at-fault party failed to uphold this duty of care through actions like distracted driving, making lane changes without checking their blind spot, driving over the speed limit, or following too closely behind a motorcycle.
• Establishing causation for the victim's injuries: To legally prove negligence, it's not enough just to show that the at-fault driver was irresponsible in some way. There also needs to be a direct link between this irresponsible act and the motorcycle accident that caused the victim's damages, which can be proven using evidence like witness testimony or traffic cameras. A car that ran a red light and hit a motorcyclist makes a pretty straightforward case.
• Establishing Damages: Finally, to make a valid negligence claim, the motorcycle accident must have resulted in actual harm, also known as damages. If the injured cyclist had to undergo surgery, miss work for a significant amount of time, experience a great deal of emotional distress and pay for motorcycle repairs, our lawyers can recover all these costs.

What Compensation Can I Seek After a North Dakota Motorcycle Car Accident?

The aftermath of a motorcycle accident is an incredibly challenging time for victims and their families, especially with medical bills and other major costs piling up. While money cannot remove the pain and trauma of a serious motorcycle crash caused by someone else's negligence, a successful personal injury claim can alleviate the overwhelming financial burden these accidents cause. 

North Dakota allows motorcycle riders to recover more than the no-fault insurance system allows. However, building a solid case that demonstrates your losses is necessary. At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we consider substantiating damages and maximizing the value of your claim one of the biggest priorities throughout the legal process.

The available compensation may include: 

Economic Damages

Economic damages compensate for all the quantifiable, out-of-pocket expenses that resulted from the accident and are generally straightforward to prove using documentation like invoices, receipts, and income statements.

• Medical expenses: The cost of emergency room visits, hospital stays, surgeries, prescription drugs, ongoing physical therapy, and any future expenses related to the accident.
• Lost income: Compensation for the inability to work for a specific time after the accident or even for having a permanently-diminished earning capacity from disabling injuries.   
• Property damage: The cost of repairing or replacing your motorcycle and other personal items damaged in the crash.

Non-Economic Damages

Motorcycle accident victims in North Dakota can also seek compensation for the physical, emotional, and psychological aspects of this ordeal, which are harder to quantify but still a significant result of the at-fault party's actions.

In cases with long-term injuries that will interfere with the victim's daily activities, an experienced motorcycle accident attorney can make a compelling case for acknowledging these intangible losses. 

• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Emotional distress 
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Loss of consortium
• Reduced quality-of-life 

How Much Does it Cost to Hire Your North Dakota Motorcycle Accident Lawyers?

For many motorcycle accident victims, the cost of legal representation is a significant hurdle when deciding whether they should hire a lawyer to help them navigate the claims process. The price tag of legal services can seem daunting when you're already coping with the strain of taking time off work, overwhelming medical bills, and other expenses from the accident. 

At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, there's no need for these financial concerns to stop you from receiving experienced legal help when you need it most. Like most reputable personal injury law firms, we represent our clients on a contingency fee basis, with no upfront or hourly fees.

A predetermined percentage of the settlement or court award we can win will cover our legal fees once the case ends. 

The contingency fee model removes the victim's financial obstacles for hiring a lawyer and motivates us to work tirelessly to maximize the compensation available for your unique case. Hiring our team means you can focus on your physical and emotional recovery from the accident while allowing experienced motorcycle accident attorneys to handle every aspect of the legal process.

How Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Make a Difference

Motorcycle accident victims in North Dakota face many complex challenges in the aftermath of an accident, including the complications of the legal system and the unfair stigma that can affect how riders are perceived.

At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we care about providing the compassionate, skilled legal advocacy injured motorcycle riders need to recover fair compensation. We handle cases using a comprehensive approach developed from our in-depth knowledge of North Dakota's personal injury laws and years of experience handling these types of cases.

Some of the steps we take to help our clients after a motorcycle accident include:

• Investigate the crash: We thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident using all available evidence and expert testimony to establish the at-fault party's negligence and lay a strong foundation for your case.
• Substantiate all damages: Our lawyers will identify and quantify all your economic and non-economic damages as comprehensively as possible, including working closely with financial analysts to estimate any future expenses resulting from your accident.
• File all paperwork correctly and on time: We manage all the administrative and procedural steps of the claims process on your behalf, avoiding errors or delays that can affect your claim.
• Communicate and negotiate with insurers: Having a lawyer handle all communications with representatives from the insurance companies places you in the strongest position to avoid accidentally undermining your claim and recover the most compensation available.

At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we understand that being in a motorcycle accident due to someone else's recklessness can drastically affect your life, potentially for the long term. Our experienced, hard-working lawyers can help you secure the financial resources to support your physical and financial recovery. Reach out to a North Dakota personal injury lawyer.

Call us today at (701) 970-2185 for your free consultation to learn how we can advocate for your rights after a motorcycle accident.