 
| Excerpt from: Motorcycle Lawyer
|  | | March 05, 2008 | | There are lawyers, and then there are . . .lawyers | I regularly help injured motorcycle riders all over the country who can't find a good motorcycle accident lawyer. It can be really difficult to figure out who the good lawyers are, and to separate them from those that simply aren't doing the job.
A new client just came in after having a communication breakdown with a well-known lawyer, who advertises motorcycle accidents as a specialty. This is a California lawyer, with a good sized firm, handling cases all over the state.
The case was almost two years old, and had not been filed. While it is true that you are allowed to wait two years in California before filing suit (as long as no governmental defendant is involved), why would you? If the case hasn't settled in that amount of time, guess what, chances are it isn't going to happen. Most courts take about a year to get a case to trial from the time it is filed. Most cases don't settle until the case is at least getting close to trial. If the lawyer waits two years to file suit, then another year goes by before the case is settled, guess what - the case ends up taking almost three years to complete.
The usual reasoning is that the case shouldn't be filed until the injury has "stabilized". This would be true, if the injury didn't have a year to "stabilize" while waiting for trial. If there are unusual developments, like the need for additional surgery, the case can be continued until the results of the surgery are clear. However, if no unusual developments occur, courts do not advance cases for trial simply because it is so long since the accident.
The new case that I am discussion was not only almost two years old, but the client had a knee injury that was not being treated, and the lawyer had done nothing to determine the nature of the knee injury. Instead, medical records were obtained, copied, and sent to the insurance company with copies of the medical bills. A letter to the insurance company demanded they pay the full policy limit of the defendant driver. The insurance company replied that the attorney did not send all of the medical records, and there the case sat.
If this is the kind of case handling that represents a prominent law firm advertising as a motorcycle law firm, then what can you expect from a law firm that does general personal injury law?
Obviously, I can't handle every case in every state. For one thing, I am not licensed to practice in every state. However, when I am asked to help find a lawyer who handles motorcycle cases in another state, I use my contacts to do the best that I can in finding the kind of lawyer that will really do the job.
After all, most motorcycle accidents involve significant injuries. Unlike an automobile accident, the rider takes the brunt of the impact.
Being a lawyer representing injured riders is important to me. I would like to see more lawyers around the country who really know how to handle motorcycle cases properly.
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