 
| Excerpt from: Motorcycle Lawyer
|  | | April 20, 2009 | | How Do You Find The Right Lawyer for a Motorcycle Accident? | I have a funny reluctance to write this, but the truth is that it's about time. I try to speak frankly, and it doesn't make sense to avoid this topic.
In the last couple of years, every lawyer on the planet seems to claim expertise in motorcycle accidents. Many of these so-called motorcycle lawyers haven't actually handled a case themselves in years, much less a motorcycle case. Lots of them don't ride, and never have. None of them care about motorcyclists, except as a source of income.
There is a theory that it takes 12000 hours to become really expert at anything. For a lawyer, that would be roughly the equivalent of 6 years handling nothing but motorycle cases.
I have no hesitation in saying that I have that, and more. There are only a handful of other lawyers that can say the same.
Every week, in addition to handling cases, I read literature that makes me better at what I do. I read Cycle World, Motorcyclist, American Iron, Ride, Bike, Robb Report Motorcycling, the AMA Journal, and rotate others, I read many, many online postings, I circulate at dealerships and motorcycle related retail stores, and I read technical material, including human factors and accident reconstruction.
Let's face it -- most motorcycle accidents involve getting cut off by a left hand turning vehicle, someone coming out of a driveway, or coming across at an intersection. Add in the accidents caused when someone tries to change lanes through the motorcyclist, and you have most of it.
This seems like a simple set of fact patterns, but a lot takes place. How you handle these facts makes a huge difference in how the case comes out.
Most accident reconstruction involves figuring out how fast the vehicles were traveling, and who had time to do what. This focuses on "perception time" and "reaction time". Invariably, even experienced accident reconstruction experts use the same times that they use for automobile accidents. These figures are usually wrong.
A motorcyclist faces a different situation when someone cuts in front of him. Let's face it -- more is at stake, and it takes more skill and more doing for a motorcyclist to brake, swerve, or brake and then swerve. It also takes more time. Obviously, it is faster to take your foot off the gas than it is to separately operate a clutch lever, a hand operated brake, a foot operated brake, a throttle, and to counter steer and lean to initiate a turn.
My point -- the more time it takes, the more time it requires to avoid an accident.
If an attorney can't put this together on the fly, under fire, they can't really do what the motorcyclist needs.
Good advertising is no substitute for real hands on experience.
Oh, yeah, another thing, 30 or 40 years on motorcycles helps, too.
As summer comes, I know that I will be spending a lot of my time finding real motorcycle lawyers for riders all over the country.
If it isn't that easy for me to do, what chance does a rider have when they have a motorcycle accident, and are faced with a mass of advertising from lawyers who are good at -- advertising?
My apologies for what may sound self-serving, but it was more than high time someone said it.
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