A motorcycle accident can be fatal, especially when serious injuries such as catastrophic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and fractures are involved. To file a claim and pursue fair compensation, you’ll need to engage a personal injury lawyer. In case you’re asking, “When should I hire a lawyer after a motorcycle accident?” The simple answer is to hire one within days of the crash and not weeks after the accident or when you receive the first call from an insurance adjuster.
With the assistance of Burg & Brock, you can start your claim and gather important evidence before it is lost. We understand how complex and overwhelming these cases can be, and so we guide you through every step of the process, helping you avoid mistakes with insurance companies and improving your chances of getting fair compensation. Contact us today to get started.
This article dives into the appropriate time to hire a lawyer after a motorcycle accident, the benefits of hiring a motorcycle accident attorney, and how to choose the right one.
The honest answer is as soon as you can hold a phone, or as soon as a family member can hold one for you. If your injuries are anything beyond bruises and a wrecked bike, retain counsel before the at-fault driver’s carrier calls. That call usually comes inside 48 hours, and the adjuster’s first job is to get a recorded statement that locks you into a version of events written by their attorney.
Additionally, California gives you two years to file under CCP § 335.1, but the relevant evidence that decides your case starts disappearing in 72 hours. Skid marks fade, traffic-cam footage gets overwritten on a 14-day loop, and witnesses forget what they saw. A motorcycle accident attorney with real trial reps in California courtrooms can lock that evidence down before it is gone.
Riders take the worst end of every collision. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2024 data shows 6,228 motorcyclist deaths, which is 15% of all U.S. traffic fatalities, even though motorcycles account for only about 3% of vehicle miles traveled. Per mile traveled, motorcyclists die at almost 27 times the rate of passenger car occupants and are injured nearly 5 times as often.
The most common causes usually include left-turn collisions, distracted driving by the other driver, and unsafe lane changes. This often favors the car driver in every way that matters when the case lands on an adjuster’s desk. That asymmetry shows up in every motorcycle accident case such as severe injuries, large medical bills, and an insurance company hunting for any fact it can use to discount your claim.
A few situations should send you to a lawyer the same week:
If any of those apply, the cost of waiting is real. The cost of a free consultation is zero. Even minor crashes can hide injuries that show up days later, so seek legal help before you assume you do not need it.
There is no single magic day when you should hire a lawyer. There are certain triggers or facts about your crash that should move you from “I’ll handle this myself” to “I need legal representation.” Below are some of the important factors to consider.
1. Injury Severity and Medical Treatment: A scraped knee and a cracked helmet do not need a lawyer. A concussion, a broken wrist, or anything requiring physical therapy usually does. The Central for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranks motorcycle crashes among the leading causes of traumatic brain injuries in adults, and this is the kind of injury that quietly multiplies its medical expenses and can threaten your financial future for two or three years after the crash.
Get medical attention even when you feel fine; adrenaline masks pain, and untreated symptoms become a defense argument later. If your treating doctor uses words like “imaging,” “specialist referral,” “follow-up in six weeks,” or “we will see how it heals,” call a personal injury attorney before your second appointment. The earlier counsel is involved, the earlier your medical records get organized in a format that proves causation later.
2. Fault Determination and Complexity: California is a pure comparative fault state. Even if the police reports show the other driver ran the light, the insurance adjusters can still try to assign you 20% of the blame for unsafe lane positioning or speed unreasonable for conditions. A motorcycle accident attorney who has handled California cases knows how that argument plays in front of a Sacramento or Los Angeles jury and works to determine liability and then establish liability on the record using witness statements, ECM data, and accident reconstruction experts before the carrier’s narrative takes hold.
Insurance claim disputes. The moment your insurance claim hits a delay, a denial, a “we need more documentation” letter, or a settlement offer that doesn’t cover your medical bills, the file has stopped being routine. Most carriers have a fast-track program for low-severity claims and a litigation track for everything else. If you are on the litigation track, the other side has lawyers. You should too.
A few patterns repeat across motorcycle accident victims who delayed getting legal help:
You will see “free consultation” on every billboard from here to Bakersfield. Free consultations are common; the right lawyer for a motorcycle accident case is not. Here are a few of the criteria to look out for when hiring a motorcycle accident lawyer.
Experience with motorcycle accident cases specifically: Personal injury cases involving motorcycles are not the same as car accidents. The defense playbook is different, the medicine is different, and the jury bias is different. Ask how many motorcycle accident cases the firm has tried in the last three years; not “handled,” tried. Combined legal experience across the firm matters less than the number of motorcycle cases the lawyer working your file has personally taken to verdict.
Knowledge of California laws: Statute of limitations is two years from the crash date under CCP § 335.1. Government claims, such as a city pothole, a Caltrans contractor, a transit bus, have a six-month notice deadline that ends most claims before the rider knows it exists. Pure comparative fault, MICRA caps in related medical malpractice claims, and lane-splitting rules under California Vehicle Code § 21658.1 all matter, so your attorney needs to understand how each one affects your case.
Reviews and success rate: Always read reviews about the lawyer and how they communicate, not for the star count. A 4.9-star firm that takes a week to return calls is worse than a 4.7-star firm that picks up on the second ring. For the success rate, ask for case results in the same range as yours, including settlements, verdicts, and the number of cases that went to trial.
The table below summarizes what each criterion actually tells you. Use it as a checklist when you compare firms.
| Selection Criterion | What to Ask | What a Good Answer Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle case volume | How many motorcycle cases have they handled in the last 3 years? | A specific number, with a few examples by injury type |
| Trial experience | How many of your motorcycle cases went to verdict? | At least a handful; willingness to try yours if needed |
| California law fluency | Walk me through the statute of limitations and government claim deadlines | Cites CCP § 335.1, mentions the 6-month notice rule |
| Communication standard | Who will I talk to between updates, and how often? | A named paralegal or attorney, a specific cadence (e.g., every 2 weeks) |
| Fee structure | What is your contingency percentage and how are costs handled? | Clear percentage, costs deducted after attorney fee, in writing |
A good initial consultation runs 30–60 minutes. Bring everything you have. The attorney needs the facts before they can give legal guidance worth anything.
Preparing documents. At a minimum, bring:
Questions to ask. Use the consultation to interview the attorney as much as they interview you:
1. Have you tried a motorcycle case in front of a jury in this county?
2. What is the realistic full scope of damages in a case like mine?
3. What is the weakest part of my case, and how would you handle it?
4. Who in your firm will be doing the day-to-day work?
5. How do you handle a low first offer from the insurance adjusters?
Communication evaluation. Pay attention to how the attorney listens. If they cut you off to pitch their billboard numbers, that is how they will treat you for the next 18 months. If they ask follow-up questions about your medical care, your job, your family situation, and your goals, that is the firm you want.
Hiring a motorcycle accident lawyer is not about handing your problem to someone else. It is about putting a trained operator on the file before the other side does. One major benefit of a lawyer is the help they offer throughout the legal procedure. The personal injury legal process often has dozens of small deadlines, such as claim notices, demand letters, statute of limitations cutoffs, response windows for interrogatories, deposition notices, and expert disclosures.
Missing any of them can result in the termination of your case. A personal injury attorney runs all of those deadlines on a docket, so you do not have to think about them. Another key benefit is their experience in negotiating with insurance companies. Insurance adjusters negotiate motorcycle accident claims for a living. You do not. The goal of the first phone call is not to reach a fair settlement but to set an anchor low enough that the second offer still saves the carrier money.
An experienced motorcycle accident attorney recognizes the script (the we-are-not-authorized-to-go-higher, the our-software-valued-your-claim-at-this-number, the if-you-do-not-accept-by-Friday-we-go-back-to-zero) and writes a demand letter that resets the negotiation toward securing fair compensation. These lawyers also help in maximizing compensation. Recoverable damages in a California motorcycle accident claim usually include:
Riders who handle their own claim almost always leave money on the table in three categories: future medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, and pain and suffering damages. Those three are where a lawyer earns the contingency fee several times over. Another major advantage of a motorcycle accident lawyer is that they help reduce stress.
Medical record requests, billing reconciliation, lien negotiation with health insurers and Medicare, subrogation letters from your auto carrier, demand packages, and settlement statements are a lot of paperwork to handle alone, and it lands while you are still in physical therapy. A firm absorbs all of it, ensuring that there are no errors and no deadline is missed. With their help, you can focus on the most important aspect, which is moving forward.
Recovery from severe injuries is a job. Going to every appointment, completing every PT session, following every doctor’s order, is also the single biggest thing you can do to support your motorcycle accident claim. When a lawyer carries the legal weight, you can put your energy into the body that has to ride again.
Hiring a lawyer solves problems. It also introduces a few. Knowing them up front lets you choose better and avoid surprises. One of such challenges is the financial concern. Most California motorcycle accident attorneys work on contingency, usually 33 1⁄3% of the recovery if the case settles before a lawsuit is filed, and 40% once litigation begins. The percentage seems large until you compare net outcomes.
Represented claimants typically recover compensation well above what unrepresented claimants receive on the same injuries, even after the fee comes out. Get the contingency agreement in writing and read the section on case costs; those costs (filing fees, expert witness retainers, deposition transcripts) come out of the recovery separately from the fee. A reputable motorcycle accident lawyer charges no upfront cost for the initial consultation, the case investigation, or the day-to-day legal work.
The only money that should come out of your pocket before settlement is, in some firms, the cost of obtaining your own medical records, and even that is usually advanced by the firm. Another significant problem is the complexity of the case. Motorcycle crashes can involve more than one defendant: the at-fault driver, the driver’s employer (if they were on the clock), a vehicle manufacturer (if a defect contributed), a government entity (if the road or signal failed), or a bar or restaurant (under California’s Civil Code § 1714 in DUI cases involving an obviously intoxicated minor).
Each added defendant means another insurance company, another set of lawyers, and another timeline to manage. Conflicting evidence can also be a challenge. When witness statements disagree, when the police reports favor one side, and the physical evidence favors the other, when there is no traffic camera, and the only ECM data is on the totaled bike, the case gets harder.
A comprehensive investigation by accident reconstruction experts can turn skid marks, debris fields, and crush patterns into testimony a jury will believe, but it takes time and budget. Your attorney’s willingness to spend on experts is one of the clearest signals they intend to fight for you to receive fair compensation, not just close the file.
The first 90 days after you sign the retainer are the most active phase of the case. Most of the work that decides the eventual outcome happens here. Below are the next steps to take after hiring a lawyer.
Your attorney will start by pulling everything available: the full police reports (not just the citizen copy), the 911 audio, traffic camera footage from any nearby intersection, body-cam from the responding officers, photographs from the scene, all medical records and imaging, your wage records, and the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage limits. If skid marks or crash debris are still visible, an investigator visits the scene the same week. This is the comprehensive investigation that catches what the on-scene officer missed.
Once the evidence is in, the firm builds two parallel narratives. The first is liability, which means how to demonstrate fault clearly enough that the carrier sees no upside in fighting it. The second is damages, which involves documenting every dollar of medical bills, lost wages, future medical expenses, and the human cost (pain and suffering damages, emotional trauma, lost time with family). Strong cases are built around medical experts, vocational experts, life-care planners, and accident reconstruction experts who can each testify to one piece of the story.
The standard you should expect is a substantive update every two to four weeks during the active phase, even if the update is “we are still waiting on records from the hospital.” Silence breeds anxiety, and anxiety leads to bad settlement decisions. If your firm goes dark for a month, ask why.
Your job between updates is not nothing. Keep going to medical care appointments. Keep a simple journal of pain levels, sleep, and limitations. Save every receipt connected to the crash. Forward any contact from the insurance adjusters to your attorney without responding. The case is a partnership, and the parts you control, such as your treatment, your records, and your discipline about not posting on social media, can affect the outcome more than most riders realize.
If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident, you don’t have to face it alone. Acting early can make a real difference in protecting your rights, building your case, and avoiding costly mistakes with insurance companies. A qualified attorney can guide you through the process, handle the legal details, and fight for the compensation you need to recover and move forward.
Burg & Brock has stood up for California motorcycle accident victims for years, and we built our accident practice around the cases other firms hand off. If you or someone you love was hurt in a motorcycle crash and needs legal help today, reach out for a no-obligation consultation. We will review the police reports, listen to your story, and tell you straight whether you have a case worth pursuing. There is no upfront cost, and we do not collect a fee unless we recover for you.
This section provides answers to common questions about when and why you should hire a lawyer after a motorcycle accident.
Within the first week, if you can manage it, and immediately if your injuries require hospitalization or the at-fault driver’s insurance company has already contacted you. California’s two-year statute of limitations under CCP § 335.1 sets the outer wall, but the practical window for evidence preservation, such as traffic-cam footage, witness recall, scene photographs, and ECM data, closes much faster than that. The earlier a motorcycle accident attorney gets involved, the more material they can lock down before it disappears.
A motorcycle accident lawyer handles the insurance adjusters, runs every legal process deadline, builds the medical and liability record your case needs, and negotiates from a position the carrier respects. Riders who hire counsel typically recover more across medical expenses, lost income, future medical expenses, and pain and suffering damages. You also get back the hundreds of hours that handling a motorcycle accident claim alone would consume, which is time you need for medical treatment and recovery.
Often yes. Being clearly not at fault does not stop the other driver’s insurance company from disputing liability, lowballing your settlement, or arguing your injuries are pre-existing. California’s pure comparative fault rule means the carrier can still try to assign you a percentage of the blame, which directly cuts your recovery. Even visible injuries with a clean police report benefit from legal representation, because the negotiation moves from “what will you accept” to “what can we prove at trial.”
A personal injury attorney becomes the single point of contact for the insurance company, which means you stop receiving calls, and they stop fishing for statements. The lawyer gathers evidence, including witness statements, police reports, medical records, and accident reconstruction work, then issues a demand package with a defensible value. If the carrier refuses to move toward fair compensation, the lawyer files a personal injury lawsuit and uses the discovery process, including depositions, document subpoenas, and expert testimony, to get the case to a fair settlement or to verdict.
Look for a personal injury lawyer who tries motorcycle cases, not just settles them; who can explain California-specific rules like the two-year statute of limitations and the six-month government claim deadline without looking them up; who answers your questions in plain language; who works on contingency with no upfront cost; and who tells you the weak parts of your case in the first meeting. A free consultation is the standard; you can use it to interview the firm before you sign anything.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Burg & brock or any of its attorneys. Laws change, and the facts of every motorcycle accident case are different. If you have specific legal questions about your situation, contact a licensed California attorney for guidance tailored to your circumstances.
Cameron Brock is a recognized personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles with extensive experience and success representing individuals and families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases.
Cameron’s established track record of helping those who have been harmed by wrongful conduct, violations of safety rules, and defective products has focused on claims involving automotive product defect, tire product defect, commercial truck accidents, trash truck accidents, airplane and helicopter crashes, train disaster, government liability for dangerous condition of public property, and general negligence.
Read more about Cameron BrockWe turn your pain into payouts. No stress, no upfront fees, just real results when you need them most.
Choose which categories of cookies and tracking technologies you allow on burgbrock.com. Strictly necessary cookies are always on so the site can function.
Required for the site to load, keep you signed in, and remember your preference choice. Always active.
Lets us see which pages people visit so we can improve the site. No personal data is sold.
Allows ad partners to measure the performance of ads you may have seen and show more relevant ads.
Powers extras like chat, embedded video, and remembered form fields. Turning these off may break some features.
