Lancaster Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcycle accidents often cause catastrophic injuries that can make the lives of injured riders much more difficult – physically, financially and psychologically. Schmidt Kramer’s Lancaster motorcycle accident lawyers understand the challenges that riders may face after a serious crash and can help to recover financial compensation from the at-fault party.

Your firm did a great job on my case, and I will make sure to recommend you in the future.
_{– Client of Schmidt Kramer}

When motorcycle accident victims have legal representation, they stand to recover more financial compensation from their claim compared to those that do not hire a lawyer. At Schmidt Kramer, we have experience successfully handling motorcycle crash cases and charge no upfront fees if we take on your case.

We have recovered millions in compensation for victims of many types of personal injuries and our award winning legal team is led by our founding partner Charles E. Schmidt, Jr. – a lawyer with decades of experience that is also a former member of the Board of Governors for the Pennsylvania Association for Justice.

For a free consultation with a lawyer at our firm, call (717) 888-8888 today or fill out our “Free Case Consultation” form and a member from our legal team will contact you shortly.

Schmidt Kramer – No Upfront Fees.

Do I Have a Case?

Sometimes the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement for an injury victim’s damages. In these situations, our motorcycle accident attorneys in Lancaster may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit.

However, you may have limitations on the types of damages you can pursue, based on the type of car insurance you chose. Pennsylvania offers all drivers the choice between full and limited tort insurance coverage.

If you chose limited tort coverage, you can file a lawsuit, but you cannot pursue compensation for pain and suffering. The only exception to this regulation is if you suffered a serious injury that causes serious disfigurement or impairment of a bodily function. Our Lancaster motorcycle accident lawyers have detailed knowledge of the Pennsylvania statute that defines serious injuries.

If you chose full tort coverage, you can pursue compensation for all damages you suffered, no matter how severe your injuries are.

Schedule a free legal consultation today by completing a Free Case Evaluation form.

Proving Negligence in a Motorcycle Crash

If we file a lawsuit, we must establish a breach of duty of care to prove negligence occurred. A breach of duty of care is a failure of someone else to act the way a reasonable person would to prevent you from suffering harm.

However, there are some accidents in which the motorcycle rider is also at fault for the crash. For example, maybe you were violating a law at the time of the crash.

In these situations, Pennsylvania’s comparative negligence law will be applied. This law says you cannot recover compensation if you are more than 50 percent at fault for the accident. If you are not 50 percent or more at fault, your total compensation award will be reduced according to your percentage of fault.

For example, if you are 40 percent at fault, your award will be reduced by 40 percent. This means an award of $50,000 would be reduced to $30,000.

This law is typically applied in the courtroom by juries. However, sometimes insurance companies will use it in their attempts to lower the value of your insurance claim.

One way you could be found at fault for your injuries is if you were not wearing a helmet. Under Pennsylvania law, most motorcyclists are required to wear helmets, unless they fit one of these exceptions:

You are riding in a three-wheeled motorcycle in an enclosed cab
You are at least 21 years old and have had a license for two years
You are 21 years old and have completed a motorcycle safety course from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation or Motorcycle Safety Foundation
You are 21 years old and are a passenger on a motorcycle driven by someone who fits another exception

However, you may still be able to obtain compensation if you were required to wear a helmet and were not wearing one, or you were not wearing one that met the requirements from Pennsylvania’s motorcycle operator manual. Our Lancaster motorcycle accident attorneys can review your situation to determine if you are entitled to compensation. We are committed to helping you build a strong case so you are not assigned more fault than you deserve.

Motorcycle Crashes Caused by Negligence

There are many different types of motorcycle accidents that occur on Pennsylvania roadways. Some are caused by the carelessness of the riders themselves.

However, many motorcycle crashes are the result of another driver’s negligence. Some of the most common accidents caused by the negligence of another include:

Left-Turn Crashes in Intersections

These are extremely dangerous because the motorcycle and the car that hits the motorcycle are often traveling at high-speed.

These accidents involve a motorcycle that is going through an intersection and a car making a left turn across the motorcycle’s path. The driver of the car may not see the motorcycle and start making the turn. This results in the car crashing right into the motorcycle, which could be traveling at 35 miles per hour or even faster.

Sometimes these accidents occur because drivers do not check for motorcycles. Often drivers do not see motorcycles because they are not used to looking for them.

Rear-End Collisions

These are crashes that occur when a car hits the back of a motorcycle that is stopped at a stop sign or red light at an intersection. Even at relatively slow speed, this can be devastating for the motorcycle rider. He or she could be thrown off the bike and suffer broken bones or severe soft tissue injuries, like whiplash.

Lane-Change Crashes

Some drivers do not check their blind spots before switching lanes, causing them to sideswipe or cut off motorcyclists. If the motorcyclist is unable to slow down or maneuver out of the way, he or she could slam into the car and lose control of the bike. This puts the rider at risk for falling off the bike. If the accident occurs at high-speed, the rider could suffer severe road rash or a traumatic brain injury.

The types of motorcycle crashes above are often the result of many forms of negligence, including:

Disobeying traffic laws, including right-of-way laws
Drunk driving
Distracted driving
Drowsy driving

Speeding
Failing to check blind spots
Not checking for motorcycles before pulling into an intersection to make a turn

Our Lancaster motorcycle attorneys can review your situation to see if negligence was involved in your accident. We are prepared to pursue the full value of your damages. We know how valuable compensation can be as you are trying to recover from your injuries.

Complete a Free Case Evaluation form today.

Motorcycle Accident Injuries

Motorcycle accidents often leave victims with life-changing injuries. Some of the most common injuries from these crashes include:

Road rash
Traumatic brain injuries
Neck injuries
Fractures
Head injuries
Spinal cord injuries, including paraplegia and quadriplegia

Severe bruising and lacerations
Leg injuries
Amputations
Nerve damage
Permanent disfigurement
Scarring

These injuries can cause physical, financial and emotional damages, including:

Medical expenses – If you are injured in the accident, you will have bills for your treatment, including bills for hospital stays, surgeries and other medical procedures, visits with doctors and specialists, MRIs and other tests, and prescription medications.
Physical pain and suffering – The pain and suffering from your injury could be severe and long-lasting, requiring pain medication and other remedies so you can manage it on a daily basis.
Emotional pain and suffering – Motorcycle accident injuries often cause psychological problems. Victims may feel depressed, have trouble sleeping or feel anxious. Sometimes this is because they are having trouble adjusting to the physical limitations or changes to their physical appearance caused by their injury.
Lost wages and earning capacity – Victims of motorcycle accidents are often unable to work for a period of time after the crash. This causes a decrease in their monthly income that can make it difficult to pay bills or afford their medical treatment. Sometimes victims have permanent limitations that make it impossible for them to continue working at the same job or in the same capacity as before.

Our motorcycle accident lawyers in Lancaster know how to build a strong case as we pursue fair compensation for these and other damages you suffered.

We take cases on contingency, so there is no risk in contacting us. You will not be charged legal fees unless you receive compensation.

Contact a motorcycle accident lawyer in Lancaster today by calling (717) 888-8888.

Motorcycle Insurance Requirements in Pennsylvania

Like claims involving car accidents, motorcycle accident claims are often resolved by obtaining compensation from an insurance claim.

Pennsylvania is one of the few no-fault states in the nation when it comes to motor vehicle insurance claims. This means victims of accidents must seek compensation from their own insurance policy, even if they were not at-fault for the accident.

Motorcycle riders have the same requirements as drivers of cars when it comes to insuring their vehicles. Under Pennsylvania consolidated statutes, all riders must purchase medical benefits coverage worth a minimum of $5,000.

This covers necessary medical treatment and rehabilitative services, which could include:

Hospital care
Dental services
Surgery
Licensed physical therapy

Prosthetic devices
Medications
Vocational rehabilitation
Nursing services

You have the option to purchase additional coverage for damages you could suffer in an accident. These coverages include:

Collision – This pays for the cost of repairing damage to your vehicle from the accident. Even though this coverage is not required by law, if you financed your vehicle, your lender may have required that you obtain this coverage.
Income loss – This pays for 80 percent of income you lost as a result of your injuries making you unable to work.
Uninsured/underinsured – If the other driver does not have insurance coverage, you can obtain compensation from your uninsured/underinsured policy. This coverage only pays for medical expenses and not property damage. This coverage is often used after hit-and-run accidents.

You should file an insurance claim as soon as you are able. The longer you wait, the longer it will take to obtain compensation. Waiting to file is also a bad idea because it makes insurance companies suspicious. They may think you were injured from something else besides the motorcycle crash.

Be careful when talking to the insurance company. Provide the basic facts about the accident and nothing else. Do not admit fault or attempt to describe the severity of your injuries. Insurance adjusters want you to say these kinds of things because it may allow them to devalue your claim.

After contacting the insurance company for the first time, you may want to seek legal representation from a trusted Lancaster motorcycle accident lawyer. We can deal with the insurance company on your behalf to defend your rights.

We will handle negotiations with the insurer. We will not settle for any unfair offers because we will determine the full value of your damages.

Our attorneys can launch an in-depth investigation into the crash to determine the role negligence played. This includes taking pictures at the scene, reviewing your medical records, talking to witnesses, and consulting experts to gain a better understanding of the severity of your damages.

Contact a Lancaster, PA Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcycle accidents are extremely dangerous, as riders are often severely injured. The attorneys at our firm understand the dangers and the types of injuries that can occur.

We can represent you when you pursue compensation through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. We know how to defend your rights throughout the legal process and build a strong case.

There is no risk in contacting us because we offer a free, no obligation legal consultation. If you have a case and you decide to pursue it, we will not charge for representing you unless you are compensated for your damages.

Our goal is to aggressively pursue the fair compensation you deserve. We know how important compensation can be as you attempt to move forward with your life after an accident.

Complete a Free Case Evaluation form today or call us at (717) 888-8888.

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Recent Results

$10,043,952.13 Personal Injury
Schmidt Kramer, P.C.partner Gerard C. Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
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$4,034,000.00 Personal Injury
Yesterday a Judge in Union County (Lewisburg, PA) awarded a couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania, over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting.You might ask yourself, how does a turkey hunting accident end up with that type of verdict? In order to understand the verdict you would have to know our clients. They are good people who had their life wrecked. Plus, you would have to know the defendant, who should not have been hunting with a gun because he was prohibited after a previous criminal conviction.It is a good verdict, because the Judge was able to do two things with his decision. First, he communicated to two very good people that their losses were something that those of us on the outside could appreciate and value. Mike Hobbins (our client) is a 51 year old guy who lost his sight because a convicted felon --who should not have even possessed a gun-- went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger. The Judge accepted the financial loss Mr. Hobbins' suffered, but listened closely to the evidence of less tangible losses. When Mike broke down on the stand, because his daughter would end up walking him down the aisle at her wedding, as opposed to how it was supposed to go, the Judge was listening. When Mike could not keep it together, because of how emasculating it was for him not to be able to provide financially for his family, the Judge was listening. It was facts like these that the Judge cited to support the $2,000,000 award for non-economic damages. Second, the Judge wanted to send a message. Union County is a hunting county. Many of the residents hunt there, and people from outside the area come to Union County to hunt. It was my impression, from the Judge's statements as he rendered his decision, that he wanted to send a message to the people in Union County to protect them in their sport. The rules in place to restrict people convicted of crimes not to have a gun are not to be broken. Hunting is serious and you have to identify your target before you shoot. When you turn your back on the rules that are set to provide safety in a sport, you risk being an example. Here, the $1,000,000 punitive damage award sends that message loud and clear.When it really comes down to brass tacks, the right action was taken against a Defendant who may never truly appreciate what kind of impact his reckless choices caused.At Schmidt Kramer, we are injury lawyers. That means we work with people who were hurt in car accidents, who were hurt by the neglect of nursing homes, or those that were seriously injured because of the reckless, thoughtless acts of others. If you or a loved one have been injured in Pennsylvania, we may be able to help. While the verdict yesterday is not one that is representative of every case we do, it does show that serious and dedicated representation can bring good results.Joe ChapmanJanuary 18, 2013
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$2,200,000.00 Auto Accidents
On Monday, January 6, 2014, Schmidt Kramer accident lawyer Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.Kamilah Claxton won summary judgment in November after the defendants, Sukhwinder Singh and the trucking company for which he worked, failed to file a brief in opposition to Claxton's motion, which was made in September. The verdict in Claxton v. Singh was issued after the court held a non-jury assessment of damages earlier this month."Mr. Sukhchan Singh, the employer, is liable on the basis of respondent superior, but was also grossly negligent in failing to maintain his vehicle in compliance with state and federal law, particularly with regard to having required safety inspections and correcting defects in its braking equipment," said U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in his opinion accompanying the verdict."He was also grossly negligent in entrusting his vehicle to Sukhwinder Singh, an inexperienced truck driver who had failed the written test and driving test multiple times before finally earning his commercial driving license," Caldwell said.
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$1,200,000.00 Personal Injury
A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.2012-06-26 10:00:00 AMDate of Verdict: June 19. 2012Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MMJudge: Scott EvansType of Action: Medical malpracticeInjuries: Anoxic brain injuryPlaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, HarrisburgPlaintiffs Experts: Dr. Anna H. Messner, liability; Lucille Packer, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Palo Alto, Calif.; Terry P. Leslie, vocations and earning capacity, Lancaster; Dr. Hilary B. Berlin, pediatric psychiatry, Great Neck, N.Y.Defense Counsel: Andrew H. Foulkrod, Darlene K. King, Foulkrod Ellis, Camp Hill, PADefense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DEComment: A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.The entire verdict came against Dr. Andrew M. Shapiro, the doctor who plaintiffs Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Metz alleged chose to have the boy monitored at a pediatric ward. The plaintiffs argued Shapiro failed to tell nurses caring for the baby about, and how to care for, the boy's enhanced risk for respiratory failure.The jury came back on June 19 and awarded Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Mets $500,000 in non-economic damages and $686,170 in loss of future earning capacity, according to the plaintiffs counsel.According to the statement, the baby's mother brought him to Shapiro because she was "'afraid that he might stop breathing during his sleep,'" the plaintiffs' pretrial statement said. Shapiro performed a sleep study and observed the baby's Apnea Hypopnea Index to be 43 — four times higher than what's considered severe. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were performed.According to the plaintiffs, the baby's sleep study results put him at an increased risk for post-operative respiratory complications. Despite this, they argued in the statement, Shapiro ordered the pediatric nurses at the Harrisburg Hospital general pediatric ward to observe the boy as they would any other patients — about once every four hours.The pretrial statement said that one in four children who have an AHI in the 40s and oxygen desaturation below 80 have some type of respiratory problem. The younger the child, the greater the risk of a respiratory problem, the statement said.According to the statement, Shapiro took off the child's pulse oximeter, the finger-mounted device used to measure blood oxygen, and ordered a heart and respiratory rate monitor. The child was 11 months old at the time.The plaintiffs pled that the baby was last seen at 4 a.m. There was no record of his oxygen saturation for the next hour and 45 minutes. He stopped breathing a 6:40 a.m., and his brain was without oxygen long enough to cause demonstrable injury on an MRI."Immediately prior to his surgery, [the child] was a normal child, who could say mama, eat finger foods, and was just on the verge of walking," the statement said. "After his code, [he] was like a newborn. He could not lift his head or sit up. He could not talk. He could not move."In his pretrial statement, Shapiro argued that he recognized the child's pre-operative sleep study showed he was driven to breath by decreased blood oxygen saturation, which he said was typical in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.He argued the American Academy of Otolaryngology dictates that admission to the intensive care unit is not the standard of care. In the statement, he said nurses did not observe signs of respiratory distress. No alarms sounded until the child arrested, the statement said.He said the baby likely arrested as a result of hypoglycemia and/or an acute aspiration, which he argued would not have been identified by blood oxygen saturation.— Ben Present, of the Law Weekly
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$1,024,040.80 Auto Accidents
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
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Lancaster Motorcycle Accident Lawyers