Motorcycle accidents cause serious injuries.  And beyond the physical injuries, our clients often develop serious stress and anxiety. All too often we see clients quit motorcycle riding for good – sometimes this means giving a hobby, other times a livelihood such as delivery riding. From representing injured motorcyclist clients we understand that other motorists often don’t give motorcyclists the same respect, leading to traumatic and sometimes fatal accidents.

We have extensive experience in representing injured motorcyclists, and we look at accidents from more than one angle. Below we summarise some of the issues we commonly deal with:

• motorcycle accidents on the way to or from work – claiming workers’ compensation benefits and making a damages claim at the same time
• accidents involving delivery riders
• motorcycle accidents due to bad road conditions
• traumatic injuries arising from motorcycle accidents

We also keep in touch with the motorcycling community, and hold presentations on motorcycling safety. You can read about our presentations to the Historic Motor Cycle Club Queensland here.

Motorcycle accidents on the way to work (or on the way from work)

When you suffer an accident on your way to work or as you ride home, you are covered by workers’ compensation insurance. It doesn’t matter that the accident was caused by a negligent driver and had nothing to do with your employer, you can still make a statutory workers’ compensation claim. This is important because even as we bring a damages claim on your behalf against the negligent party, while that claim is progressing, you can still get your weekly wages paid and your medical expenses funded.

Often the challenge is to get WorkCover to accept that the injury occurred while you were on your way to/from work. If there was a substantial interruption of or deviation from the usual route, that may present challenges.

Are you interested in reading more on this? Take a look at the following articles:

• workers’ compensation claims for when you suffer injury between your home and your work
• how to make a statutory workers’ compensation insurance claim in Queensland

Bad road conditions

Sometimes an accident happens not because another driver was negligent, but because of dangerous road conditions. One possible scenario is the roadway is in a bad state of repair. In these types of cases we investigate whether the road authority (council or the State Government) knew or should have known of the hazard and whether they should have done something about it before our client’s accident occurred.

Another possible scenario is that the road is left in a hazardous condition after roadworks. A typical situation is when the during roadworks they spread loose gravel on the road surface which is then left there for days without being cleared up. Gravel only bonds to a new surface within a limited period of time, after which it should be removed. When it isn’t, it presents a danger to motorcyclists. Leaving a stretch of repaired road in a safe condition is the responsibility of not just the company undertaking the road works, but also of Council or the State Government who should undertake a thorough final inspection, and possibly also of the traffic control company (depending the arrangements on site).

Accidents involving delivery riders

We have represented numerous clients who worked as delivery riders and suffered injuries in a motorcycle crash. One of the most common issues is the calculation of income loss, particularly future income loss. We also have experience in acting for international students who work as delivery riders.

Traumatic injuries

Motorcycle accidents often cause traumatic injuries, including traumatic head or brain injuries. We have dealt with multiple cases where our clients were in a coma after the accident. We know how to properly investigate the long term effects of these injuries, for example how these types of traumatic events affect our clients’ cognitive abilities. We have access to the best and most respected medical specialists who provide us expert reports for the purpose of developing our client’s case through the litigation process.

25% Cap on legal costs

In all of our personal injury compensation matters, we act on a  No Win – No Fee basis. What that means is, there’s no upfront cost to you.

In Queensland, most compensation firms will charge you 50% of your compensation amount – the maximum allowed at law. This is very expensive. Our fee is different. In most cases we will cap our fee at 25% . Remember also, these are the maximum fees we will charge. If our fee in your claim is less, then we charge the lesser amount.

Before you engage us, we will provide you a written Disclosure Notice and a Client Service Agreement. These documents set out in detail the service we provide, as well as our fees and outlays. Before you sign anything, you can take these documents home with you, and study them with your family. You can take as long as you need, there is never any pressure from us. If anything in these documents doesn’t make sense to you, we can discuss it with you and you are free to ask another lawyer to give you advice.  And remember, no win – no fee agreements come with a 5 day cooling off period for extra peace of mind.