Motorcycle Accident Lawyer in Missouri

Who pays after a motorcycle accident in Missouri?

The driver who caused the crash pays, through that driver's liability insurance. Missouri is an at fault state with no personal injury protection, so a rider's medical bills, lost income and pain and suffering go into one claim against the at fault driver's insurer. If the driver was on the clock for a delivery company or a contractor, the employer's commercial policy sits behind the personal one, and we name both.

While the claim is pending, your health insurance pays for treatment and is reimbursed from the settlement. Some motorcycle policies carry medical payments coverage, which pays a set amount of bills regardless of fault, and we pull your declarations page to check. Without health coverage, many orthopedic surgeons and physical therapy practices in Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield will treat under an agreement to be paid from the recovery, and we set that up so care does not stop.

RSMo 303.025 requires liability insurance on every Missouri vehicle, motorcycles included, and every policy sold in the state carries uninsured motorist coverage. That coverage responds when the driver who hit you had no insurance or fled the scene, which is a crime under RSMo 577.060. Underinsured motorist coverage, which pays when the other driver's limits are too low, is optional in Missouri and is often missing from a motorcycle policy. When it is missing, a household relative's auto policy can sometimes respond, so we read every policy in the home.

Some motorcycle crashes involve no other driver at all. A rider who went down on a pavement seam, loose gravel at a rural intersection or an unmarked drop off may have a claim against the public body that maintains the road. Missouri public entities have sovereign immunity with exceptions for dangerous conditions of public property and the operation of motor vehicles, and some cities require short written notice. We identify the road's owner in the first week.

How much is a Missouri motorcycle accident claim worth?

A claim is worth what the crash took, added up by category. Economic damages are the countable losses: emergency care, surgery and hardware, rehabilitation, the future procedures your surgeon expects, lost wages, lost benefits and the drop in earning capacity if you cannot return to the trade you had. Non economic damages cover pain, scarring, the activities you have lost and, for a rider who will never ride again, the loss of something that organized their weekends.

A motorcycle gives you no crumple zone and no airbag, so a moderate speed collision that would dent a car fractures a leg, a pelvis, a wrist or a collarbone, tears skin deep enough for grafts, and rattles the brain. Several surgeries and months of lost work are normal, and each surgery moves the claim into a higher tier. The bike and the gear that was destroyed, helmet, jacket, gloves and boots, are a separate property claim documented at replacement cost.

Two things set the practical ceiling. The first is your share of fault, because a claim paid at 75 percent after a 25 percent finding is a real reduction even though it is never a bar. The second is insurance. A state minimum policy pays its limit no matter how badly a rider was hurt, so we search for the vehicle owner, an employer, a rideshare company's commercial policy while a trip was active, and any underinsured coverage in your household.

Where the case would be tried matters as well. Adjusters price a case bound for the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis or the Circuit Court of Jackson County differently from one bound for a rural county along Route 66, because of how juries in each place have treated injured riders before. We do not quote a number on the first call. A figure offered before your surgeon knows how you will heal is a guess, and a guess helps the insurer. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

What if the insurance company denies or lowballs your Missouri claim?

Expect it. The first offer on a motorcycle claim is where the insurer starts, and it is usually built on the rider caricature: too fast, too aggressive, too hard to see. Missouri adjusters lean on three arguments in particular. That you share a large part of the fault. That a helmet, or the lack of one, explains your injuries. That your treatment ran longer than it needed to. Each has an answer, and the answer is evidence.

On fault, the adjuster's goal is a percentage. Because RSMo 537.765 reduces recovery by your share, an insurer that cannot deny a motorcycle claim will try to inflate your share instead. The recorded statement requested in the first days is where that percentage is built. "I was keeping up with traffic" becomes a speeding argument that follows the file for years. Do not give that statement. We answer with the crush profile on the car, the scrape marks, the signal timing, the driver's phone records and the witnesses who saw the turn, and where the physics are disputed we retain a reconstruction engineer.

On helmets, Missouri requires them for younger riders and for riders who do not carry the insurance the law requires for riding without one. If a helmet was required and you were not wearing it, the insurer will argue it made your injuries worse. That argument reaches only injuries a helmet would have prevented. A helmet does nothing for a shattered femur, a torn rotator cuff or a degloved hand, and we hold the insurer to that line with medical evidence.

On treatment, expect a request that you see a doctor the insurer chooses and a claim that your MRI shows age rather than trauma. We answer with your treating surgeons and objective imaging. If the insurer will not pay a fair number once treatment is complete, we file suit in the circuit court for the county where you went down and use discovery to put the driver and the footage on the record. Most Missouri motorcycle cases settle before trial, and for more once a jury is the alternative.

How long do you have to file a motorcycle accident claim in Missouri?

Five years from the date of the crash, under RSMo 516.120. That is a generous deadline, and it is also a trap, because riders read it as permission to wait. Five years to file suit is not five years to gather proof. Cameras overwrite in days, the car is repaired, the bike is scrapped and witnesses move away. The deadline protects the lawsuit. Only speed protects the evidence.

A wrongful death claim runs on a shorter clock: three years from the date of death under RSMo 537.100. When a rider survives in intensive care for weeks before passing, the crash date and the death date differ and we calendar both. Missouri lets the spouse, children or parents bring the claim directly and allows recovery for lost companionship, guidance and support, for the rider's own suffering before death, and for funeral costs and lost income.

Claims against a public body do not run on the five year clock alone. If a RideKC or Metro Transit bus, a city truck, a state highway crew or a defective road surface maintained by a public entity was involved, sovereign immunity rules and their exceptions apply, and some cities impose their own short written notice requirements. We identify every government defendant at intake so no notice is missed.

Insurance deadlines run separately and sooner. Your motorcycle policy requires prompt notice of the crash. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage generally requires that you notify your carrier and obtain its consent before you settle with the at fault driver, and settling without that consent can forfeit the coverage. Riders who wait to see how the shoulder heals are the ones who lose money they already paid for.

What should you do in the first 72 hours after a Missouri motorcycle crash?

Go to a hospital the same day, even if you walked away. Adrenaline hides fractures and concussions for hours, and a gap between the crash and the first medical visit is the adjuster's favorite exhibit. University Health Truman Medical Center and Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Mercy Hospital Springfield and CoxHealth in Springfield, and University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia are the state's Level I trauma centers. Tell every provider you were on a motorcycle and how the crash happened.

Make sure a crash report exists and get the report number. The Missouri State Highway Patrol handles most crashes on I-70, I-44 and the state highways around the Lake of the Ozarks, and the Kansas City and St. Louis Metropolitan police departments handle the city streets. Before the scene is cleared, photograph the car, the bike, the point of impact, the skid and scrape marks, the signal and the sight line from where the driver sat. If the driver seemed impaired, tell the officer; driving while intoxicated is a crime under RSMo 577.010.

Do not let the bike be repaired or sold for salvage until we have documented it, and do not throw away the helmet, jacket, gloves or boots. Damaged gear proves the impact, proves you were wearing it, and is itself part of the property claim. Look for cameras before you leave: gas stations, storefronts, traffic signals, buses and doorbells on residential streets record more of the road than people expect, and most of it is gone within days. Tell us where the crash happened so preservation letters go out immediately.

Notify your own insurer that a crash happened and that you were hurt. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer, do not accept a quick check, and do not post about the crash, the ride or your recovery. Adjusters read riding group pages. Then keep a simple file: every bill, every appointment, every missed shift and a short daily note about pain and what you could not do. Months later, that file is what a demand is built on.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Road rash, fracture and head injury claims
• Rebutting the assumption that the rider was at fault
• Recovery when no fault coverage does not apply to you
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims
• Long term care and lost earning capacity