A Washington Bicycle Accident Attorney Can Fight for You When You Have a Whiplash Injury
No cycling enthusiast wants to face what you are now—recovering from a collision with a negligent motorist. But it’s possible you may be entitled to financial compensation when someone else is to blame for the crash. Start by choosing a Washington bicycle accident lawyer who understands how to value your economic and non-economic damages properly so you’ll gain proper physical, emotional, and financial closure.
Max Meyers Law can work to both prove another party’s responsibility and maximize the potential of your settlement. We have a track record of delivering results for our satisfied clients while staying true to our core values.
How You Can Suffer Whiplash from a Bicycle Accident
Whiplash is the term for a broad family of injuries that occur when your head suddenly snaps forward while the rest of your body remains still. Most commonly, whiplash happens in a motor vehicle accident. However, any type of sudden impact can cause a forceful jerk of your neck, whether you have been struck by a car, hit a pole, or landed hard on the ground—and it all happens within a few seconds. Even a vehicle traveling as slow as 10 mph can cause cyclists to suffer whiplash and other injuries.
Since there’s no framework to protect you from the impact, your whiplash might be more severe, especially if your neck muscles strain, spasm, or stiffen as a protective response. These muscles might not revert to their prior alignment after the accident.
How Whiplash Affects You After a Washington Bicycle Accident
Although it might seem minor at first, whiplash can actually develop into a debilitating injury that impacts your quality of life, causing chronic pain and even affecting your ability to work. Symptoms of a whiplash injury include:
- Shoulder pain
- Back pain
- Limited range of movement in your extremities
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Numbness in your arms and legs
- Inability to fully move your neck
Given the severity of bicycle accidents, chances are that whiplash won’t be the only injury you deal with in the long term. The potential residual effects of whiplash include:
- Neck strains
- Vertebrae injuries
- Herniated and bulging discs
- Neurological difficulties
- Traumatic brain injuries
More than 25 percent of people with whiplash suffer symptoms for a year or longer.
What We Do at Max Meyers Law to Determine Damages From Your Whiplash Injury
Bicycle accident compensation is tailored to your own unique situation. You’re paid for the injuries you’ve experienced and not based on an average figure that reflects other people’s circumstances. However, the insurance company will go out of its way to understate and minimize your injuries. It tries to take advantage of the fact that whiplash is one of the more common personal injuries to obscure the true reality of your situation.
When evaluating whiplash damages, our team assesses both your actual financial losses and the experience your injuries have forced you to endure. You can be compensated for the following:
- Economic damages. These damages reimburse for the actual financial losses involved with your injury, whether it was money that came out of your pocket to cover medical expenses or wages that you couldn’t earn while recuperating.
- Non-economic damages. You can be paid for the effects the injury had on your life and will have in the future, whether it’s chronic physical pain or the loss of the lifestyle you had before the injury.
It’s up to you to fight for full compensation for your whiplash injuries. But you don’t have to do it alone. We’ll go to bat for you when the insurance company tries to tangle you in red tape.
Why You Need a Whiplash Injury Lawyer
You don’t have an automatic legal right to financial compensation after your bicycle accident. You only get the legal right to be paid for your injuries after it’s proven that someone else was to blame for the accident. To get to that point, you need evidence of what happened and successfully deflect any efforts to blame you for the accident. Our skilled Washington bicycle accident legal team can immediately get to work to investigate your accident, even while you’re dealing with physical injuries.
Proving liability is only part of the battle you face after a bicycle accident. You also need to secure enough money to fully cover your damages. We can help you in several ways, including but not limited to:
- Reviewing your case to determine the amount of your damages.
- Preparing the claim or lawsuit to file on your behalf.
- Evaluating any settlement offers and advising you whether to accept or reject them.
- Negotiating with insurance adjusters to achieve full and fair compensation for your injuries.