If you were injured in a bicycle accident in Lake Charles, Hale Injury Lawyers can help you get the compensation you deserve. Contact our experienced Lake Charles bicycle accident lawyers today at (337) 426-1071 and set up a time for your free consultation.
Don’t struggle with the consequences on your own. Our legal team can help you demand maximum compensation for your medical expenses, lost job opportunities, and emotional distress. When you choose Hale Injury Lawyers, you put an award-winning team of Louisiana trial attorneys with 61+ years of experience in your corner. Our commitment to our clients and results is unparalleled, with tens of millions in settlements and jury verdicts recovered.
Contact our law office in Lake Charles to get started.
How Hale Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Bike Accident in Lake Charles, LA
What caused your bicycle accident? Who caused it? Who’s responsible for the costs of your medical treatment and the income you’ve missed during your recovery? What can you do to protect yourself if you’re getting blamed for the crash? How can you know if an insurance company’s settlement offer is fair?
You need time to focus on your physical health and emotional well-being. Leave these (and other) tough questions to Hale Injury Lawyers.
Our Lake Charles personal injury lawyers are known and respected litigators with a proven ability to help bike accident victims win top results. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been named Top Lawyers in Acadiana and received other top honors in the legal industry.
Count on us to handle every aspect of your fight for compensation while you get back on your feet:
- Carefully investigate the bicycle accident to determine how it happened, why, and who’s at fault
- Analyze accident reports, video recordings, photographs, medical records, and other evidence related to your crash
- Locate and speak with witnesses to the bicycle accident
- Consult with experts and specialists
- Anticipate strategies designed to shift blame and limit your financial recovery
- Seek a top-dollar settlement during negotiations
- Help you reject lowball offers and advocate for you at trial, if necessary
Hale Injury Lawyers knows that a bicycle accident can be expensive. We don’t want the cost of legal representation to make things more difficult for you. That’s why we work on contingency. You pay nothing unless we win or settle your bicycle accident case.
Contact our Lake Charles, LA, law office to discuss the details of your bicycle accident case today. Your initial case assessment is free.
What Are the Leading Causes of Lake Charles Bicycle Accidents?
Lake Charles offers some of the most scenic trails for bicyclists in the State of Louisiana. Unfortunately, despite the city’s above-par bicycle infrastructure, riders are still at risk of suffering serious and fatal injuries in accidents when they’re forced onto the road with other vehicles.
Most often, these bicycle accidents are entirely avoidable. They happen because someone – often a motorist – is negligent.
Negligence refers to a failure to use reasonable care which, in turn, causes an injury or death.
Notable causes of Lake Charles bicycle accidents include:
- Distracted driving
- Drug and alcohol use
- Dooring
- Speeding
- Following too closely
- Failing to yield the right of way
- Rolling stops at intersections
- Unsafe lane changes
- Fatigue
Bicycle accidents are more likely to happen when bicyclists aren’t wearing necessary reflective gear or are riding on bikes that aren’t maintained properly. Similarly, bicycle accidents can occur when vehicles malfunction or suffer from a defect, like faulty brakes.
Our personal injury attorneys in Lake Charles will dig deep and work to uncover every potential cause of your bicycle accident.
Who Could Be Liable for My Bicycle Accident Injuries in Lake Charles?
Bicycle accidents aren’t always straightforward. It’s important to conduct an extensive inquiry into a wreck because anyone who contributes to the accident can be held financially responsible for the resulting damages.
Depending on the circumstances of your Lake Charles bike crash, liable parties might include:
- Driver of a passenger vehicle
- Truck driver
- Bus driver
- Pedestrian
- Another bicyclist
- Transit company
- Government agency
- Property owner
- Employer of a negligent party
- Vehicle or bicycle manufacturer
Our bicycle accident attorneys in Lake Charles will fight to hold all liable parties personally accountable for the harm and suffering you’ve endured.
What Types of Damages Can I Get if I’ve Been Hurt in a Lake Charles Bike Accident?
As an injured bicyclist in Lake Charles, Louisiana, you can generally file a claim for compensatory damages.
Compensatory damages are intended to compensate for the financial burdens associated with a bike accident, as well as the harder-to-value trauma you experience as a victim.
These are known as economic damages and non-economic damages, respectively.
Through a successful claim or lawsuit, you can potentially get money for:
- Current medical bills, including medical transport, hospitalization, surgery, and medication
- Future medical expenses
- Rehabilitation
- Nursing care
- Reduced earning capacity
- Temporary lost wages
- Disability
- Property damage
- Funeral expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Loss of consortium
- Reduced quality of life
- Disfigurement
While the types of damages that you can get are fairly standard, there’s no set value for bicycle injury claims. Many factors – from your age, the severity of your injuries, and the overall impact of the crash on your life – will influence the value of your bicycle accident lawsuit.
Hale Injury Lawyers will aggressively pursue a maximum financial payout for you. Call our law office in Lake Charles to learn more about the benefits of working with our top-rated team today.
Common Bicycle Accident Injuries
Louisiana requires all bicyclists under the age of 12 to wear a bicycle helmet. Teen and adult cyclists are also highly encouraged to wear a helmet – and for good reason. You’re much less likely to suffer a severe traumatic brain injury or die in a bicycle accident if you’re wearing a helmet and other protective gear.
However, even riders who wear helmets are still vulnerable to serious, potentially life-changing injuries when they’re involved in Louisiana car accidents.
At Hale Injury Lawyers, we’re here to help you fight to get money for all of your bicycle accident injuries, including:
- Broken bones and fractures
- Nerve damages
- Cuts and lacerations
- Sprains, strains, and other soft tissue injury
- Shoulder injury
- Knee injury
- Chest injury
- Crushing injury
- Internal organ damage
- Brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Back injury
- Degloving injury
- Amputation
- Severe burns
- Catastrophic injury
Seek emergency medical treatment at a local hospital in Lake Charles, and then call Hale Injury Lawyers to discuss your legal rights and options.
How Can Shared Fault Impact My Louisiana Bicycle Accident Settlement?
Shared responsibility for a Lake Charles bicycle accident can limit your financial recovery.
Louisiana operates under a system of pure comparative negligence. Your contribution to your bicycle accident will directly influence your ability to recover compensation. Damages will be reduced based on your degree of fault.
If you’re 30 percent at fault for a recent bicycle accident in Lake Charles, your financial award will be reduced by 30 percent. That could mean getting $70,000 when your bicycle injury claim is worth $100,000.
You don’t want to let well-deserved compensation disappear, so it’s important to fight when others try to point fingers and blame you.
Our bicycle accident lawyers in Lake Charles know these victim-blaming tactics all too well. We’ll be there to defend you throughout the claims process and fight to limit the effectiveness of these strategies. The less fault you share, the more money you can potentially recover through a settlement or jury award.
What’s the Deadline for Filing a Bicycle Accident Lawsuit in Lake Charles, Louisiana?
Do not let too much time pass by after a bicycle accident in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The state has a strict two-year statute of limitations that likely applies to your case.
Once the statute of limitations expires, you lose the right to file a personal injury or wrongful death claim for damages.
Take prompt action and call Hale Injury Lawyers for help as soon as you can after a Lake Charles bicycle crash.
Schedule a Free Consultation With a Trusted Lake Charles Bicycle Accident Lawyer
You got hurt in a Lake Charles bike accident because someone else was careless. Hold them accountable. Better yet, call Hale Injury Lawyers, and have us fight for you.
Our Lake Charles bicycle accident lawyers have 61+ years of experience and a proven ability to win top results. We’ve won tens of millions for our clients, and we’re ready to help you get the money you deserve, too.
Contact our law office in Lake Charles, LA, today. Your first case evaluation is 100 percent free.