How E-Bike Accident Settlements Actually Work

I'm going to tell you how e-bike settlements and claims work. We're going to cover everything from immediately after the accident through you hopefully getting your settlement money. The first step is to decide if you even want to make a claim. For example, was your e-bike badly damaged or were you seriously injured? If the answer to either of these is yes, then there's a good chance that you should make a claim. But we then need to look at another question that you should ask yourself. Was the driver of the car, truck or other vehicle that hit you at fault? If the answer is yes, that's good for your case. However, even if the driver that hit you was at fault, it doesn't automatically mean that you're going to get paid. This is because you also have to see whether you were also at fault for the crash. But before I give you a straightforward way to know if you're at fault, we need to quickly discuss why fault matters so much in e-bike accident cases. Your fault matters because you're only entitled to get paid in proportion to the other driver's percentage of fault. If it sounds complicated, it's not. I promise. For example, let's use my real case where Aaron was riding his bike down the street in Florida. A car was heading in the opposite direction and made a left-hand turn and it hit him. Aaron fell off the bike onto the ground. To keep it simple, let's assume that the other driver was 100% at fault for hitting Aaron. Aaron had some scrapes on his thigh, foot and ankle. He hired me as his lawyer. If we could show that the driver who hit him is 100% at fault, then they owe Aaron 100% of his damages. Damages is just a fancy word for your losses due to the e-bike accident. So if the other driver was 100% at fault, he'd owe Aaron 100% of the following. The cost of fixing the bike and Aaron's pain and suffering. We'll discuss medical bills and lost wages in a moment because there's often a big twist. Here we assume that the driver who hit Aaron was 100% at fault. But in a huge amount of e-bike accident cases, the e-bike rider may also be at fault. For example, let's take Aaron's same accident except we'll assume that he was riding an electric bike on a sidewalk. When he's crossing through the intersection, a car hits him. In this instance, Aaron may have a major problem that may destroy his payout. Do you know what it is? Before I reveal his potential issue, I'll reveal how to know if you have the same issue in your case. You need to be able to spot the issue fast. I say this because the insurance claims representatives that handle e-bike accident claims are experienced pros and you never want them a step ahead of you. Otherwise, it could mean you getting your claim denied or having to settle for a tiny amount. Many cities have laws that tell you when and where you can use your e-bike. Here's how to check yours. Search your city e-bike ordinance into Google and look for where e-bikes are banned like sidewalks. If you were riding somewhere your city bans e-bikes, expect the insurance company to blame you and put up a fight. Why does this matter so much? If a city law says that you can't ride your e-bike on the sidewalk and you get hit while doing so, you may have a large amount of fault for this crash. In most states, if you're riding an e-bike and you're over 50% at fault for getting hit, the driver doesn't owe you a single penny. And Florida is one of these states. So in this instance where Aaron is over 50% at fault for the accident, the driver of the car doesn't owe him a penny for his pain and suffering and the damage to his e-bike. In Aaron's real case though, there was $120,000 in insurance coverage on the table. If he'd been on that sidewalk and more than 50% at fault, he could have walked away with nothing. But who pays Aaron's medical bills and money for missing work? Since Aaron was hit in a no fault state, his own auto insurance pays for some of his medical bills and lost wages. In Florida, it pays 80% of his medical bills and 60% of his lost wages up to $10,000 total. Yes, this is true even though Aaron was riding an e-bike and not in his car when he was hit. And if you don't own a car, you may still get this coverage from the insurance of the car that hit you or your relative that you live with. But here's where many people who are hit while on an e-bike make a big mistake. They assume that their own auto insurance will pay for all of their medical bills. This is wrong. They also don't give the hospital or doctors their health insurance information. Please don't make that mistake. And it leaves them stuck owing substantial medical bills. And they get much less money in their pocket from any settlement. Now let's go back to Aaron's real case. He wasn't riding on the sidewalk. He was riding down the street when the car turned left into him. Here's what happened with his claim. In any case where you have pain in should request your past medical records. You want to show the insurance company you didn't have pain before the accident. Or if you had pain, it was a long time before the accident. The longer the better. This may make it easier and quicker for them to pay you for the injury that you're claiming. This is because they'll have documentation that you didn't complain of the same injury before the accident. You want to show the insurance company that you're being open and honest with them. It was now a couple months after the accident and Aaron's back pain hadn't gone away. The doctor gave him steroid injections in his back to help with the pain. The medical record showed that Aaron's pain level was still an 8 out of 10. Your pain level has a large impact on how much you may get paid for your case. Don't expect a huge settlement if you don't have much pain. The doctor noted that Aaron wore socks all the time because the scar on his leg made him upset. If you're claiming that the accident has affected your mood, tell this to the doctor. They'll hopefully put it in writing and it may get you a bigger pain and suffering payout. We asked the VA how much Aaron's medical bills were and the VA said the bill charges were over $46,000. In most accident cases, your health insurance company or Medicare or Medicaid is entitled to get paid from your settlement. But we had a huge problem. There was only $120,000 in available insurance coverage to pay for Aaron's personal injury claim and he was still getting medical treatment. So his case was still increasing in value. This is because the more medical treatment that you get, the higher the full value of your case. Around six months later, Aaron got another injection in his lower back because his pain was bad. His pain went down a bit but it still hurt a lot. Aaron worried that his back pain might never go away and that he might need more procedures in the future. We were now around one year after the accident and the other driver's USAA hadn't even paid to fix Aaron's bike and the VA was demanding to get paid back over $38,000 for medical bills. The VA sent us a strong letter that said that they basically wanted us to pay back the entire $38,000 or so from any settlement. I put pressure on the other driver's USAA to pay us their $100,000 BI limits. We demanded that the other driver pay us $15,000 from his own money since Aaron's case was worth more than his $100,000 insurance limits. I also got the other driver's USAA to pay for new e-bike for Aaron. I also demanded that Aaron's USAA underinsured motors coverage pay us the $20,000 limits. They told me that Aaron's case was worth $100,000 or less. It was a battle but I got the other driver's USAA to pay us $100,000 and the other driver paid us $15,000 from his own money. I threatened to sue Aaron's USAA and they paid us the $20,000 of underinsured motorist insurance limits. This brought the total settlement to $135,000 but we still had a massive problem. The VA still demanded we pay them over $38,000 for their medical bills. So I asked to speak with their lawyer and sent them some favorable law. Ultimately through intense negotiations, I got the VA to accept just $15,000. The best part is that Aaron didn't have to pay a fee for me reducing the VA's claimed charges. Don't let your lawyer hire a company that charges you a large amount to reduce your health insurance company's payback claim. To get the largest settlement possible, you need to know how much your pain and suffering is worth. To learn how much your pain and suffering is worth, watch this video here or click on the link in the description below. And if you got injured while riding an e-bike and you think someone else may be at fault, click on the link in the description below to see if I could be the lawyer for you.