After a bicycle accident, medical bills, wage loss, hit and run, uninsured driver, bicycle damages, m
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- What should I do after an accident?
- Do I need to file an Oregon DMV Accident Report for my bicycle accident?
- How do I make a claim against the other driver's insurance?
- What do I do if I am injured in a motor vehicle accident while riding my bicycle?
- What if my Personal Injury Protection PIP limits are reached and I am still in need of a lot of medical care?
- Will my Personal Injury Protection pay for doctors outside of my healthcare plan?
- Do I have to pay my insurance company back for my personal injury protection benefits?
- What happens if my medical expenses exceed my personal injury protection coverage?
- What if I can't work because of the injuries in the accident?
- What if I was hurt bicycling and it was a hit and run? Or what if the driver who hit me on my bicycle was not insured?
- Can I get compensated for my bicycle damages or total loss?
- I paid for the insurance, do I really need a lawyer?
What to Do After a Bike Accident
At the scene:
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Get the driver's contact information as well as insurance information.
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It is important to also get the names and contact information of any witnesses.
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Pictures at the accident scene can also be very useful in conveying the truth of what happened later on.
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If you are too injured to get the above info, try to ask anyone at the scene for help.
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Seek medical attention.
Q: Do I need to file an Oregon Accident Report?
A: If you are involved in an auto accident in Oregon, you must file an Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report with Oregon DMV within 72 hours when:
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Damage to any vehicle is over $2,500 (even if your vehicle was the only one in the crash)
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Any vehicle is towed from the scene
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When injury and or death resulted in the auto accident
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Damages to anyone's property other than a vehicle involved in this accident is more than $2,500.
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If you were in an accident and the damages were less than $2,500, you can report to DMV if the other party doesn't have insurance. Be sure to clearly note on the accident report that it doesn't meet mandatory reporting criteria.
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If the Police or Law Enforcement responds and writes an Accident Report, you still need to file the DMV Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report as outlined in ORS 811.720 and 811.725.
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You do have the right to recover any police report submitted as a result of your bicycle accident. Contact the police department that responded to your bicycle accident. The procedure for recovering the police report will vary depending on the jurisdiction that responded. In Portland, you can get a copy of your accident report usually by contacting the Portland Police Bureau's Records Division at 503-823-0043 or the Portland Police Report Request and Help Line at 503-823-0041. Another way is by filling out a request on the official website of the City of Portland. If your bicycle accident happened outside of Portland, then call DMV Customer Assistance at 503-945-5000 and request DMV send (snail mail/fax/email) you the accident report. You can also pick up a paper form from a DMV field office or your local law enforcement department. Of course, if you retain a lawyer, your own lawyer can help you get a copy of your accident report.
Oregon DMV Accident Reporting and Responsibilities
Q: How do I make a claim against the other driver's insurance?
A: If you are hurt in an accident and it is not your fault, the other driver's insurance company owes you for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Your Personal Injury Protection insurance will cover some or all of your medical bills and lost wages, but they will not pay you for your pain and suffering.
You need to make a claim against the other driver's insurance for pain and suffering and any other losses not covered by your Personal Injury Protection. You make this claim by sending them documentation for your medical bills, lost wages, as well as copies of your medical records that show your injuries.
Q: What if I am injured in a motor vehicle accident while riding my bicycle?
A: Your own Oregon auto insurance policy provides you Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage while you are on your bicycle or a pedestrian.
Oregon personal injury protection (PIP) provides a minimum of $15,000 in medical coverage for up to two years after the injury, as well as up to 52 weeks of wage loss.
This personal injury protection is no-fault medical coverage which means that it covers you regardless of whether the accident was determined to be your fault or the car driver's.
You'll need to contact your own insurance company and file a claim for your personal injury protection benefits. You will need to do this as soon as possible in order for your benefits to start kicking in and in order for them to pay your medical bills.
Q: What if my Personal Injury Protection PIP limits are reached and I am still in need of a lot of medical care?
A: If your Oregon personal injury protection coverage limits are reached, the other driver's personal injury protection may also cover you.
If you do not have healthcare insurance, you will be billed personally for any amounts in excess of your personal injury protection coverage.
Oftentimes I can work with providers to get them to wait for payment until the case is resolved.
Q: Will my Personal Injury Protection pay for doctors outside of my healthcare plan?
A: Yes. Your Personal Injury Protection insurance is not tied to your preferred providers list that you may have.
You Personal Injury Protection insurance should cover all of your medical expenses (up to $15,000) that are reasonable and related to the accident.
Q: Do I have to pay my insurance company back for my personal injury protection benefits?
A: Whether or not you have to pay the benefits back out of any settlement or award depends largely on what your attorney does early on in your case.
Most of the time I can force the insurance companies to elect to pay me a fee to recover the medical expenses or waive recovery out of my client's settlement or award.
Insurance companies do not want to pay me a fee, so the vast majority of the time the insurance companies do not require any repayment by my clients.
Q: What happens if my medical expenses exceed my personal injury protection coverage?
A: If you have healthcare insurance, your healthcare insurance will usually pay any additional amounts. If you do not have healthcare insurance, you will be billed personally for any amounts in excess of your PIP coverage.
Oftentimes I can work with providers to get them to wait for payment until the case is resolved.
Q: What if I can't work because of the injuries in the accident?
A: Wage Loss is provided under Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Auto Insurance.
If you have to miss work because of your injuries, you will also need your wage loss protections.
If you know you will be unable to work past the 14 day period, start the process to invoke your wage loss as soon as you are able because the procedure does take a little bit of time to document and process.
Wage Loss ORS 742.524 (b)
If the injured person is usually engaged in a remunerative occupation and if disability continues for at least 14 days, 70 percent of the loss of income from work during the period of the injured person's disability until the date the person is able to return to the person's usual occupation. This benefit is subject to a maximum payment of $3,000 per month and a maximum payment period in the aggregate of 52 weeks. As used in this paragraph, "income" includes but is not limited to salary, wages, tips, commissions, professional fees and profits from an individually owned business or farm.
Q: What if I was hurt bicycling and it was a hit and run? Or what if the driver who hit me on my bicycle was not insured?
A: Your auto insurance policy protects you even when a driver is uninsured, underinsured, or you were involved in a hit and run accident.
Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Motorist (UM /UIM) ORS 742.502
Oregon insurance law requires minimums for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $25,000.
Q: Can I get compensated for my bicycle damages or total loss?
A: Unlike many Portland bicycle accident lawyers, I know how expensive bicycles can be.
I work hard to make sure you are fully compensated for your bicycle damages. I know what it is like to spend thousands of dollars on a bicycle only to have it damaged by someone else.
I work closely with local bicycle shops to try and get you full replacement value for your damaged bicycle and bicycle gear.
I paid for the insurance, do I really need a lawyer?
Insurance companies, are in business to make money for their shareholders.
It often takes the threat of a lawsuit and a known trial attorney to make them to pay.
In Seattle, this bike lawyer had issues getting her own auto insurance policy, where she was named as an additional driver on a shared vehicle, while she mostly road her bicycle for transportation, to pay for her medical bills after she was struck by an uninsured driver from behind on her bicycle commute home. She did ultimately win, but it was an unnecessary delay and then an unnecessary legal battle to get her Uninsured Motorist claim covered.
Last year, I was hit by an uninsured driver on my ride home from work and utilized the Insurance Fair Conduct Act (RCW §48.30.015) when my insurer claimed that I was not insured when riding my bike. The Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) was approved by voters and signed into law in 2007. IFCA provides remedies for people whose claims are unreasonably denied by their insurance companies or if their insurance companies fail to comply with particular regulations governing unfair claims settlement practices. [...]
The insurer then proceeded to variously accept and deny coverage, ultimately determining that I was not a "named insured." Although I was named on the policy, the insurer had unilaterally chosen to list me as a "friend" on the policy rather than as a "named insured" as my partner had requested. Apparently, being added as a "friend" translates into "no uninsured motorist coverage." This listing was ambiguous enough to confuse the adjuster, but evidently not so ambiguous that the insurer would agree that I was covered. [...]
The insurance company quickly deposed me and my partner. After we served it with extensive discovery requests in state court, the insurer removed the case to federal court and sent us a copy of a Western District Court order dismissing another bicyclist's UIM claim on summary judgment for not being a "named insured" on the policy. Undeterred, we moved forward with initial discovery disclosures. Interestingly, we received an offer of judgment that was close to 10 times the amount of my medical bills, but that expired before the insurer's discovery was due.
Read the whole story. It is a very good explanation of why you sometimes need an experienced attorney to fight for you. It is also very illustrative of how insurance companies will delay, deny, obfuscate matters.
Experienced. Effective.
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I handle cases on a contingency fee basis. This means: You don't owe me a legal fee unless I recover money for you.
