With most motorcycle accidents, liability is determined by negligence. The negligent person is the one that behaves in a careless or thoughtless manner while injuring someone else. The driver needs to be careful so that they avoid injuring pedestrians, passengers, and all other motorists. To put things as simple as possible, when you drive your car, you need to do all you can in order to avoid everyone else. When you are not careful and your actions lead to someone getting injured, you are practically liable for this. 

Usually, when a motorcycle accident happens, the negligent party is the driver of some other motor vehicle. Negligence can appear simply by doing an action you shouldn’t have, like running through the red light or speeding. Negligence can also appear when you do not do something you should have done, like respecting traffic laws. 

Whenever you want to determine clear liability, a motorcycle accident lawyer will do wonders to help you. However, in most cases, complications will appear. For instance, it is always possible that the negligent party is the rider of the motorcycle. In this case, they are liable for the injuries that appear for the occupants of the other motor vehicle. 

Negligence Claim – Elements To Be Aware Of

For the negligence claim to be successful, it needs to include some specific elements. As a plaintiff, you need to show that the following happened:

• State, local, or federal laws required the person who is sued (commonly known as a defendant) to act with reasonable care. When we talk about motorcycle and car accident cases, it is very easy to prove something like this since absolutely all motorists need to be very careful when they drive or when they ride. 
• The person who caused the accident was not being careful. As this is being determined, what is important is to compare how the driver conducted themselves with what reasonable people would do. 
• The injuries that appeared happened because of the conduct of the party at fault. 
• The person listed as the plaintiff in the claim suffered losses or was injured. When the motorcycle rider cannot prove that damages appeared or that they were injured, it is impossible to recover damages. This is the case even when it can easily be proven that the defendant acted in a way that can be described as being careless. 

Motorcycle Injury Claim Defenses

In some accidents, evidence shows that the motorcycle rider did something that ended up contributing to the collision. At the same time, the driver also did something that contributed to the collision. If this is your case, the driver of the vehicle will raise a defense saying that the behavior of the motorcyclist contributed to the accident. Things might be even more complicated when premises are involved, in which case an Indianapolis premises liability lawyer would be necessary. 

In many US states, this is a defense that could reduce how much the motorcyclist recovers. Simply put, the behavior of the motorcycle rider is considered to be a part of the problem. And, as a result, the motorcyclist will not receive monetary recovery. In other states, the compensation that can be offered is reduced by the fault percentage that was assigned to the motorcyclist.