Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle accidents very often result in serious personal injury or even death. While the personal toll these accidents inflict cannot be fully remedied with money damages, South Carolina law provides money damages for people injured when others act negligently. To recover these money rewards, however, the injured party must have a defendant who has either adequate wealth—which is rare these days—or insurance coverage.

Insurance Coverage

Given the seriousness of some motorcycle accident injuries, defendants will often have inadequate insurance coverage to cover the true value of the plaintiff’s personal injury.  Because of this, South Carolina provides that every motorist carry liability insurance that will compensate those injured by the motorist’s operation of his or her car, motorcycle, or commercial vehicle.

However, these limits, $25,000 for bodily injury per person, $50,000 for bodily injury per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, are low compared to personal injury awards, and of course, some drivers simply lack insurance. Likewise, if you had uninsured motorist (UM) or under-insured motorist (UIM) insurance coverage, a motorcycle accident claim may still exhaust the coverage.

Getting Support

Because the coverage may be limited, it is important that your motorcycle accident attorney do everything he or she can to protect the damages awarded or the amount your case is settled for. Once your accident claim is settled or reduced to a damages judgment, medical care providers and other lien holders will have claims to the resulting money. Helpfully, your attorney will be able to negotiate with these creditors to try to reduce the amount of their claims, to try to get you a favorable result.