Get medical care first, then protect the two things that disappear fastest: the bike and the scene. Officers file a Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report (CR-3), so make sure one is filed even if you feel able to ride away. Photograph the roadway, the other vehicle's final position, and your gear before anything is moved. Then tell the insurer in writing not to salvage or dispose of your motorcycle. Once a bike is crushed or sold for parts, the evidence of impact angle and speed goes with it.

No. Failing to see a motorcycle that was in plain view is not an excuse in Texas, it is evidence of negligence. Every driver has a duty to keep a proper lookout for what is actually on the road, and a motorcycle in a travel lane is exactly that. Adjusters repeat the line because it sounds like an accident nobody could help. What it usually describes is a driver who looked for cars and stopped looking.

The driver, in most of the crashes that produce serious injuries. The dominant pattern is a car turning left across the path of a rider going straight through an intersection, where the rider has the right of way. Close behind are lane changes into an occupied lane, following too closely at a light, and pulling out from a driveway or parking lot. Each is a traffic violation first, which is why the crash report, the vehicle damage, and the sight lines at the intersection carry the case.

No. Texas Transportation Code § 661.003 requires a helmet for riders and passengers under 21, and exempts riders 21 and over who have completed an approved safety course or carry health insurance covering motorcycle injuries. Riding without one is not what caused a driver to turn across your lane. What insurers actually do is use the helmet to argue your head injuries would have been less severe, which is a medical question answered with medical evidence, not a fault question.

No. Texas Transportation Code § 545.0605, added by House Bill 4122 and effective September 1, 2023, prohibits operating a motorcycle between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction. Riding side by side with another motorcycle in a single lane is still legal. If lane splitting was part of your crash it can raise your share of the fault, but it does not automatically end the claim, and insurers allege it far more often than the physical evidence supports.

Yes, unless your share of the responsibility passes 51%. Texas assigns each party a percentage under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001 and reduces your recovery by yours. Riders draw blame that drivers in the same position would not, on assumptions about speed, weaving, and recklessness that usually rest on nothing but the other driver's account. Skid marks, gouge marks, vehicle crush, and final rest positions are what answer those assumptions.

You may still have a claim. Texas requires a Class M license to operate a motorcycle on public roads, and riding without one is a traffic offense in its own right. It is not the same thing as causing the crash, and it does not transfer fault to you when a driver turned across your lane. Expect the insurer to raise it anyway, together with anything else in your record it can reach.

Texas requires only $30,000 per injured person and $60,000 per crash, which a single motorcycle injury can exhaust in the first week of hospitalization. Look past the driver's policy. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy may apply, a driver working at the time may put an employer's commercial coverage in play, and an umbrella policy may sit above the auto limits. Finding every layer of coverage often matters more to the outcome than proving fault, which is frequently not in dispute.

Often not, and this is where riders get hurt twice. Auto policies commonly exclude injuries suffered on a motorcycle the household owns but did not schedule on that policy, so the uninsured motorist coverage you are counting on may not reach you. The coverage that answers is usually the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on the motorcycle policy itself. Send us the declarations pages for every policy in the household and we will read them.

Almost certainly, and usually a strong one, because a passenger has no control over how either vehicle was operated. Your claim may run against the other driver, the rider you were with, or both, and the fault split between them does not reduce what you can recover. Texas Transportation Code § 545.416 also requires a motorcycle carrying a passenger to have a passenger seat, footrests, and handholds, and bars carrying anyone under five outside a sidecar.

Possibly. A rider who goes down alone on loose gravel, a pavement edge drop, a road seam, or an unmarked construction zone may have a claim against the contractor, the property owner, or the governmental entity responsible for that stretch of road. Defective tires, brakes, or a recalled component point at the manufacturer instead. Government claims carry notice deadlines far shorter than the ordinary filing deadline, so a single-vehicle crash needs a fast look rather than a wait-and-see.

The at-fault driver's property damage coverage, on a separate track from the injury claim. Insurers value a total-loss motorcycle from book figures that ignore what riders actually spend, so document the aftermarket exhaust, the tires, the recent service, and any custom work with receipts. Helmets, jackets, boots, and gloves are part of the claim too. Do not accept a total-loss payout that lets the insurer take the bike before it has been inspected and photographed.

Texas allows past and future medical expenses, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, and property damage. Two carry unusual weight in rider cases. Disfigurement reflects the scarring that road rash, grafts, and surgical hardware leave behind. Physical impairment covers what the injury takes away outside of work, including riding itself. Where a crash is fatal, the family's claim is a wrongful death claim with separate rules.

Two years from the crash under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death, which is not always the date of the crash when a rider survives for a time. The evidence deadline is much shorter. Salvage yards dispose of totaled motorcycles in weeks, intersection and business camera footage is overwritten in days, and both are usually gone before anyone has finished a first surgery.

Because insurers price rider claims expecting a jury to blame the rider. Most jurors have never ridden, and what they remember is the bike that split lanes past them in traffic. A carrier that assumes that bias will offer less than the same injuries would bring in a car case. The answer is a file built to be tried: scene evidence gathered early, treating physicians documented properly, and a demand the carrier has reason to believe will be presented to a jury.

El bufete tiene su sede en Austin y representa a clientes en todo Texas, principalmente en los condados de Travis, Williamson y Bastrop.

La certificación de especialidad otorgada por el Colegio de Especialización Legal de Texas reconoce a los abogados que demuestran una experiencia sustancial en un área específica del derecho, aprueban un examen riguroso y se someten a la evaluación de sus pares.Brent A. Devere está certificado en Derecho del Consumidor y Comercial, Derecho de Quiebras del Consumidor, Derecho Inmobiliario Residencial y Derecho Inmobiliario Comercial por el Colegio de Especialización Legal de Texas.Trabajar con un abogado certificado en su especialidad significa que su caso está a cargo de un abogado con conocimiento, experiencia y compromiso comprobados en su campo.

La consulta inicial es gratuita. Puede llamar a la oficina de Austin o utilizar el formulario de contacto para programarla, y no tiene ningún costo ni obligación conversar sobre su situación.

Sí. El bufete maneja la mayoría de los tipos de litigios. Si su asunto no aparece entre las áreas de práctica, comuníquese con la oficina para conversar sobre si el bufete puede ayudarle.