'Success' fee

We interviewed Claude Wyle, a California attorney and member of the Advocate Law Group network who has been practicing motorcycle law, and riding, for 25 years about how motorcycle accident lawyers are compensated. According to Wyle, they're paid a success fee. He explained, "In terms of the fees and costs involved in hiring a motorcycle attorney, it's important to understand that we are only compensated if we do well for the client. We work on a contingency fee, or as I like to call it, a success fee. If we're successful with the case, we get paid. If we're not successful with the case, we do not get paid. We advance our time. We advance our money. For our time, we get a percentage of the recovery; and for the money we advance, we get paid back. So, the better we do for the client, the better we do for ourselves."

Reputation matters

A good reputation in any business generally means that someone is doing good work – and that's true for motorcycle accident lawyers as well. Wyle explained, "Thankfully, we're a successful firm and one of the reasons is that we really like to do well for our clients. We want a lot of happy clients out there. One client saying anything bad about you is going to lose you a lot of business. However, we get a lot of business from our clients. We also get business from motorcycle shops, mechanics and even from the lawyers we've had cases against after they gain respect for us. We get a lot of referral business from defense lawyers in our firm – particularly for motorcycle cases."

Results matter most

Reputation is clearly an important consideration when hiring a motorcycle accident lawyer. The only thing that may matter more is results. Although Wyle didn't want to tout the results he's obtained for clients, he agreed to share a few of his most recent results with us:

• $1.3 million. We've handled cases against motorcycle manufacturers for faulty design that went over 1.3 million dollars for a gentleman who lost the lower part of his leg. In that case, the motorcycle manufacturer had a witness that said he was doing a wheelie immediately before losing control, but we overcame that. We just settled a case against a van driver who pulled a u-turn on a country highway in Marin County right into the path of the motorcyclist. Our motorcyclist told the Highway Patrol that he was doing 65 in a 45, but still we were able to get him 2.25 million dollars because both his arms and legs were broken.
• $250,000. I settled a case recently for a motorcyclist who also lost the lower part of his leg when a lady pulled a left turn in front of him. Her policy limits were $250,000, but we made her and her husband dig into the equity of their home. They refinanced it to take some money out and then we basically split their equity with them. They had $300,000.00 in equity, so they put $150,000 more into my client's pocket and the total settlement became $400,000.
• $250,000. We just had a case against a motorcycle manufacturer where the bike lit on fire underneath him and he suffered some pretty bad burns to his upper legs and buttocks. That went for $250,000. We were able to settle that with the factory representative and their national council without having to file a lawsuit.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle or bicycle accident, contact an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law. Click here, for a free consultation with a motorcycle accident attorney.