West Des Moines Motorcycle Accident Injury Attorneys

Motorcycle accidents in West Des Moines leave riders vulnerable in ways that most people do not fully appreciate until they are living through the aftermath. The physical injuries are often severe. The financial pressure arrives quickly in the form of medical bills, missed work, and repair or replacement costs for the bike. And almost immediately, an insurance adjuster enters the picture, armed with strategies and a singular goal: to resolve the claim for as little money as possible.

What injured riders do in the days and weeks following a crash matters enormously. Two areas carry especially high stakes: how the rider interacts with the insurance company, and how the rider conducts themselves throughout medical treatment. Mistakes in either area can dramatically reduce the value of a claim or eliminate it entirely. The attorneys at Walker, Billingsley and Bair have more than 28 years of experience representing injured Iowans, including motorcycle accident victims throughout the West Des Moines area. This guide explains what riders need to know about insurance company tactics, what insurers actively hide from claimants, and the ten most common medical mistakes that can sink an otherwise valid claim.

Why the Insurance Company Is Not On Your Side After a Motorcycle Crash

The first thing every motorcycle accident victim in West Des Moines needs to understand is that insurance companies are in business to make a profit, and they do that by collecting premiums and minimizing what they pay out on claims. The adjuster assigned to a claim may come across as friendly and sympathetic, but that friendliness is not a sign of good faith. The adjuster is under no legal obligation to help the injured rider, and is not even required by law to tell the truth. Understanding this reality from the outset is the foundation of protecting a motorcycle injury claim. Learn more about why the insurance company is not always on your side after an injury in Iowa.

Always Tell the Truth, But Do Not Volunteer Extra Information

The adjuster's primary job is to pay the claimant as little as possible and close the file. They will not simply take a rider's word for anything and will demand documentation for lost wages, medical care, and prior medical treatment. If a rider forgets to mention prior treatment or is not fully accurate about their history, the insurer will almost certainly uncover it through their databases and use it to reduce the offer or challenge credibility. At the same time, volunteering information that was not specifically asked for can be just as damaging. If personal problems at home that have nothing to do with the motorcycle crash get brought up in conversation with an adjuster, the insurer is trained to look for ways to attribute part of the rider's difficulties to those unrelated circumstances rather than the injuries. Stick to the facts of the claim, answer what is asked, and stop.

Recorded Statements: When You Are and Are Not Required to Give One

One of the most consequential early decisions after a motorcycle accident involves whether to give a recorded statement. When dealing with the insurance company for the other party, a rider is generally not required to provide a recorded statement. If that insurer insists on a statement, it may be worth agreeing to provide one that is not recorded. The reason insurers press for recorded statements is strategic: they ask questions designed so that answers can later be used against the claimant. A common example is asking whether the rider has ever had back pain before. Without stopping to think carefully, someone might say no, only to have prior chiropractic records surface later and be used to portray the rider as dishonest. Learn more about whether to give a recorded statement after an injury.

The situation is different when a claim is made against the rider's own insurance company, for example in an underinsured or uninsured motorist case. In that scenario, the policy itself may require the rider to give a recorded statement. A recorded statement carries the same legal weight as a sworn deposition. If a question is unclear, it should not be answered until clarification is obtained. Insurance companies also maintain comprehensive databases of every prior insurance claim a person has made, including property damage and personal injury claims. Attempting to hide prior claims or accidents will be discovered and will damage both credibility and the case itself.

Know the Statute of Limitations and Do Not Wait to Act

Iowa law generally provides two years from the date of injury to bring a personal injury claim, but there are exceptions. If the motorcycle accident involved a drunk driver, the injured rider has only 180 days to provide notice to the bar or establishment that served the driver. Riders who received weekly workers' compensation benefits may have a longer window. Attempting to negotiate a settlement at the very last minute is a serious mistake. Most experienced Iowa injury attorneys want at least 120 days before the statute expires to properly investigate the case, identify all responsible parties, and prepare the necessary documents. Waiting until the final weeks before the deadline creates pressure on the injured party, not the insurance company, and may make it difficult to find any attorney willing to take the case. Learn more about how long it takes to settle a claim in Iowa.

Settling on Your Own: What Riders Must Understand Before Signing Anything

Any rider who is considering settling their own motorcycle accident claim needs to understand that signing a release almost always means giving up all rights to future compensation and medical care in exchange for the payment being offered today. Before settling, the rider must know which specific medical bills will be paid and by whom, and must address the issue of subrogation, which is the right of a health insurer that has already paid medical bills to be reimbursed from any settlement proceeds. Failing to address subrogation in a settlement can leave the injured rider personally responsible for repaying their health insurance company out of their own pocket after the settlement money is gone.

What Insurance Companies Do Not Want Motorcycle Accident Victims to Know

Insurance companies are among the most financially powerful corporations in the United States and spend heavily to protect their interests. But what they cannot control is what happens in front of a judge or jury when an injured person is fully informed and properly represented. There are several things insurers actively prefer that injured Iowa riders never learn. Learn more about what insurance companies do not want you to know after an Iowa injury.

The Insurance Company Is Legally Allowed to Deceive You

There is no law requiring the insurance company for the other party to tell the truth or act in the injured person's best interests. This is precisely why adjusters sometimes adopt a friendly, sympathetic approach, particularly when injuries are serious. The goal of this routine is to build enough trust that the injured rider lowers their guard and provides information or agreements that benefit the insurer. Adjusters who develop track records of settling claims for less than they are worth often receive bonuses and promotions for doing so. They are not going to inform a rider of their rights, explain the best way to protect the claim, or do anything else that serves the rider's interests rather than the company's bottom line.

A ""Final Offer"" Is Usually Not the Best Offer

When an insurance company declares during negotiations that an offer is their final one, that declaration should not be taken at face value. Experience shows that in most cases, the so-called final offer is not actually the company's best offer. Making a counter-proposal carries virtually no downside. It is highly unlikely the insurer will respond by withdrawing the offer entirely. In some cases, moving through the formal lawsuit process is what it takes to reach the insurer's actual best offer, but the point is that accepting the first ""final"" offer at face value nearly always means leaving money on the table.

Intentional Delay and Frustration Are Standard Tactics

When the friendly approach does not produce the quick, cheap settlement an insurer wants, a second common strategy is deliberate frustration. Making an extremely low initial offer, dragging out the investigation, and creating obstacles in the process are all methods adjusters use to wear down claimants. Insurers know that a certain percentage of injured people will eventually accept a lowball offer simply to stop dealing with the process. For a motorcycle rider with serious injuries that may have lasting effects on health, work, and quality of life, allowing frustration to drive the decision to settle is a costly mistake. Experienced injury attorneys deal with these adjuster tactics every day and know how to respond to them, which is one reason why retaining legal representation allows an injured rider to focus on recovery rather than battling an insurer.

The Insurer Will Not Pay Medical Bills as They Come In

A common adjustment tactic in motorcycle and personal injury cases is to instruct the injured party to send all medical bills to the insurer as they are incurred, creating the impression that the bills will be handled. In reality, the insurer uses this strategy to accumulate leverage for later. When collection calls start arriving and credit is threatened, the pressure to accept a low settlement offer to make the financial pain stop can become overwhelming. The better approach after a motorcycle accident is to have medical bills submitted to the rider's own health insurance and any medical payments coverage under an existing automobile or motorcycle policy. It can take years for a claim against the other party's insurance to be fully resolved, and waiting during that time without coverage in place for current medical bills creates unnecessary financial hardship.

Ten Medical Mistakes That Can Destroy a West Des Moines Motorcycle Injury Claim

Many motorcycle accident victims underestimate how much their conduct during medical treatment affects the value of their claim. Medical records are the core of any personal injury case, and what those records say, or fail to say, shapes how an insurance company, a judge, and a jury will evaluate the injury and its impact. Learn more about how to avoid the ten most common mistakes in dealing with doctors after an injury.

Waiting to See a Doctor

It is the injured person's burden to prove they were injured by the accident. Waiting even a few days before seeking medical attention gives the insurance company's lawyers an opening to argue that the injury is not related to the crash. Even relatively minor pain should be evaluated immediately, because what seems minor can develop into a serious condition. The first statement from the insurer's attorney to a jury should never be that the rider did not bother seeing a doctor until days after the crash.

Discussing the Claim with Medical Providers

Medical providers are focused on treatment, and they do not need to know about a lawsuit or attorney involvement in order to provide care. Everything said to a medical provider can end up in the medical record, which the insurance company and potentially a judge and jury will review. Keep discussions with doctors focused on how the injury occurred and the symptoms being experienced. Concerns about the legal case should not enter those conversations.

Hiding Prior Medical History

Medical providers ask about prior injuries to the same area of the body for good clinical reasons, and providing incomplete or inaccurate information not only compromises the quality of care but also creates serious legal problems when those prior records are eventually obtained by the insurer. Every prior medical record will be disclosed during the claims process. Inconsistencies between what a rider told their doctor and what the records show will be used to attack credibility.

Missing or Arriving Late to Appointments

When a patient does not show up to a medical appointment, the record reflects it with a notation of "No Show" or "DNS." Multiple missed or late appointments signal to an insurance company, a judge, and a jury that the rider was not taking the injuries seriously. Doctors whose patients frequently miss appointments or arrive late are also less likely to be effective advocates for those patients if the case proceeds. If an appointment genuinely cannot be kept, cancellation should happen at least 24 hours in advance.

Failing to Tell the Doctor How the Injury Affects Work

If there is no mention in the medical records of how the motorcycle accident injuries are affecting the rider's ability to work, the insurance company and jury will not simply accept the rider's later testimony about lost wages and work limitations. Work-related impacts need to be documented by telling the treating physician directly at each appointment. Taking notes to appointments to ensure nothing is forgotten can help ensure this information makes it into the record consistently.

Allowing Pain to Go Undocumented

Pain is subjective and cannot be observed by a physician, but that does not make its documentation any less important. Insurance companies and juries rely heavily on what the medical records say about the nature, location, severity, and duration of pain. Writing out a description of pain and limitations before each appointment and providing it to the physician helps ensure that the record accurately reflects what the rider is experiencing. Exaggerating, however, creates the opposite problem: if the record describes extreme pain but the rider appears comfortable at the appointment, the physician will note the inconsistency, which the insurer will later use against the claim.

Not Taking Prescribed Medications

Physicians prescribe specific medications for specific reasons, and failing to follow those prescriptions as directed looks bad in a claim. If a medication causes unwanted side effects, the right response is to contact the prescribing doctor so the medication can be adjusted, not to simply stop taking it. Some medications require tapering, and stopping without guidance can also create medical complications.

Stopping Treatment Too Soon or Creating Large Gaps in Care

Insurance companies and juries generally operate under the assumption that when a person stops seeking medical treatment, they have recovered. Stopping care while still injured will be interpreted as evidence of healing, and significant gaps between treatments of a month or more will be used to suggest that the original injuries resolved and any subsequent problems represent a new, undisclosed condition. If a treating physician releases a patient with instructions to return as needed, the rider should return at the first sign that symptoms have not fully resolved.

Failing to Keep Records of All Medical Providers

An attorney handling a motorcycle accident claim will need contact information and records from every medical provider involved in the rider's care. Keeping business cards, bills, and other documentation from each provider, along with copies of work excuses, restrictions, referrals, and other physician orders, ensures that the full scope of medical treatment is available to support the claim.

Ignoring Anxiety, Depression, or Other Psychological Effects of the Crash

Pain, reduced activity, disability, and the trauma of a serious motorcycle accident frequently give rise to anxiety and depression. These psychological conditions are real, compensable injuries, not something to push through without treatment. Unless they are properly diagnosed and treated, however, they are unlikely to be considered in any compensation award. Riders who are experiencing emotional or psychological effects of the crash should inform their doctors and follow through with any recommended treatment.

Consulting a West Des Moines Motorcycle Accident Attorney

The toll from severe motorcycle injuries can encompass substantial medical expenses and long-term care costs for victims and their families. Lost wages may compound matters, especially if employment becomes unrealistic for an extended period. Getting help from a motorcycle accident attorney allows the pursuit of comprehensive compensation, from financial damages and emotional distress such as pain and suffering.

Victims of these accidents should seek consultation with a motorcycle accident attorney, as damages may be extensive and recovery of compensation is important.

At Walker, Billingsley & Bair, our motorcycle accident attorneys can represent you in dealings with your insurance company, or when filing a personal injury claim. Set up your consultation now by calling 641-792-3595. 

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