Every state has a time limit within which lawsuits must be filed. In Oregon it's 2 years from the date of the collision.  In Washington it's 3 years. In your state, I have no idea.  this is referred to as the "Statute of Limitiations" or the "SOL" in part because, if you wait too long you are SOL even if you could have won your claim.

Losses Which Can Be Claimed

In all states I know of, (check your state to be sure) there are basically 4 types of losses you can claim:

1. Vehicle Damage Losses

The cost to repair the vehicle to it's pre-collision state.  There's some Confusion, generated, IMHO by insurance companies' efforts to avoid their responsibilities over whether the loss in value which always results from a collision and repair should be a recoverable loss. In Oregon it is clear that it is.  Example - suppose the bike was worth $3,000  before the collision.  Even if repaired to exactly that condition by a good mechanic with good parts, etc. it will always be worth less than $3k because of the niggly fear of the unknown effects of the crash and our general unwillingness to trust crashed bikes repaired by others.  So, if it was worth $3k before the collision and took $1k to repair - what are your damages for the vehicle?  Well, obviously the negligent driver should pay the $1k for repair.  But, also, the vehicle has adminished value of some amount.  That should be his responsibility as well.

Older vehicles tend to have lower values and tend to be more costly to repair.  There is a point where value of the vehicle and cost of repair intersect so that the cost of repair equals or exceeds the resulting value of the vehicle.  Thus, even though the bike is repairable, the ins. co. for bad driver, will probably want to "total" it.  We call this an "economic" total because in a mechanical sense it is reparable, just not cost effective to do so.  Bad guy's insurance has the right to do this.  You cannot insist on $5k of repairs to produce a bike worth $3k.  Here's what you can do. Get estimates from the Airheads classifieds, Walneck's, E-Bay and the like of what a bike like yours (same year / model, similar condition) goes for. The ideal info is a classified ad coupled with an actual sale where you can get written confirmation from the buyer - "Yeah, I bought it for $x." Some starry - eyed seller's wacko asking price is not persuasive without evidence that some buyer paid what he was asking.  You must do this homework - the ins. adjuster for bad guy will know little if anything about bikes "I didn't know BMW made motorcycles."  He / She will look in the blue book and quote you an absurdly low number.  Your negotiation skills make all the difference here.  NOTE - your sentimental attachment to the bike or the fact that "it's a collector's item" means basically nothing to this guy.  Unless it actual was in a big show and won awards even a 90S will not merit consideration as a "classic."

Negotiate and agree on a value with adjuster dude.  One of the basic terms of the negotiation is that they give you a check and you give them the bike and title.  What?  You want to keep it and repair it yourself as a good Airhead should?  No problem - here's what you do.

After you agree on the value of the vehicle, then you need to agree on the "salvage value" - that's the amount the ins. co. expects to get from selling the wreck as salvage metal.  This will usually be a low number because if they sold it with title the title would have to be "branded" marking it as a salvaged vehicle and making it nearly worthless.

So here's how it works - assume you and the ins. adjuster agreed on a value of $3k for the bike in it's pre-wreck condition.  If you give them the bike and title they will give you $3k.  Suppose further they tell you that they expect to get $500 in salvage from it.  If you want to keep the bike, they will give you a check for $2,500 ($3k - $500).  They will require you to sign a release that just says (in lawyer-talk) - "I agree that this is all the money I'll ever get for damage to my bike from this collision. I'll never try to get any more from you or your insured for damage to my bike in this collision."  NOTE - this release should not mention any releases of bodily injury claims - those are separate.

2. Medical Bills

Bad driver or his insurance company is obligated to pay all medical bills reasonable related to the injuries caused.  This gets complicated and I'll be more general here because there are far more variables in this area.

How it works with your insurance - If you have your own health insurance they (almost always) have a right to get paid back from the $$ you get from bad driver for the care they provided for you. So, unlike the care when you fall off the ladder at home and it's your own fault, the care paid for because of bad driver's idiocy is more like a loan than a gift.  Generally speaking, you'll pay your co-pays like always (AND KEEP THE RECEIPTS) and the health ins. co. will want you to sign an agreement that you'll reimburse them out of any $$ you get from bad guy or his ins. co.  Most health insurance plans (there are exceptions - talk to someone who knows your plan specifically) REQUIRE that you do this.

At the time the injuries are all healed up (or stable but never going to heal -yuck!) you will then know what your past medical expenses (your health ins. will give you an itemization of what they paid) are.  You will need to find out from your doctor what, if any, future care you will need.

This is the amount that bad guy owes you for the medical care caused by his talking on the cell phone while driving while shaving while making a latte and sending an email.

NOTE that if you go to your crystal shakra re-birthing shaman healer for care the bad guy's ins. co. will probably refuse to pay - you then will have to prove that this is a "real" treatment.  The bigger problem many folks have is that liability ins. co.s basically consider Chiropractic the same as massage therpay - feels good but isn't really medicine.  So they often refuse to pay for more than a few chiro. visits.

3. Lost Wages

Pretty self-explanatory - just get notes from your doc documenting when you can and cannot work and any work restrictions.  Couple that with a statement from HR at work as to what you would have earned during that time and bingo - the wage loss number.

NOTE if you use your vacation time to keep the family cash flow from getting wrecked this should be claimed as well.  You gave up something of value, vacation time, and it was bad guy's fault.

4. Pain and Suffering

The first 3 items of damage are all quantifiable down to a specific dollar amount.  This one is more squishy.

We have no way to achieve the most fair result - make bad driver suffer the pain you feel.  Instead, the law can only transfer money from him to you in a rough effort to balance the scales a bit.

The law allows the jury to consider the physical suffering, anxiety, interruption of life you have suffered and will suffer as a result of the injuries caused by bad guy adn assign a dollar figure to that as compensation.  Every time this is studied, juries are shown to give larger awards for more serious, permanent injuries and smaller ones for less serious injuries. In other words, despite the occaisional inaccurately reported horror stories, no one gets a million dollars for a bruise.

When negotiating with bad guy's ins. adjuster this is the area of most variablility and the area where the adjuster has the biggest advantage over the lay person.  He/She has handled thousands of these claims, has access to a database of what juries in your area tend to award for injuries like
yours and so on.  You, have your subjective experience untempered by any knowledge of the experience of plaintiffs like you in the court's of your county. If you choose to try to settle your case without a lawyer keep in mind that absent EXTRAORDINARY circumstances it is rare for a jury's award for pain and suffering to be more than double the medical bills incurred.  This is a very general rule of thumb.  This has no bearing on your case.  BUT, if your medical bills were $1k and you start out demanding $50k for pain and suffering, the adjuster will know right away that you have no idea what you are doing.

Settlement Without Having to Try the Case

You and every other plaintiff always has an incentive to settle some time before trial.  So does the ins. co.  Trial is expensive and risky.  A fluke jury could take your claim that the statistics say is worth $50k and give you $5k and think they did you a favor.  The opposite occaisonally happens, although far less often than the other.  Ins. Co.s never like to settle the bodily injury side piece meal. I.E., we'll settle the wage loss now and wait on the rest, here's your check.  Has it happened? I'm sure. Have I ever heard of an ins. co. doing that?  NO.  So, you will get no $$ from them, other tahn the bike damage $$, until you settle items 2 - 4 all together. For this reason you should NEVER EVER EVER settle your bodily injury case until you are certain of the full extent of your injuries.  Once settled the case can NEVER EVER EVER be re-opened.  This is true even if you discover that the injuries are vastly worse than you thought they were.

I was consulted a while ago by a family whose plight illustrates this problem - teenage son (17)  as a passenger in a car.  Driver was being stupid, lost control and hit a tree.  Teenage son's head hit windshield, he lost consciousness.  Docs said "concussion"  - family noticed changes in personality, reduced academic performance. etc.  Family settled case just after kid turned 18.  Could have waited another year before the Statute of Limitations would run.  Kid started community college - was evaulated by them because of poor performance - they said "is he learning disabled?" Family connected the dots - saw a neuropsychologist who did extensive testing - significant brain damage from the car crash.  Kid will be borderline mentally retarded forever.  Probably never make it at anything but minimum wage jobs.  difficulty living alone. No treatment, never gonna get better. Question for lawyer "Mr. Cooper - now that we know how bad the injuries are can we get more $$ from ins. co?"  Answer from Mr. Cooper "Not a chance.  You F@#$#ed up your kid's only chance of having a fund of $$ to pay for his assisted living, etc. needs for life.  Ins. Co. made out like a bandit (didn't have to pay what it should have) and your kid will be penniless forever."

Tought world.  Moral - DON'T settle until you know the total extent of your injuries.

Do I Need a Lawyer?

Your choice.  Generally lawyers charge 25 - 33% of the recovery as their fee.  You have to do the math - given my injuries, my sophistication, my time available to dump into this problem, how smart that lawyer seems, do I think he'll get me more than 33% more than I can get for myself?  If so
- hire him/ her.  If not, you are better off doing it yourself.

We Can't Settle - I Have to File a Lawsuit. Do I need a Lawyer?

If you are an idiot - do it yourself.  If you want any chance of a reasonable recovery in court - you must hire a lawyer.

Brooks "Whoa them lawyers sure talk a lot" Cooper