Two wheels, same fight
Motorcycle accident claims
Drivers miss motorcycles for the same reasons they miss bicycles, and insurers reach for the same arguments afterwards. Same No Win, No Fee basis, same refusal to settle a serious injury cheaply.
- No Win, No Fee
- Bike, leathers and helmet recovered
- Untraced and uninsured drivers pursued
What a motorcycle claim covers
A motorcycle claim is built the same way as any other road traffic claim, but the numbers behind it are usually larger. A rider has no bodywork, no crumple zone and no airbag, so a collision at a modest speed can cause injuries that take a year or more to resolve.
That shapes how solicitors run these cases. A solicitor will establish liability first, arrange independent medical evidence, and then wait for a prognosis that is actually reliable before discussing settlement. Where a rider needs money in the meantime, we pursue interim payments rather than accepting a low offer to end the wait.
The most common collisions we see
- A driver emerging from a junction or side road across the rider's path
- A vehicle turning right across oncoming traffic
- A car changing lane or pulling out without looking, often into a filtering rider
- A door opened into the road from a parked vehicle
- Diesel spills, unrepaired potholes and defective road surfaces, which are claims against the highway authority
- Untraced and uninsured drivers, pursued through the Motor Insurers' Bureau
Motorcycle claim enquiry
Tell us what happened and we will call you back with honest, no obligation advice.
Compensation
What you can claim for
Motorcycle injury
Compensation for the physical and psychological harm a collision caused.
Bike, leathers and helmet
Repair or replacement of your motorcycle, and of the kit that protected you.
Loss of earnings
The income you lost while you were off the road and unable to work.
Serious and life-changing injury
Long-term care, rehabilitation, home adaptation and future loss claims.
The heads of loss are the same ones set out on our cycling claims pages: injury, medical expenses, loss of earnings, machine and equipment, care and assistance, travel, future losses, and pain and suffering.
The process
How a motorcycle claim runs
The same four stages as any claim we take, with more weight on getting the medical evidence right.
Make an initial enquiry
Give us a call or request a call back. We'll listen to your case and provide no-obligation advice.
Your case is accepted
Should a solicitor advise your case is worth pursuing, and you choose their services, they will begin case preparation.
Work on your case
With your co-operation, the solicitor will work on your case through to completion. You may be required to provide extra evidence.
Successful outcome
The solicitors will ensure that your case has the best possible outcome given the circumstances around it.
Questions
Motorcycle claim questions
Yes. The legal principles are the same. If another road user caused your accident through negligence, you can claim for your injuries, your losses and your machine, on the same No Win, No Fee basis.
What differs in practice is severity. Motorcycle collisions tend to produce more serious injuries, which means the medical evidence takes longer to settle and the value of the claim is usually higher. That makes it more important, not less, to avoid an early settlement offer.
Yes, all of it. Repair or replacement of the motorcycle, and replacement of the protective kit that did its job: helmet, leathers, gloves, boots, back protector, base layers and any luggage or electronics that were damaged.
A helmet that has taken an impact must be replaced even if it looks undamaged, and that is a recoverable cost. Keep everything exactly as it is and do not throw anything away, because the damaged kit is evidence of the forces involved.
That is the single most common motorcycle collision there is, and "sorry mate, I didn't see you" is not a defence. A driver emerging from a junction owes a duty to look properly and to give way. Failing to see a motorcycle that was there to be seen is negligence.
Insurers do sometimes argue the rider was travelling too fast or filtering carelessly, so evidence matters. Dashcam or helmet-camera footage, the position of the damage on both vehicles and the road markings usually settle the argument.
Filtering is legal in the UK and doing it does not remove your right to claim. It can lead to an argument about shared responsibility, particularly around speed and how far you were from the line of traffic, which may reduce an award rather than defeat it.
Be straight with us about what you were doing. We would far rather deal with the argument up front than have an insurer produce it later.
You can still claim, through the Motor Insurers' Bureau. It exists precisely for accidents where the other driver is uninsured, or where the vehicle and driver cannot be traced.
Report the accident to the police and get the incident reference number, because an untraced-driver claim depends on it. The usual three-year time limit applies, and can be longer where there has been a severe head or brain injury.
Been knocked off? Talk to a rider
Free initial consultation, no obligation, and no cost if we do not win. Call us or send an enquiry and we will come back to you.
- No Win, No Fee on every motorcycle claim we take
- Untraced and uninsured drivers pursued through the MIB
- Serious injury handled with the long view, not a quick settlement
- Your machine and your protective kit recovered in full