Bossier City Motorcycle Crash Cases We Handle
Over the 50+ years of handling motorcycle wrecks around Bossier City, we know they tend to follow the same handful of patterns, whether they happen on Airline Drive, Benton Road, or near the I-20/I-220 interchange. Our firm handles cases involving:
Left-Turn and Failure-to-Yield Wrecks
A driver waiting to turn glances at the wrong moment and pulls out in front of an oncoming rider. These crashes happen in an instant and often leave riders with broken bones, head trauma, and a wrecked bike. We look at the scene, the witness accounts, and the damage pattern to show who actually had the right of way.
Hit by a Distracted Driver
Being distracted, even for a moment, by a phone, a drive-thru bag, or a glance at the dash can be enough for a driver to miss a motorcycle entirely. These crashes occur frequently in both car and motorcycle cases around Bossier City, especially where traffic backs up near Airline Drive and the Barksdale Boulevard exits. We have proven strategies to demonstrate that the driver simply wasn’t looking and caused the accident.
Truck Collisions
Bossier City sits along a heavy trucking corridor, and a rider has almost no protection in a crash involving a box truck, delivery van, or 18-wheeler. When a large commercial vehicle strikes a motorcycle rider, there are usually catastrophic injuries. These cases often involve bigger insurance policies and aggressive defense teams that move fast. We move faster to lock down the evidence before it disappears.
Rear-End Motorcycle Crashes
A low-speed rear-end hit between two cars is an inconvenience. The same hit to a motorcycle can throw the rider onto the pavement. Rear-end wrecks near backed-up intersections and stoplights can leave riders with spinal injuries, wrist fractures, and severe road rash.
Dangerous Road Surface Cases
Loose gravel, a pothole, or an unmarked construction zone can turn a routine ride into a disaster. When a road defect played a role, we look at whether the parish, the city, or a contractor failed to fix a hazard they knew about.
Hit-and-Run Claims
Some drivers flee the scene. Others stay but carry little to no insurance. Either way, the case doesn’t end there. We look at every path to recovery, including your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.
Drunk Driving Accidents
A driver who’s been drinking often never reacts before hitting a motorcycle. Rice & Kendig Injury Lawyers builds the case against the driver and their insurer, and fights for the full compensation you’re owed.
Common Motorcycle Injuries & How We Can Help
A motorcycle doesn’t come with the steel frame, airbags, or crumple zones that protect people in passenger vehicles. That’s why so many Bossier City motorcycle cases involve injuries that outlast the wreck itself by years. We pursue damages tied to injuries such as:
- Road rash and skin trauma: Sliding across pavement can strip away skin, cause infection, and leave scars that need grafts.
- Traumatic brain injuries: Even a good helmet doesn’t rule out a concussion or worse.
- Spinal cord and back injuries: Herniated discs and nerve damage can mean a lifetime of pain, or paralysis in the worst cases.
- Broken bones and crush injuries: Arms, legs, hips, and shoulders take the impact when a rider is thrown or pinned.
- Emotional trauma after the wreck: Anxiety, flashbacks, and sleep problems often get overlooked when a claim only covers medical bills.
Steps to Take After a Motorcycle Accident in Bossier City
What you do in the hours after a wreck can affect both your recovery and your claim.
- Get medical care immediately. Adrenaline can mask the early signs of a concussion, internal injury, or spinal damage. A same-day medical visit ties your injuries to the crash on the record.
- Protect the scene and your gear. Photos, witness names, and your damaged helmet, jacket, and bike are all important. Don’t repair the motorcycle or let an adjuster take control of your gear before your attorney sees it.
- Watch what you say. Don’t guess, apologize, or give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster. Adjusters listen for anything they can use to shift blame onto you and try to pay you less money, or none at all. Let your attorney handle those calls.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Motorcycle Crash
A serious motorcycle wreck touches nearly every part of a person’s life. Rice & Kendig Injury Lawyers builds claims around both the immediate cost and the long-term fallout.
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover the financial losses tied to the wreck: emergency care, surgery, physical therapy and rehabilitation, future treatment, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, motorcycle repair or replacement, and damaged gear. We work with your medical providers and, when needed, financial experts to project the full cost of care you’ll still need years from now.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages cover the human cost: physical pain, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the ways your injuries limit your independence and daily routine. These losses don’t come with a receipt, so we build the record through your own account, your medical notes, and input from the people closest to you.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages aren’t available in automobile and motorcycle crash cases. But Louisiana law allows exemplary damages when a driver’s wanton or reckless disregard for others’ safety, including intoxication and OWI, was a cause of the crash.
Louisiana Motorcycle Laws That May Affect Your Case
Louisiana’s injury laws changed significantly over the past two years, and a Bossier City motorcycle accident attorney needs to know how those changes affect your timeline, your proof, and your recovery.
Filing Deadlines Matter
Most Louisiana personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the crash (La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1). If a crash results in death, the wrongful death and survival deadlines run one year from the date of death or two years from the date of injury, whichever is longer (La. Civ. Code art. 2315.2; art. 2315.1). Waiting is still risky: witnesses’ memories fade, vehicles get repaired, and crash evidence disappears fast.
The 51% Fault Rule Can Bar Your Claim
For crashes on or after January 1, 2026, La. Civ. Code art. 2323 bars recovery entirely once a rider is found 51% or more at fault. Crashes that occurred before that date are still decided under the prior rule, under which a rider could recover a reduced amount regardless of their percentage of fault. Either way, insurers now have every reason to argue the rider caused their own crash.
“No Pay, No Play” Can Cut Damages Hard
Under La. R.S. 32:866, a rider who doesn’t carry the state’s minimum insurance can lose the right to recover the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages and the first $100,000 of property damage, subject to exceptions. This needs to be checked early in every case, especially because there are several potential exceptions to this law that might apply to your situation.
Your Medical Bills Are Presented Differently Now
La. R.S. 9:2800.27 generally limits recovery of past medical expenses to the amounts actually paid, not the amounts originally billed. That changes how a motorcycle claim gets valued and presented.
Helmet and Lane Rules Still Matter
Louisiana law requires a DOT-compliant helmet for both riders and passengers (La. R.S. 32:190), and motorcycles are entitled to full use of a lane, which bars lane splitting (La. R.S. 32:191.1). A helmet issue won’t always block a claim, but the other side may use it to argue for a bigger share of fault.
The Housley Presumption Is Gone
Under Louisiana Code of Evidence art. 306.1, the fact that you had no prior injury history no longer creates a presumption that the crash caused your current condition. That makes early, thorough medical documentation more valuable than ever in a motorcycle claim.
Don’t Let the Insurance Company Write Your Story
A motorcycle claim can turn into a blame game fast, especially once an adjuster hears you were on two wheels. Rice & Kendig Injury Lawyers can help protect the evidence and push for the compensation you’re owed.
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