A Buffalo motorcycle accident lawyer helps injured riders and their families recover after a driver causes a crash. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, we prove the driver was at fault, push back on the bias riders always face, and fight for the full value of injuries that tend to be severe. Motorcycle cases work differently from car cases in New York, and knowing those differences is half the battle.
Riders know the truth that drivers forget: on a motorcycle, someone else's mistake lands entirely on you. There's no steel cage, no airbag, just you and the road. Our Buffalo motorcycle accident attorneys represent riders across Western New York and treat their injuries with the seriousness they deserve. This is one focus of our broader Buffalo car accident and personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
No, and this catches many riders off guard. New York's no-fault system, which pays a car occupant's medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault, generally does not extend to motorcyclists. As an injured rider, you usually can't turn to no-fault benefits and instead have to recover from the driver who caused the crash.
This is the single biggest difference between a motorcycle case and an ordinary car crash, and it shapes everything that follows. Because there's no automatic pot of money for your early medical bills, proving fault and pinning down the full extent of your injuries matters from day one. It's also why going without an experienced lawyer is riskier for a rider than for almost anyone else on the road.
The claim runs through the at-fault driver's insurance. Since no-fault generally doesn't cover you as a rider, your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering are pursued as a liability claim against the driver who caused the crash, and against any other responsible party. Your own health insurance and any uninsured motorist coverage can also come into play.
That makes the case more of a fight from the start, because the driver's insurer isn't obligated to pay you basic benefits the way no-fault would. We move quickly to establish liability, document your treatment, and identify every available source of coverage, so the lack of no-fault benefits doesn't leave you carrying the costs of someone else's mistake.
Yes, and riders usually can. To recover for pain and suffering in New York, you generally have to show you suffered a serious injury, and motorcycle crashes tend to cause exactly the kind of severe, lasting harm that clears that bar.
Broken bones, nerve damage, and injuries that permanently limit how you move or work all qualify. That claim, for the pain, the life changes, and the future you lost, is often where the real value of a motorcycle case lives, well beyond the medical bills alone.
Most serious motorcycle crashes involve another vehicle, and the theme repeats: a driver who didn't see or didn't yield to the rider. The left-turn crash is the deadliest of all, but unsafe lane changes, drivers pulling out of driveways, tailgating, speeding, and impaired driving cause plenty more.
The scenarios our Buffalo motorcycle accident lawyers see most often include:
Whatever the cause, the question is the same, whether another driver's carelessness put you down, and the answer usually is.
Usually the driver, though insurers work hard to suggest otherwise. New York expects drivers to watch for and yield to motorcycles, so a car that turns, merges, or pulls out into a rider is typically at fault. But comparative fault means blame can be split, and adjusters lean on the assumption that the rider must have been speeding or reckless.
That assumption is often wrong, and answering it takes evidence, the scene, the vehicle damage, witness accounts, and sometimes reconstruction. Comparative fault can also work in your favor, since even a share of blame doesn't end your claim. Our job is to hold the line on the fault question so you keep the recovery you're owed.
They count on it. Many people quietly assume riders are reckless daredevils, and insurers and defense lawyers use that bias to shift blame and drive down the value of a claim. It's one of the biggest challenges in a motorcycle case, and it has nothing to do with what actually happened on the road.
Beating that bias is a core part of the job. We build the case on hard evidence, present the rider as the careful, licensed operator they usually are, and make the at-fault driver's conduct the center of the story. A jury that starts out skeptical of a rider can be moved by facts, and that's what we bring.
New York requires every rider and passenger to wear a DOT-approved helmet, so most riders in a crash here are wearing one. If you weren't, it generally doesn't bar your claim, but an insurer may argue that a helmet would have reduced a head injury, which can affect the value of that part of the case.
Even then, a helmet only matters to injuries it could have prevented. It has nothing to do with a broken leg, a shattered wrist, or internal injuries, and it doesn't excuse the driver who caused the crash. We're ready to push back on the helmet argument and keep the focus where it belongs, on the driver's fault and your actual injuries.
Yes. New York's comparative negligence rule lets you recover even if you share some blame, with your percentage of fault reducing the amount. So even if an insurer manages to assign you part of the responsibility, you still have a claim.
This matters because insurers try to maximize your share of fault, especially against a rider. Every point of blame they shift onto you is money off your recovery, which is exactly why the fault fight is worth taking seriously, and worth having a lawyer handle.
You may still have a path to compensation through your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. That coverage exists for a driver who had no insurance, carried too little, or drove off and was never found, all of which are painfully common in motorcycle crashes.
Hit-and-run cases feel hopeless, but they often aren't. We'll review the available policies, work with law enforcement to identify the driver where possible, and pursue every source of coverage, so a missing or uninsured driver doesn't leave you without recourse.
A motorcycle accident claim can recover your medical bills, lost income, reduced future earning power, pain and suffering, and the cost of long-term care and property damage. In a fatal crash, a family can bring a wrongful death claim, and where a driver was truly reckless, punitive damages may be possible.
The insurer's first offer never reflects the real cost of a serious motorcycle injury. The full picture includes the surgeries still ahead, the rehab, the work you can't return to, and the ways the injury changes daily life. We build that number with your doctors and, when the injuries are lasting, economic and life-care experts.
By measuring the full cost of the crash across your entire recovery, and motorcycle injuries tend to run high. Because there's no no-fault coverage and the injuries are often severe, the value depends heavily on the medical picture, the lasting limitations, and the effect on your ability to earn a living.
A road-rash injury that heals is worth one thing. A traumatic brain injury, a spinal injury, or an amputation that changes your life forever is worth something else entirely, and capturing that difference is where careful work pays off. We build the value with treating physicians and, where the harm is permanent, economists and vocational and life-care experts who can put an honest figure on decades of consequences. That thorough valuation matters even more for riders, since the liability claim is the only real source of recovery.
Riders absorb the full force of a crash, so the injuries are serious. Road rash, broken bones, and wrist and shoulder fractures are common, and the worst crashes bring traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and amputations.
Even a helmet-wearing rider can suffer a concussion or brain injury, and lower-limb injuries are especially common when a car strikes a bike. Because some of the most serious harm, internal injuries and brain trauma among them, doesn't always show up right away, getting examined after any crash protects both your health and your claim.
The rider's family may have a wrongful death claim, brought through the estate, along with a survival action for what the rider suffered before passing. These are among the hardest cases we handle, and we handle them with care.
Motorcycle fatalities are tragically common, because riders are so exposed. Our fatal car accident attorney page explains how a wrongful death claim works in New York, who can file, and what a family can recover. Whatever the crash, our goal is full accountability for the driver responsible.
Generally three years from the date of the crash to sue the at-fault driver, and generally two years for a wrongful death claim if a rider was killed. If a government vehicle or a dangerous road condition is involved, a formal notice can be due within just 90 days.
Evidence also fades long before those deadlines, as vehicles get repaired, the scene changes, and witnesses move on. The safest move is to talk with a lawyer early, so nothing important slips away while there's still time to act.
Get medical care first, even if the adrenaline has you feeling okay, because serious injuries can hide for hours. Call 911 and get a police report, photograph the scene and your bike, and get names from any witnesses. Be careful what you say to any insurance company before you talk to a lawyer.
Don't repair or get rid of the motorcycle, because the damage is evidence of the force involved and can help prove what happened. And don't accept an early settlement or give a recorded statement without advice, since an insurer will use anything it can to argue the rider was to blame. Let your lawyer handle those conversations.
We treat motorcycle cases as the uphill fights they are, and we prepare accordingly. From the first days, we secure the evidence, establish the driver's fault, and build the case as if it's going to trial, because that's what moves an insurer that's counting on bias to do the work for them.
Early on, our attorneys preserve the scene evidence, document the motorcycle and the roadway, track down witnesses and any video, and bring in reconstruction experts when a case needs it. We build the full picture of your injuries with your treating providers, identify every source of coverage, and press the claim against the at-fault driver, filing suit in New York State Supreme Court when the insurer won't deal fairly. Many cases settle through negotiation or mediation, and when they don't, we're prepared to try the case. We keep these matters in house from start to finish.
We represent injured riders and grieving families across Western New York, and we handle motorcycle cases the same way we handle every case, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. We understand how these cases differ from car crashes, and we know how to answer the bias riders face.
Riders deserve a firm that respects them and isn't afraid to try the case. That's what we bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where things stand. You focus on healing. We'll handle the fight and the driver who caused it.
If a driver hurt you or took someone you love in a motorcycle crash in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo motorcycle accident lawyer will review your crash, explain how your claim works without no-fault, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
The sooner we start, the more we can do to preserve the evidence, establish fault, and protect your right to full compensation.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
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