Good video Tony. If you are ever in SoCal I will take you on the best rides of your life. Nobody said you have to be a great rider; you just need to ride.

Norm

Now, I am off to ride in the Juniper Hills before sunset.

Norm

I see that Mr. Edmund L. Montgomery is a licensed California Attorney Bar # 166078. My research shows that he does do family law and has an office on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino.

I wish him well in his campaign, and invite him to join me on a ride sometime.

Now are there any biker attorney’s out there that actually do motorcycle accident cases, or bikers rights cases?

Norm

Further, each State has it’s own Statutes, Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules of Court, forms, etc. It can be a very real nightmare for an attorney to try to become competent in multiple States. Some attorney’s are licensed in multiple States, but very few actually try to practice in multiple States on their own.

I could work with an attorney licensed in another State on cases in their State, to provide expertise and consultation, but ultimately they would have to be attorney of record, unless I applied for pro hoc vice.

Further, each State has it’s own rules with respect to soliciting legal business, referral fees, disclosure, etc.

Bottom line, these attorney’s who are operating nationwide franchise marketing schemes, referral marketing schemes, marketing buy-in networks, etc., under the guise of appearing to be one big nationwide legal network, are in fact playing with fire, and operating in legal minefields.

I myself prefer to just practice law. If I can get some good people in other States that are competent and that will take on these types of cases, then we will see.

Norm

When I go to events, I usually go by their booths and screw with them. Usually they just have reps. that they hire to work the shows for them.

Most of the time, they know who I am when I go to their booths. It is a big marketing scam.

In my personal opinion if an attorney (even if they turn out to be a scam referral service that you think is one attorney that operates nationwide) allows you to sign up for their so-called help a biker service through their law firm, and they sell your information to 3rd parties for a fee, that would be a breach of an attorney’s fiduciary duty to maintain attorney/client confidentiality in any State.

Good luck to you and your friend on finding someone in Central Ohio. I may be able to find you someone if you cannot find someone yourself, just let me know. Tell your friend he is lucky. We just got a case of a guy who was riding and was run over by a Federal Express truck and killed. The truck clipped his bike, he went down, and the truck ran over his head. It can always be worse my friend!

Norm

We will see!

Norm

Take care,

Norm

Korea has a huge number of motorcycle/scooter accidents and deaths because of inexperienced riders and horrible car drivers. However, tort liability in Korea is such that damages for pain and suffering are extremely limited. Basically you are entitled to recover medical expenses, lost wages for the time you are unable to work (and remaining disability, if any),and relatively minimal amounts for pain and suffering.

Just to give you an idea of how limited the pain and suffering recovery is, the standard maximum amount awarded by courts for pain and suffering in a death case is about $50,000. Also, in cases of death, the deceased family is awarded about $2,500 for funeral expenses.

Basically, the awards for medical expenses are straightforward, the calculations for lost wages are fairly standardized mathematical formulas, and the awards for remaining disability are based upon a court-appointed doctor’s assessment. Thus, injury tort cases, regardless of whether they are car accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and fall, whatever, are largely mechanical. In such lawsuits, the main arguments are usually regarding the apportionment of liability between the parties.

Given these factors, there is no real necessity for specializations in areas such as motorcycle accidents in Korea. However, as the only lawyer in the entire country of Korea that rides a motorcycle (to the best of my knowledge), people who have heard about me will occasionally ask our firm to represent them in motorcycle injury cases.

Not too long ago, I had a very interesting experience. I had the driver of a pickup truck come to our firm to represent him in a wrongful death case involving a sport bike rider because he saw a newspaper article about me and my Club. Three sport bikes were riding down the road. According to the sport bikers, the truck pulled out in front of them suddenly, which caused the lead rider to slam into the back of the truck.

That seems like a reasonable story, and is not an uncommon accident scenario. However, the driver insisted that it did not happen that way. If a lawyer didn’t know anything about how quickly a bike can accelerate or decelerate, how a bike handles, etc., the pickup truck driver would have ended up paying a large amount of money. However, because of my riding expertise and knowledge of how bike accidents occur and can be avoided, we were able to clearly prove that the sport bike riders were simply racing down a country road, accelerating through curves at about twice the speed limit without paying attention and saw the truck, who was driving at the speed limit, too late. The lead rider slammed into the back of the truck at about 90 miles an hour, and the other two riders managed to go around the truck to the left.

The bikers’ testimony about how the accident happened would have been perfectly believable to someone who didn’t have extensive riding experience, but their testimony was easy discarded because of what I know.

For some reason, it felt odd to be on the side against the dead biker, but I was able to prevent an injustice from happening.

I would echo your recommendation that anyone who is injured in a motorcycle accident should seek out a motorcycle lawyer that has actual, real bike experience. Also, perhaps you will disagree, but I would also recommend that any car driver who is involved in an accident with a motorcycle because the motorcycle ride did something stupid/illegal should also seek out a biker lawyer with real riding experience because such a lawyer may be better able to help you show that the motorcyclist was at fault than someone who doesn’t know how motorcycles handle and operate.

I gave in and signed up for one of the biker lawyer referral services (they *DID* have some cool stickers) at an Easy Rider show this spring. Besides getting a few extra postal mailings now, I also WAS SOLD AS PART OF AN EMAIL LIST! How likely am I to call them or any of their lawyers?

Now, I’m off to help find a Central Ohio Biker Lawyer for my friend who was hit in his own condo parking lot. Wish us luck!