Tips on Handling a Bicycle Accident Case ̶ from a Bike Lawyer
| Publication year | 2017 |
| Author | By Joshua Bonnici |
By Joshua Bonnici
Joshua Bonnici is the managing attorney for Bonnici Law Group, APC, located in downtown San Diego, where he focuses primarily on personal injury cases and appealing state and federal disability denials. His accomplishments include winning SD Metro's "40 Under 40" award, San Diego's Best Litigation Firm by the San Diego UT, and was recently selected as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers. You can learn more about Josh and his practice at www.bonnicilawgroup.com.
Ever since I can remember I have been enamored with riding bicycles. I remember riding my first five-speed bike through our small family house before my mother threatened to take it away until I took it outside. Bicycles have been a part of my life ever since - for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
My first brush with a bicycle accident, and the law, was as a lanky high school sophomore. At the time, my father (who was my main mountain biking partner) crashed his bike in the hills of San Marcos, California, on one of the only rides where I was not riding with him. The crash was severe, and he suffered a major brain injury, leaving him in a coma for two weeks and permanently disabled with a brain injury. My parents ended up suing the manufacturer of the helmet he was wearing at the time, and recovered a minimal settlement amount for the helmet not fully protecting my father during the fall. During that litigation, I was deposed as to my father's riding habits and knowledge of biking gear.
Fast-forward to 2012, after graduating law school and working in a local injury firm for several years, I opened my own injury and disability practice in San Diego. After a brief hiatus from bicycles since my father's accident, I had renewed my passion for two-wheeled transportation with the purchase of a few new bikes. Thereafter I figured, what better way to love what I do, than to combine my passions of the law and cycling.
With that, I have turned my practice into a bike-centered law firm, helping cyclists with accidents they have on and off the roadways. Here are some tips I have learned along the way, coming from someone who has had a lifelong passion for cycling:
As long as both cyclists and motorists are allowed to travel on the same roadways, there will always be animosity towards cyclists. Because of that, liability (in the eyes of both reporting police officers and potential jurors) will need to be clearly in favor of the...
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