Representing injured bicyclists statewide and helping make our streets safer for everyone.
Whether you've been doored, T-boned, rear-ended, right-hooked, left-hooked or even thrown from your bike by a road not fit for ordinary travel, Washington Bike Law has the experience to help.
Make sure you understand your rights with a free consultation from Washington Bike Law.
You can always call us at 206-262-9290 or email info@washingtonbikelaw.com or use our Confidential Case Review Form and we will contact you using the contact method you specify in it.
Can Bike Lawyers Help?
If you or someone you love has been injured on a bicycle, you've got a lot to deal with, starting with physically recovering. But there's much more to a bike crash than just getting the medical treatment you need to get better, like:
- sorting out what insurance should pay the medical bills;
- making sure the insurer that is supposed to pay actually pays bills in a timely way;
- preventing or responding to improper insurance company communications with medical providers;
- helping resolve property damage claims including loss of use;
- explaining available insurance coverage to medical providers reluctant to provide necessary care;
- helping correct the "insult to injury" of improper traffic tickets from police officers confused by the rules of the road for bicycles;
- resolving liability disputes through negotiation and alternative dispute resolution with or without filing a lawsuit;
- evaluating the reasonable value of a bike crash claim;
- negotiating to obtain the maximum settlement value;
- resolving unpaid medical bills and insurance company subrogation and lien claims;
- preventing or resolving bills that have gone into to collections;
- proving liability and damages if litigation is required; and
- appellate advocacy if a judgment is appealed.
These are some of the most common Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) we get:
How soon after a bike accident or crash should you contact a lawyer?
Can you make a claim for a bike collision if the driver had no insurance?
Does your homeowner's or renter's insurance cover accidents when you are on your bike?
Should you accept an insurance company's offer to settle your bike crash claim?
"Doored" on your bike? Is it your fault for riding too close to a parked car?
Should you call the police after a bicycle accident?
Other Questions? Ask! Consultations are free. Call 206-262-9290 or email info@washingtonbikelaw.com
Washington Bike Law's team members (left to right) are: Paralegal Sheri Robinson, Attorney Kelli Bynum, Attorney Bob Anderton, Attorney Jessica Cutler, Attorney Rocky Glassner, Paralegal Elizabeth Ozimek, and Paralegal Lauranne Bindel.
Founding Attorney Bob Anderton has been a year-round bike commuter for decades.
Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ 5 out of 5. Bob was first rated AV in 2002 and has maintained this rating since. Bob has the highest possible ratings for:
· Legal Knowledge;
· Analytical Capabilities;
· Judgment; and
· Communication Ability
AV® Preeminent™(4.5-5.0) is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.
AVVO rates Bob as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 for experience, industry recognition and professional conduct.
Bob is a member of the American Association for Justice's Bicycle Litigation Group
Unparalleled Legal Representation Of Individual Bicyclists
Washington Bike Law's lawyers provide experienced trial court and appellate-level legal advocacy. Washington Bike Law's attorneys have the courtroom credibility to resolve most cases without filing a lawsuit. If litigation is required, Washington Bike Law has the financial resources to keep fighting until justice is achieved.
In law school, Washington Bike Law's founding attorney Bob Anderton planned to do pure public interest law work. But in 1992 Bob had the opportunity to work with acclaimed trial lawyer Tom Chambers and began representing catastrophically injured people and their families. Tom Chambers served as the President of the Washington State Bar Association and, in 2000, became a Washington State Supreme Court Justice until he retired in 2012.
After learning the best practices in the profession, Bob Anderton started Anderton Law Office. The phrase "bike law" did not exist then, but Bob had always been a bicyclist and found that he really enjoyed representing bike people.
Without ad campaigns or even a business plan, bicyclists gradually became the majority of Bob's clients. Bob advocates for individual clients and provides pro bono advocacy for bicycling and safer streets.
Attorney Jessica Cutler brings to Washington Bike Law the perspective of a professional road bike racer who has also worked as a bike messenger. Jessica is a leader in Washington's cyclocross and mountain biking communities. She knows bikes and bike people and applies the stamina of an athlete to the law.
Attorney Rocky (Raquel) Glassner provides the perspective of living car-free in Seattle and is committed to helping make Washington safer for others to do the same. She graduated from the University of Washington's School of Law in 2021 where she was Managing Editor of the Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice and a member of the Race & Justice Clinic. At Washington Bike Law, she has effectively advocated for multiple clients injured by unsafe infrastructure.
Attorney Kelli Bynum brings extensive courtroom experience to Washington Bike Law. Before she began representing injured people, Kelli worked as a criminal prosecutor and then as a criminal defense attorney. She is a confident cyclist who has led groups on week-long bicycling trips. As a personal injury attorney Kelli has represented many people with Traumatic Brain Injuries or TBIs.
"Bob is all about cyclist' rights and cyclists' empowerment," [community activist, cycling organizer and G&O Family Cyclery co-owner Davey] Oil says, and that has gone a long way towards cementing Anderton's place as Seattle's premier bike lawyer.”
— From the December 2008 Profile in the King County Bar Association's Bar Bulletin
I contacted Washington Bike Law after I crashed on an unsafe street. The City of Seattle had denied my modest request to pay $300 to repair my bike.
Fortunately, Washington Bike Law took my case. The City, as well as the developer and contractor who created the hazard, ended up paying more than $300,000 to settle my claim. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
The people responsible for my injuries will, hopefully, be much more careful in the future, and work to keep roads safe for bikes.K.C. December, 2020
Free Consultations. Realistic Feedback.
Washington Bike Law provides free consultations and realistic feedback regarding whether it makes sense to hire a lawyer in your particular situation. Over the years, they've helped hundreds of people who didn't require formal legal representation.
The attorneys at Washington Bike Law have also seen many bicyclists who didn't think they needed a lawyer whose situations kept getting worse and worse without representation. They helped them, but could have provided more help had they been retained earlier.
Getting a free consultation early on is an easy way to protect yourself.
While Washington Bike Law's lawyers often provide injured bicyclists with free legal advice, other times they take cases through trial or on to the appellate level. While some cases go on for years, most cases are resolved before trial.
Washington Bike Law's experience and track record can help bicyclists resolve their cases fairly and with a minimum of hassle. The bike attorneys at Washington Bike Law understand what it is like to be a bicyclist on Seattle streets and have ridden on roads across Washington State. They've been injured themselves and they know how to help when you've been injured on your bike.
Some personal injury lawyers only take cases involving catastrophic injuries. Washington Bike Law focuses on bike law, regardless of the value of a claim. Washington Bike Law will represent an injured bicyclist whenever its lawyers believe that legal representation is in that person's best interest.
Washington Bike Law is different.
Washington Bike Law helps to make our streets safer for everyone. The Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail shows how the entire community benefits from our work.
For more than two decades Washington Bike Law has represented people seriously injured in Ballard while attempting to bicycle across railroad tracks on a stretch of Seattle streets between sections of the Burke-Gilman Trail known as "the Missing Link."
In 2022, after filing a lawsuit and litigating in both state and federal courts, our clients accepted settlements to compensate them for their individual losses. But, in addition to this money, with our clients' permission, Washington Bike Law negotiated a separate "nonmonetary" settlement agreement with the City that required it to take specific actions by the end of 2023 to make the Missing Link safer.
Unfortunately, the first phase of the City's plans made the dangerous area even more dangerous by adding gravel pits around the already dangerous bike lanes. Thankfully, in October of 2023, after decades of dithering, the City literally paved over the tracks:
Our clients' settlement agreement empowered them to sue if the City failed to complete all of its specified designs ("or a substantially similar design") by the end of 2023. Although paving over the tracks is significantly different from the second phase of the settlement agreement, it is also significantly better. Because our clients' goal was making the street safer, they all agreed paving over the tracks would be "substantially similar." Our clients' agreement not to sue to enforce the agreement was contingent upon several points including: "The tracks must be completely paved over so that the tracks disappear entirely and so people riding bicycles over them will have a smooth, even surface." While the new bike lanes are much better, the saga of the Missing Link continues. Perhaps someday the Burke-Gilman Trail will be completed… or not. The important thing is that now the dangerous railroad crossing where so many people were seriously injured for so long has finally been buried under asphalt and the street is undeniably safer for everyone.
Washington Bike Law works to eliminate wheel-swallowing parallel drain grates like this.
Washington Bike Law has represented many people injured in bike crashes because of unsafe infrastructure. Several clients injured on unsafe drain grates offered to settle their injury claims for no money or attorney's fees if the City of Seattle agreed to inventory and replace these grates (Seattle PI).
The City refused and fought the claims instead. The City argued that bicycling is merely recreational and that it had no duty to replace the grates or even to know where they were. It lost those arguments in court.
Years later, as Bob Anderton suggested, the City final began inventorying and replacing the grates (Seattle PI).
The danger these old grates cause is still lurking. Recently Washington Bike Law successfully represented a person who crashed at the entrance of a school parking lot on the sewer grate shown below that was largely hidden by an incline.
Our client noted at the conclusion of his case:
"I'm glad that I was compensated for my injuries, but I really appreciate that Washington Bike Law got the school district to replace all of the grates in the parking lot with a bike-safe design that will keep kids-- and everyone riding bikes-- safe."
(F.K., December 2020)
For a free consultation, call (206) 262-9290 or email info@washingtonbikelaw.com.
A long time bike commuter himself, Anderton is Seattle's premier bike lawyer who represents cyclists in and around Seattle.
Washington Bike Law has a record of success in helping make Seattle and other cities in Washington safer for bicyclists.
In 2009 Washington Bike Law was the first law office in the entire country honored as a Bike Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists. Washington Bike Law currently holds its highest ranking of Platinum.
In 2013 Washington Bike Law was the first organization Cascade Bicycle Club's BizCycle Program recognized for excellence in bike-friendly business practices.
