Key Questions

As soon as possible. You may be contacted by an insurance adjuster and should not make a statement before you have consulted a bike lawyer. What you say can and will be used against you by the insurance company if possible. Even if the bike lawyers at Washington Bike Law do not represent you, conversations with any lawyer you consult are generally protected by the attorney-client privilege and cannot be used against you.

It can, however the value of your claim is based upon many factors, primarily the severity of your individual injuries and their effects on your life. Many personal injury attorneys list large settlements to entice new clients, but a list of other people's settlements or verdicts can be misleading. Your claims must be evaluated individually. Founding attorney Bob Anderton has assisted hundreds of injured people since 1992 in obtaining fair settlements and verdicts. These individual results range from a few thousand dollars into the millions.

Washington Bike Law advances all costs associated with a bicycle case. Unlike some law firms, Washington Bike Law only charges the actual cost of expenses directly related to your claim and they can be deducted from a settlement or verdict.

It may be more complicated than you think. Since it is free to discuss your case, it makes sense to call for bike crashes in Washington State. Calling Washington Bike Law means talking to a lawyer experienced in bike law. Washington Bike Law can provide you with self-help strategies or other referrals if its lawyers think that hiring a lawyer would not be in your best interest. Washington Bike Law can also provide free referrals to experienced bicycle lawyers in other states.

Washington Bike Law represents people injured by defectively designed or manufactured bicycles.  The firm goes the extra mile to help individual clients, whether they fractured a clavicle, are catastrophically injured, or are relatives of someone killed.  Washington Bike Law also helps the bicycling community at large.  For instance, a recent client's claim resulted in the recall of all similar bicycles, hopefully preventing other similar injuries.

You probably want one if you were seriously injured in Washington State. In order to settle a claim, you will have to deal with insurance adjusters. They are trained to close your claim by paying you as little as possible. It is difficult for someone who is not familiar with bicycle accident cases and the legal climate of Washington State (and King County in particular) to know what a fair settlement amount is. If your case requires litigation, your lawyer must be admitted to practice in the state where you file suit, and you will likely fair better with an experienced local bicycle attorney on your side.

Washington Bike Law's attorneys represent individuals and families with bicycle-related claims across Washington.  Our focus is on cases involving serious injuries or deaths while bicycling or walking, but we also represent some clients with other personal injury claims. The types of personal injury, wrongful death, and products liability cases that Washington Bike Law may accept include: crashes and collisions involving pedestrians, bicycles, and the occasional driver. These cases may involve something other than a human-powered bicycle, such as electric bikes, ebikes, e-bikes, bike shares, LIME bikes, scooters, e-scooters, skateboards, wheelchairs, motorized wheelchairs, mopeds, motor scooters, motorcycles, cars, taxis, Uber, Lyft, pickups, SUVs, vans, buses, semi-trucks, trailers, or trains.

Washington Bike Law also represents individuals and families as a result of injuries or deaths due to unsafe places, particularly unsafe bicycle infrastructure, such as bike paths, trails, lanes, Sharrows, and marked routes.  

Finally, Washington Bike Law represents individuals with people who have been harmed by unfair insurance practices or "bad faith."

Although the majority of Washington Bike Law's clients have been injured on bicycles rather than on motorcycles, Washington Bike Law works to make our roads safer for everyone, including bikers of all kinds. Washington Bike Law has represented people injured on almost any type of cycle imaginable, from BMW touring bikes, to scooters, mopeds, and electric-assist bikes.

Washington Bike Law is based in Seattle, but we have and will represent clients with serious injury and wrongful death claims throughout the state of Washington.

If you were injured outside Washington State, Washington Bike Law may be able to provide a free referral to a local attorney with experience in representing cyclists. You are welcome to call us at 206-262-9290, email info@washingtonbikelaw.com, or use our Confidential Case Review Form and we will contact you using the contact method you specify in it.

How does Washington Bike Law's advocacy for safer streets affect its individual clients?

Washington Bike Law's work has resulted in safer streets that benefit the entire community, but only because the clients in those cases shared this goal and specifically authorized settlements that resulted in these changes. For instance, the paving over of the infamous tracks along the Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard.   Washington Bike Law's attorneys understand that our duty is to our individual clients, and we focus on them. But our history of success in this area and our connections with organizations and individuals working for safer streets can sometimes result in settlements that require safety improvements designed to prevent others from being injured in the same way as our clients.

Lawyers are sometimes uncomfortable with jokes about their profession. The King County Bar Association even had a campaign to "just say no to lawyer jokes." Unlike some attorneys, Bob Anderton is willing to acknowledge that there is often a grain of truth in lawyer jokes. In fact, he collects them. If you've got a good one, let Bob know.