Having handled many bike crashes (involving cars) in Oregon these last 17 years I know bikers get the bad rap. Often in bike versus car crash and this applies equally well to incumbent bike car crashes. Incumbent bikes are designed to ride lower to the ground making visibility often a recurring issue in bike car cases whether involving settlement or litigation of the injury case.

Biking laws in Oregon and Washington do not differentiate between incumbent bike law and non incumbent bike law so the regular rules of the road apply. I have seen more serious injuries involving incumbent bikes versus non incumbent but I have also seen a much higher knowledge of bike rules and biker expertise of those who ride incumbent bikes.

You can get settlement money when you are hit by a police officer as long as the police car was not actively chasing or in pursuit of another person involved in a crime. This is since Oregon and Washington exclude such tort claims on the theory that the officers sort of get a free ride since they are doing the public a better good.

I have had multiple car accident settlement involving police officers from differing police departments and have found that there are some close questions as to whether the officer involved in the crash was in fact in pursuit of an unrelated crime. It gets even trickier because police procedure and whether police rules were followed may affect the acceptance of the police neglect injury case.

Police car accident cases get even trickier because tort time limits will oftentimes apply and its best to check with a lawyer to ensure you case like your once accustomed lifestyle doesn’t get blown out the water.

Because the insurance law in the state of Washington allows an injured car accident victim to get a minimum 1/3 reduction on pip reimbursement its wise (in my opinion) to get on board with an injury lawyer.

This is because if the pip goes to subrogation later and you have not retained a lawyer then you will have lost the money benefit of the 1/3 pip reduction had you gotten a lawyer at the beginning of the case under the Mahler court decision.