Motorcycle Accident Settlement Calculator, with the same math attorneys use.

A motorcycle claim is valued the way any injury claim is: the losses, the pain and suffering, and your share of the fault. The calculator on this page runs the same engine the car and truck calculators run, and it should, because the law does not give riders a different formula. What changes is the ground the claim stands on.

Four things are set state by state and change a rider's case: whether the law required a helmet, whether a statute says anything about using a missing helmet against a rider in court, whether the rider was allowed to be where they were in the lane, and whether the no-fault or personal injury protection benefits that pay a car occupant's first medical bills reach a rider at all. Each is answered differently across the states, and in several the answer is not what most people assume. The rider-law panel below quotes each state's own provisions, names the copy of the law that was read and when, and says plainly where a point was not addressed or could not be established.

The research behind the panel read each state's code itself, not summaries of it, and the passages quoted were checked against the documents again for this page. Where a code could not be opened, the panel says so rather than guessing: Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee show no rider law here, because their codes are published through a site the sources behind this page could not re-open.

Helmet rules come in three shapes. Some states require every rider and passenger to wear one. Some require it only below an age the statute sets, which is not the same age everywhere. And some require it of everyone except riders past an age who meet a condition the statute names, such as a training course, years of licensing or medical insurance. Several also require a helmet of a new rider for a period, or of a passenger whatever their age. The exact rule in your state is quoted in the panel, age and all.

The second question is the one that matters in a lawsuit, and the law is thinner than people expect. Of the provisions read for this page, a statute in six jurisdictions speaks to helmet evidence in a civil case: Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah and Virginia. They do not say the same thing. Some speak to evidence and what may be said at trial, some to negligence per se, and one to contributory negligence for a requirement that reaches only young riders. The panel quotes each in its own words, because the differences are the point.

Everywhere else, the helmet sections read contain no rule about civil cases, and no court decisions were read for this page. That is what the panel says for those states, and it says nothing more: it is not a finding that a missing helmet can be used against a rider, and it is not a finding that it cannot. Whether a defendant may argue that a helmet would have prevented or reduced an injury is a question of that state's law and of the medical evidence in the case, and it is exactly the question to put to a lawyer there.

For that reason the calculator has no helmet setting and subtracts nothing for a missing helmet. No statute read for this page states a percentage, and a reduction built into an estimate would read as a rule of law when it is a guess.

Of the 47 jurisdictions whose codes were read for this page, 27 expressly ban riding between lanes of traffic or between rows of vehicles, and 16 separately ban overtaking a vehicle in the lane it occupies. Many allow two motorcycles to ride side by side in one lane and ban three. Vermont goes further: its code bars a motorcycle from riding in the same lane alongside, or within ten feet of, another vehicle.

A few states now permit lane filtering, meaning moving past slowed or stopped traffic under conditions the statute sets out: Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana and Utah, each with its own speed limits, road types and exclusions. Colorado's permission carries its own repeal date, which the panel prints with it. California's code defines lane splitting and lets its Highway Patrol develop educational guidelines, and neither permits nor bans it in terms. Utah defines it and bans it by name.

Some codes read for this page contain no between-lanes rule at all, and the panel says so rather than calling the practice legal there. A code that is silent is not a permission, and the general rules about staying within a single lane may still apply.

Why this matters to a claim: fault. If you were riding where the law did not allow, the other side will say that contributed to the crash, and your recovery can drop by your share of fault or, in a few states, be barred. If you were where the law allowed, that argument is weaker. The calculator lets you set your share of fault yourself; it assumes none because of how or where you were riding.

In a no-fault state a person hurt in a car usually claims their early medical bills and lost wages from their own policy's personal injury protection, whoever caused the crash. Riders are frequently outside that system, and the reason is usually a definition. The insurance or no-fault laws of seven jurisdictions, as read for this page, define the vehicle their rules cover in a way that leaves a motorcycle out: Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota and Washington. Some exclude motorcycles by name, one requires four or more wheels, one more than three load-bearing wheels, and one limits the rule to passenger cars.

Other states keep riders inside the system on different terms, and thirteen jurisdictions' provisions read for this page say something specific about a rider's benefits: Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Utah. Depending on the state, a rider gets benefits only if they were bought as an option, the insurer may exclude them from a motorcycle policy, the owner may reject or limit them in writing, a rider cannot recover them at all, or a car's insurer pays a rider first when a car was involved.

What it means for a claim: if you have no benefits, your medical bills are paid by health insurance or by you until the claim against the other driver settles, and a no-fault state's limits on suing for pain and suffering may or may not apply to you. The panel quotes what your state's provisions say. Where they were not searched or do not settle the point, it says that too.

In most states the liability minimum for a motorcycle is the same as for a car, and the panel says where no separate figure was found. five jurisdictions read for this page do set something different for a motorcycle: Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan and Minnesota. One sets its own limits for motorcycle policies, one lets a motorcycle policy exclude injury coverage for passengers, and others require a motorcycle owner to carry liability security or require insurers to offer optional coverages on motorcycles.

None of those figures limits a claim. The at-fault driver may carry far more than the minimum, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may add to it, and some defendants have no insurance limit at all. So the calculator applies no insurance ceiling. If the other driver's coverage turns out to be the binding limit, that is a fact about a policy, found out by asking, and the place to start is your own declarations page.

Across the 51 jurisdictions in our data, the ordinary personal-injury deadline runs from 1 to 6 years, with 25 using 2 years. The calculator shows the period for the state you pick, and the rider-law panel prints it with the provision it is cited to.

In Colorado, Hawaii and Kentucky, the state also has a separate time limit for motor-vehicle claims, and each is worded for motor-vehicle claims rather than for riders, so this page reads each state's own texts to decide what a rider is shown. In Colorado, a court decision read for this page applied the separate limit to a motorcycle crash, so a rider is given the same period as a car. In Hawaii, the separate limit's own text reaches a rider's claim where a car or other motor vehicle was involved, and a crash that involved no motor vehicle runs on the ordinary period, so a rider is given the earlier of the two as the earliest the deadline can fall. In Kentucky, no court decision on whether the separate limit reaches a rider was read for this page, so a rider is given the ordinary period as the earliest the deadline can fall. Work inside it, and ask a lawyer there whether the longer one can apply.

Tennessee's one year is the earliest a deadline there can fall, not necessarily the deadline itself, because the same statute gives two years where a criminal prosecution meets conditions it sets out, and the panel quotes that provision and the Court of Appeals decision on traffic citations with the limit the court put on it.

What each of those states' note says, as the calculator and the panel print it for a rider:

Keep the helmet, even if it looks undamaged. Its marks show where and how hard your head struck, and a helmet that was worn and failed can be evidence in its own right. Keep the jacket, gloves, boots and any camera or phone mount too, unwashed and unrepaired, in a bag with the date.

Photograph the bike before anyone repairs, moves or scraps it, from every side, including the resting position of the controls and the damage to the wheels and forks. Photograph the scene if you can return to it: skid marks, debris, sight lines, the lane markings and any signs. If a camera on your helmet or bike recorded the crash, copy the footage somewhere else before the device overwrites it.

Write down what you remember while it is fresh, including the lane you were in and your speed, and get the names of witnesses. Get the police report number. Keep every medical record and bill, and if no-fault benefits do not reach you in your state, keep the records of what your health insurance paid, because it will usually want to be repaid from any settlement.