Need Compensation for Your Shoulder Injury Due to Cycling Accidents? 

A bicycle accident can cause serious, disabling injuries, such as shoulder pain from a shoulder injury. Some of them are obvious, like a bone sticking out of your shoulder, but others may not manifest themselves for hours or days. It is important to receive medical attention promptly after a bicycle accident, particularly if a car hit you.

You can sue the offending party for damages, irrespective of the extent of your shoulder injury. This will include both damage to property and medical bills. You can handle the claim yourself, but you will be more successful if you hire an accident attorney. An attorney will gather evidence for you and recover a larger settlement.

This article is about various shoulder injury types and how to obtain compensation.

What Will Happen After an Injury?

A crash can result in trauma to the fragile structures of the shoulder. The shoulder is a complex, multi-planar anatomy of the body. You may injure your shoulder blades upon a fall or a bad fracture, or tear.

Shoulder injuries can be a result of:

1. Posterior Shoulder Dislocation: When the humerus dislocates out of the back of the shoulder socket.
2. Anterior shoulder dislocation: Like a posterior dislocation but with the humerus dislocating out of the socket in front of the shoulder.
3. Rotator Cuff Tear: A Tear of the cluster of muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint. Can limit the strength and movement to lift and turn the arm.
4. Acromioclavicular joint injury (AC): Joint injury that occurs when the collarbone, or clavicle, hits the acromion. This is most commonly due to a direct hit to the shoulder.
5. Broken Shoulder: Falls can fracture a shoulder. Shoulder fractures include clavicle fractures (collarbone), scapula fractures (shoulder blade), and proximal arm fractures. Compound (open) fractures and comminuted injuries are often treated with extensive medical care. A compound fracture is when the bone protrudes through the skin. A comminuted injury is when several bones are fractured.
6. Labral Tear: The labrum is the cartilage ring that covers and cushions the socket of the shoulder joint. It may result in painful instability of the shoulder, along with intense pain in the shoulder.
7. Bursitis: Swelling of the bursae, the small fluid-filled pouches that pad the tendons and muscles about the shoulder joint. Bursa swelling can lead to shoulder pain as well as restriction of your movements.

You must seek medical care to determine if you have any of these issues and start the healing process.

Symptoms of a Shoulder Injury

Unless you are tested medically, it is hard to know whether or not the pain in the shoulder was the result of an injury. This is particularly so because shoulder injury usually results from exercising. You may say, I have slipped and injured my shoulder, but I do not know whether or not I have sustained an injury.

• You can find out more about Pain
• Reduced ranges of motion
• Weakness
• The arms and hands can feel numbness or tingling
• The bruising or swelling
• Discoloration

Who Could Be Responsible for My Accident?

You will first need to know who is responsible for receiving money back after an accident. It could be a person, a corporation, or a municipality that caused or contributed to your accident. Some of them are:

• The inattentive driver who hit your vehicle.
• The jaywalker in front of you who made you crash.
• The bicycle manufacturer that constructed your bike with faulty parts.
• The bike shop that assured to repair your brakes but failed.
• The local municipality will not mend the roads that caused your crash.

How to Get Evidence for a Bicycle Accident Claim?

You will require evidence to substantiate your claim. You will have to prove that the negligent party caused your accident, and that you incurred losses as a direct consequence of it.

Evidence You Can Use to Prove That an Individual Was at Fault in Your Bicycle Accident Includes

1. Eyewitness testimony
2. Photographic and Video Evidence
3. The Police Accident Report
4. Broken parts or the actual bike can be tangible evidence.
5. Proof or documents that the repair shop has claimed to have repaired a mechanical defect but did not. 
6. Documents to show your bicycle’s defect upon purchase.

You will also have to establish that you were hurt in the accident. What damages you are seeking will be part of the evidence you present. You might be eligible for damages like property damage, medical bills, past and future, lost income, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and future loss of income.

Some of the Evidence You Can Use to Demonstrate Your Losses Includes

1. Medical bills and records
2. Physician’s Notes
3. Expert medical evidence
4. Injury photos taken soon after the accident
5. Estimated repair of the bike
6. Witnesses can testify that you were in pain or terrified at the time of the accident.
7. Friends and family will need to give testimony that you have endured and have been suffering due to the accident.

You need to show proof that you have lost some work due to your injury. You will then file a claim with the negligent party’s insurance company. You have two years from the time of an accident to make a claim.

Bottom Line!

The insurance company of the party at fault will do everything in its power to not pay you the full amount of compensation owed to you, even if you have presented it with adequate evidence. They can attempt to establish that you injured yourself.

You must employ the services of a bike accident lawyer to represent your case. An experienced legal team will assist in collecting evidence and negotiating for greater accident compensation.

Call the Jenkins Law PL for professional legal representation. We will fight tirelessly for the maximum available recovery from a bike accident that causes shoulder injury. 
Reach out to Jenkins today!