Texas Motorcycle Accident Lawyers

Why Families Across Texas Trust Patterson Law Group

Motorcyclists are 28 times more likely than car occupants to die in a crash, mile for mile. When a driver fails to look twice and a rider goes down, the injuries are catastrophic — broken bones, road rash, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, sometimes death.

On top of that, motorcyclists face a stubborn bias. Insurance adjusters, claims jurors, and even some judges assume the rider was speeding, lane-splitting, or showing off. None of that may be true. Patterson Law Group's job is to confront that bias head-on and force insurance carriers to value the case based on the facts and the law — not stereotypes.

We've recovered over $100 million for injured Texans across all practice areas, including significant verdicts and settlements for riders. The consultation is free. We work on contingency.

Offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, and San Antonio. Every case is taken on a contingency fee — no recovery, no fee.

Motorcycle Cases We Handle

Motorcycle wrecks happen in patterns. Our attorneys handle every variant:

Texas Motorcycle Law

Texas requires helmets for riders under 21 and for older riders without specific health insurance and training certification. Texas does not allow lane splitting — riders must stay in a single lane and may not pass between rows of stopped vehicles.

Critically, not wearing a helmet is not, by itself, a bar to recovery in Texas. Insurance carriers love to argue that helmet status caused or worsened your injuries, but Texas courts apply the comparative fault rule (CPRC §33.001), and the legal question is causation — not whether the carrier wishes you'd worn one.

Statute of limitations for a Texas motorcycle injury case is two years (CPRC §16.003). Get the case in front of an attorney early — bike crashes often involve roadway-defect claims with shorter notice deadlines if a government entity is involved.

How We Work With You

Our process is simple. You focus on your recovery. We handle everything else.

1. 1
   Call us. Tell us what happened. Free, confidential, no obligation. We'll give you an honest answer about whether you have a case.
2. 2
   We investigate. Police reports, surveillance footage, medical records, witness statements, expert consultations. We build the case the right way from day one.
3. 3
   You focus on healing. We handle every insurance call, every demand, every negotiation. If they refuse to pay fairly, we take them to trial.

Local Offices & City Pages

Patterson Law Group serves all injured Texans from our physical offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, and San Antonio. For city-specific information on this practice area:

How this complements existing sections

The sections below are additive. They convert the current general-PI template into a rider-specific resource that covers crash dynamics, Texas statutory framework, jury bias, evidence preservation, and case-building strategy. Recommended insertion order is the order listed.

Why Motorcycle Crashes Are Different

A motorcycle crash is not a car wreck with two wheels missing. The physics, the injury patterns, and the legal dynamics all shift when there is no cabin between the rider and the road. A driver in a 35-mph collision is held in place by a seatbelt, surrounded by crumple zones, and cushioned by airbags. A rider in the same impact is a free body in motion, separated from the bike and exposed to pavement. Kinetic energy that a car absorbs through structural deformation is, on a motorcycle, absorbed directly by the rider's body.

Visibility is the other half of the equation. Motorcycles occupy a narrow profile that drivers consistently misjudge in both position and closing speed. Texas requires riders to use a single full lane under §545.060; lane-splitting remains illegal, so a rider has limited room to escape a driver who drifts out of position. Add weather and a bike's narrow contact patch, and the same error that produces a fender bender between cars becomes a hospital admission for a rider.

Common Causes of Motorcycle Accidents in Texas

Most motorcycle crashes we see in Texas trace back to a small set of recurring driver errors. The most common is the left-turning vehicle: a driver in a center turn lane misjudges the rider's speed — or never registers the motorcycle at all — and turns across the rider's path. Unsafe lane changes are a close second, with the driver merging into a lane the rider already occupies after a mirror check that missed the bike. Distracted driving multiplies both: a driver looking at a phone for two seconds covers roughly 175 feet at highway speed.

Impaired driving — alcohol, marijuana, prescription opioids — appears regularly in our serious-injury and wrongful-death files. Road conditions matter too: loose construction gravel, manhole edges, pavement seams, oil, standing water, and tread debris are routine hazards a car driver never feels. A defective tire, failing brake caliper, or manufacturing defect in the bike itself can also bring a product-liability defendant into the case alongside the at-fault driver.

Texas Motorcycle Laws Every Rider Should Know

Texas helmet law is more nuanced than most riders — and most drivers — realize. Transportation Code §661.003 requires a DOT-compliant helmet for every operator and passenger. Riders 21 and older may opt out, but only if they have completed an approved motorcycle operator safety course or carry a health plan providing at least $10,000 in coverage for motorcycle-crash injuries. Section 661.003(j) also bars an officer from stopping a rider solely to check whether the exemption applies — so a driver who hits a rider cannot turn a missing helmet into a free defense.

Lane-splitting is not legal in Texas; §545.060 requires every vehicle to be driven entirely within a single marked lane. Riders are subject to the same financial-responsibility rules as any other motorist under the Texas Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act, codified in Chapter 601, with current minimum liability limits of 30/60/25. UM/UIM coverage is not required, but insurers must offer it in writing under Insurance Code §1952.101, and any rider who declines it is gambling against the most common scenario in serious motorcycle claims: an at-fault driver carrying state minimums on a six-figure injury.

Injuries We See in Motorcycle Crash Claims

Injury patterns in motorcycle files run categorically more severe than passenger-vehicle cases. Traumatic brain injuries — from concussion through diffuse axonal injury — occur even when a DOT-compliant helmet is in place. A helmet reduces risk and severity; it does not eliminate either, particularly at highway speeds or in impacts involving rotational forces. Spinal cord injuries, from cervical and lumbar disc herniations through complete paraplegia or tetraplegia, are common in higher-speed crashes.

Road rash — the abrasion injury from skin sliding across pavement — sounds minor and is not. Deep road rash strips tissue to bone, frequently requires surgical debridement and skin grafting, and produces permanent scarring that supports a separate disfigurement claim. Orthopedic injuries — open and comminuted fractures of the femur, tibia, pelvis, wrist, and clavicle — often require multiple surgeries and months of physical therapy. Internal injuries from blunt-force trauma, including splenic lacerations and pneumothorax, can be life-threatening. Traumatic amputations, severe burns, and fatal injuries are part of the caseload. Severity drives the damages model, and the damages model drives the negotiation.

Why Riders Get Blamed — And How We Counter Bias

Jurors carry assumptions about motorcyclists into the courtroom, and defense lawyers know it. The stereotypes — riders are reckless, were probably speeding, "knew the risks" — are not evidence, but they shape how a panel listens. Texas applies proportionate responsibility under Civil Practice and Remedies Code §33.001: a plaintiff more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing, and a plaintiff under that threshold has the verdict reduced by the percentage assigned. The defense playbook is to push the rider above the 51-percent line through bias, speed inference, and lane-position argument.

Helmet and gear arguments are a separate front. Whether the rider was helmeted has no bearing on who caused the collision, and §661.003(j) bars an officer from stopping a rider over the helmet question in the first place. Texas case law generally treats a plaintiff's failure to use safety equipment as inadmissible to reduce damages on a negligence theory, but the defense will still try to slip it in. Our counter is preparation: voir dire that removes biased panelists, motions that exclude irrelevant gear evidence, and trial themes that reframe the case around the driver who turned left.

What to Do After a Motorcycle Crash

The first day after a motorcycle crash matters more than most riders realize. Get medical care first — emergency department or trauma center, even if you walked away. Adrenaline masks injury, and a delayed diagnosis on a head bleed or internal injury is a medical emergency and an insurance defense. Once you are safe and treated, document everything: scene, both vehicles, lane markings, skid marks, debris, and your gear and bike in the condition they were in immediately after the crash. Get names and contact information for every witness before they leave — the police report will not capture all of them.

Preserve your gear and your bike. The helmet, jacket, gloves, and boots you were wearing are evidence of impact dynamics and of the protective steps you took. Do not let the insurer total and dispose of the motorcycle until your lawyer has had it inspected. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's carrier — adjusters are trained to elicit admissions about speed, lane position, and gear that they will weaponize on comparative-fault arguments. You owe them nothing beyond the basic exchange at the scene.

Recoverable Damages in a Texas Motorcycle Case

A Texas motorcycle plaintiff can recover economic, non-economic, and — where the facts support it — exemplary damages. Economic damages cover past and future medical expenses, lost earnings and loss of earning capacity, attendant care, home and vehicle modifications, and out-of-pocket costs. Civil Practice and Remedies Code §41.0105 limits medical-expense recovery to amounts actually paid or incurred. Non-economic damages cover physical pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of consortium. There is no statutory cap on non-economic damages in an ordinary Texas personal injury case.

Exemplary damages are available where the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from fraud, malice, or gross negligence under §41.003. The §41.008 cap limits exemplary damages to the greater of (a) $200,000 or (b) two times economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000. The most common factual trigger in our motorcycle files is an intoxicated driver. Wrongful death actions under §71.004 carry their own damages framework. The statute of limitations on most motorcycle cases is two years from the date of the crash under §16.003.

How Patterson Law Group Builds Motorcycle Cases

Motorcycle cases are won on evidence and lost on assumptions. Work on a file starts the day we are hired: spoliation preservation letters to the at-fault insurer, the wrecker yard, and anyone with custody of the bike or gear; a scene investigation while skid marks and debris are intact; and retention of an accident reconstructionist to document closing speeds, sight lines, and points of impact. Where the other vehicle is a commercial truck or rideshare, we move on ECM downloads and dashcam footage before they are overwritten.

The helmet, jacket, gloves, and boots come to our office as physical evidence. They prove the rider took the situation seriously and, where damaged, corroborate the impact mechanics. We line up treating-physician testimony wherever the medicine supports it — jurors trust the surgeon who operated more than an expert who flew in for trial. We litigate gear and helmet motions in limine before voir dire and select a jury willing to set aside the defense's stereotypes. PLG handles motorcycle cases statewide on a contingency fee — no fee unless we recover. Call (817) 784-2000. Se Habla Español.

Frequently Asked Questions