Virginia Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
A driver turned across your lane, and now their insurer wants to know how fast you were going. That is the order these claims arrive in, and it is why the fault fight comes before the injury discussion. Virginia still applies the contributory negligence rule, so a finding that you were partly at fault can end a claim rather than reduce it.
Recognized. Reviewed. Trusted.
Gray Broughton Injury Law is a veteran owned trial firm representing injured riders across Virginia. A motorcycle claim is won or lost on what gets proved before the rider-at-fault story sets, and much of that proof is perishable: the bike, the gear, camera footage, and what a witness still remembers. Request a free consultation today to protect your rights before evidence disappears.
Motorcycle crash numbers in Virginia
Riders are a small share of Virginia traffic and a large share of the harm. Figures from the Virginia DMV report 2024 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts.
2,245
Motorcycle crashes in Virginia in 2024, 1.7 percent of the total.
117
Riders killed, 12.7 percent of everyone who died on Virginia roads.
1,839
Riders injured in those crashes.
798
Riders seriously injured, 11.0 percent of all serious injuries statewide.
37.2%
Motorcycle drivers in those crashes recorded with no improper action.
8.1%
Recorded with speed too fast, the largest rider error listed.
How motorcycle crashes happen in Virginia
Most of these crashes involve a driver who didn’t see the motorcycle, or looked and didn’t register it.
Left-turn collisions
In 2023, 46 percent of the nation’s 3,419 fatal two-vehicle motorcycle crashes involved the other vehicle turning left across a motorcycle going straight or passing. Virginia requires that driver to yield to oncoming traffic close enough to be a hazard.
Following too closely
No driver may follow more closely than is reasonable and prudent, judged by the speed of both vehicles and the conditions. The impact that scuffs a bumper puts a rider down.
Dooring and parking-lane conflicts
No operator may open the door of a parked vehicle toward moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe. That sets a traffic infraction rather than deciding civil liability.
Distracted driving
It is unlawful to hold a handheld device while driving in Virginia. Distraction takes a driver’s attention at the moment a motorcycle needs to be seen.
Why motorcycle claims are harder to win
In many cases, the injured motorcycle rider arrives at the claim with an assumption already attached.
In most states the bias costs a rider a percentage of the recovery. In Virginia it can cost all of it. If the defense proves you were negligent in a way that helped cause the crash, that finding may bar recovery entirely. The insurer doesn’t need to show its own driver was blameless.
What it does have to do is carry a burden. Virginia’s model instruction puts it on the defendant to prove both that you were negligent and that your negligence was a proximate cause of your injuries.
Fault in Virginia
All or nothing
Virginia doesn’t divide fault between the parties the way most states do.
The burden is theirs
Contributory negligence is a defense the other side must prove, with causation.
Talk to an attorney: 804-669-9899
Virginia laws that affect a motorcycle claim
The helmet and eye protection law
Virginia requires a helmet for the operator and any passenger, and requires the driver to wear eye protection or have a windshield. Narrow exemptions apply. Riding without a helmet doesn’t necessarily constitute negligence per se in a civil proceeding, which is less than the seat belt rule gives.
Lane sharing and lane splitting
No Virginia statute names lane splitting. The code requires all vehicles to be driven as nearly as practicable within a single lane and makes driving abreast of another vehicle in a one-vehicle lane reckless driving, while expressly allowing two two-wheeled motorcycles abreast.
The filing deadline
An injured adult generally has two years from the date the claim accrues to sue, usually the crash date. It runs differently for a child or a legal incapacity.
The bike is a separate clock
An action for injury to property carries five years rather than two, though the evidence the bike holds matters long before that.
Government defendants
A claim against a county, city or town generally requires written notice within six months, and one against the Commonwealth within one year. Sovereign immunity can still cap it.
Wrongful death
Wrongful death claims must be filed by the personal representative of the estate, Virginia law defines which losses it recognizes, and the deadline runs from the date of death.
What to do after a motorcycle crash in Virginia
Most of this list is the same for any crash. Four items are not.
Your own coverage may be the one that pays
A serious motorcycle injury can cost more than the at-fault driver carries. For policies effective on or after Jan. 1, 2025, Virginia’s minimum liability coverage is $50,000 per person. Policies written in the three years before that carry a $30,000 minimum that still governs them.
Virginia auto policies must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Underinsured applies when the driver had insurance and it was not enough, and the code treats a vehicle whose owner or operator is unknown as uninsured.
A trap sits there: if that vehicle never touched you or the bike, the accident must be reported promptly to your insurer or to law enforcement.
Two things may follow. Your own insurer becomes an opposing party, served as though it were a party defendant, and it will investigate your riding the way the other one did. Coverage on other household vehicles may apply too, in a priority order the statute sets.
Injuries riders sustain
A rider has no cage, no airbag and no seat belt. That is the math behind the serious-injury figure above.
Traumatic brain injury happens even in helmets, and the memory, concentration and mood effects can outlast the visible ones. Spinal cord injury can mean partial or complete paralysis. Road rash scraped to muscle may require grafting. Complex fractures and catastrophic injuries need hardware, several surgeries and sometimes amputation. In these cases the treatment ahead may be more costly than the bills you’ve already paid.
Evidence that decides a motorcycle claim
Liability here is usually decided by physical evidence rather than by what the drivers say, because one of them will say they never saw you. Footage can be overwritten in days, so a preservation notice needs to go out as early as possible:
- Scene photographs and where both vehicles came to rest
- Skid and gouge marks
- Event data recorder download, for braking and throttle at impact
- Helmet and gear condition
- Witness statements taken at the scene
- Business and traffic camera footage
- Reconstruction where fault is contested
Compensation available after a motorcycle crash
If you’ve suffered catastrophic injuries at the hands of a negligent motorist, you may be eligible to pursue compensation for: the injuries and their effect on your health, physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement or deformity and the humiliation that comes with it, inconvenience, medical expenses past and future, lost earnings, lessened earning capacity and property damage.
How Gray Broughton Injury Law builds motorcycle cases
01
We handle insurance communications
Both insurers, including your own on an underinsured claim, so a recorded statement is not the first thing that happens to you.
02
We prove the crash rather than argue it
Early scene and vehicle inspection, and reconstruction where fault is contested. The rider-at-fault assumption gets answered with physics.
03
We find every policy
Liability, underinsured, and coverage on other household vehicles. Identifying it all early is what makes a full demand possible.
Contact a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer in Virginia Today
Motorcycle accidents often result in the most devastating injuries. What makes it even worse is when you’re injured while riding due to the negligence or carelessness of another driver. At Gray Broughton, our rider injury lawyers are here to help you identify fault, collect evidence and pursue maximum damages for your injuries. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Contact us today.
Recent Case Results
The results below span practice areas. Every case is decided on its own facts, and no result predicts another.
$10,000,000
Gray Broughton represented a seven-year-old boy who suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost his right leg above the knee after his family’s car was rear-ended by a pick-up truck hauling a utility trailer. Gray Broughton was able to settle his case for $10,000,000 shortly after filing suit. The client’s net proceeds were structured to ensure that he can be compensated for life. He is a tremendous young man who has overcome daunting odds. We wish him all the best for his future.
$1,250,000
Gray Broughton represented an attorney who suffered a traumatic brain injury after his car was struck by a commercial vehicle. After missing a year of work and undergoing intensive therapy, he was able to make a full recovery and return to work. Gray Broughton was able to settle his case for $1,250,000 shortly before depositions.
$750,000.
Gray Broughton represented an 83-year-old woman who slipped and fell on a restaurant floor. The fall broke her right shoulder in three places; it also broke her right hip. Through his investigation, Gray Broughton was able to prove that the restaurant had not been mopping its floors properly and knew that its floors were abnormally slick. Gray Broughton settled her case two months before trial for $750,000.
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Important: This page provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this content does not create an attorney-client relationship. Outcomes vary based on the specific facts of each case.
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Frequently asked questions
Not wearing one is not automatically fatal to a claim. Virginia’s helmet statute says that failure does not constitute negligence per se in a civil proceeding. It does less than the seat belt statute, which also keeps non-use out of evidence and out of mitigation, so the facts matter.
That is closer to an admission than a defense. A left-turning driver owes a duty to yield to oncoming traffic close enough to be a hazard, and not looking hard enough is a failure of that duty, not an excuse.
Generally two years from the date the claim accrues, usually the crash date. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the death. It differs for a child, for a legal incapacity, and for a government defendant, where notice can be due in six months. Ask a lawyer about your own date.
Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may become the source of recovery, and Virginia requires it on auto policies. Underinsured is the common one here, and coverage on other household vehicles may also apply.
It changes what the defense will try. Expect an argument that you were speeding, lane splitting or riding recklessly, whether or not there is evidence for it. In the DMV’s 2024 data, 37.2 percent of motorcycle drivers in Virginia crashes were recorded with no improper action.
Not before you have legal advice. You have no obligation to the other driver’s insurer, and the questions run to your speed, your lane position and your riding history. Your own policy is different: it carries a duty to cooperate.