They will try. Being on a motorcycle is not negligence, and it is not a legal defence, but it is the first thing many adjusters reach for. Knowing that in advance is most of the answer.
The bias is real, and it is not the law
Ask any rider and they will tell you the same thing: the assumption starts before anyone looks at the evidence. He must have been speeding. He came out of nowhere. He was weaving. None of that is a finding. It is a starting position, and it shapes how the claim gets valued unless somebody pushes back with facts.
What the law actually asks is who failed to exercise reasonable care. A rider obeying the law who gets left-turned across is not at fault because a car driver did not see him. “I did not see the motorcycle” is an admission, not an excuse.
Partly at fault does not mean out of luck, up to a point
Louisiana uses modified comparative fault. If you are found partly responsible, that reduces what you recover rather than barring it, as long as your share stays below 51 percent. Found 20 percent at fault, you recover 80 percent. For crashes on or after 1 January 2026, a rider found 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing (La. C.C. art. 2323, as amended by Acts 2025, No. 15).
This is precisely why the blame gets laid on so thickly. Every percentage point an insurer can move onto you is money it does not pay. The allocation is negotiable and provable, not handed down. We have set out how comparative fault works in a Louisiana accident in more detail.
The three things adjusters usually reach for
Speed. Often asserted with nothing behind it. Skid marks, damage patterns, and the resting positions of the vehicles are physical evidence, and physical evidence beats assertion.
Visibility and lane position. Where you were in the lane, whether your lights were on, what the driver’s sightlines actually were. This is why photographs from the scene, before anything is moved, matter more in a motorcycle case than almost any other.
Your gear. What you were wearing gets used to paint a picture. Keep it. Do not clean it, repair it or throw it away, because it is evidence of what happened to your body and it is the kind of thing people discard without thinking.
Injuries get argued about differently too
A rider has no crumple zone, no airbag and no cage, so the same impact that bruises a driver breaks a rider. Insurers sometimes treat serious motorcycle injuries as though they were exaggerated because the vehicle damage looks modest. The medical record is what answers that, which is why consistent treatment and honest reporting of every symptom matters so much.
What actually protects your claim
Photograph the scene and both vehicles before anything moves. Get the police report. Get names of witnesses, because in a motorcycle case an independent account is worth a great deal. Get medical attention the same day. And do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement before you have advice. The same first steps that help any crash claim are set out in what to do in the first 48 hours after a crash.
In Louisiana you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file suit, for an injury on or after July 1, 2024. See how long you have to file an injury claim in Louisiana.
Talk to a Lafayette firm that will not start from the same assumption
We handle motorcycle accident claims across Acadiana. The consultation is free, and No fee unless we win.
Call (337) 347-7177.
