Left-Turn Motorcycle Accident Lawyer in New Orleans, LA Fault and Intersection Evidence

How you know this is the claim you have

An oncoming vehicle began turning while you were still traveling straight through the crossing. Contact usually lands on the car's front quarter panel or driver's door, and your front wheel, forks or engine case carries the matching mark. If the car was already deep into its arc, the damage sits farther back along its flank. Write down which lane you occupied, whether the turn came out of a dedicated pocket or from a through lane, and what the signal was displaying for you. Do that before anyone invites you to estimate a speed, because the estimate is what gets quoted back later.

The rule the turning driver was under

Revised Statute 32:122 is one sentence long. A driver within an intersection intending to turn left shall yield the right of way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction which are within the intersection or so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. Nothing in that sentence asks whether the approaching vehicle was easy to see. The provision does not end the argument either. Distance, timing, visibility and physical proof still have to be established, and the turning driver will offer a version in which you were neither close nor visible.

Why these crossings photograph badly

Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue carry streetcar track in the neutral ground, and rails, flangeways and paving joints change what a rider can do in the half second before impact. The city's own carnival guidance tells cyclists to cross tracks at a ninety-degree angle for that exact reason. Shoot the full approach from your position, then from the driver's position, then the resting places, then the surface in between. Wide frames fix the signal head and the sight line. Tight frames preserve the flangeway, the patch and the paint transfer, none of which survive a resurfacing contract.

Prescription is the word, and the period recently changed

Civil law vocabulary applies here, so the deadline is a liberative prescription rather than a statute of limitations. Civil Code article 3493.1 gives delictual actions two years, commencing the day injury or damage is sustained. That period arrived through Acts 2024, No. 423, effective July 1, 2024, which also repealed article 3492 and the one-year rule the state was known for. The act is prospective only and reaches actions arising after that date, so a cause of action that arose earlier still lives under one year. Filing happens in a parish, not a county. Code of Civil Procedure article 74 permits a damages action where the wrongful conduct occurred or where the damage was sustained, and the general civil trial court for this parish is Civil District Court at 421 Loyola Avenue.

What the first week should produce

Request the report through the police department's records channel; NOPD states that accident and criminal event reports should be available twenty working days from the date of the incident. Keep the item number. Find out which yard has the bike and whether storage is accruing against it. Photograph the helmet, jacket, gloves and boots before anything gets washed. Begin treatment and keep every discharge sheet, because a gap in care becomes an argument about causation. If a witness gave a name at the scene, call while the light phase is still a memory rather than a reconstruction.

The mistake that hands over fifty-one percent

Article 2323 changed on January 1, 2026 through Acts 2025, No. 15. A claimant whose share of negligence falls below fifty-one percent recovers a proportionally reduced amount. At fifty-one percent or above, that claimant recovers nothing at all. Fault gets allocated among everyone who caused or contributed to the loss, whether or not they are parties. So a recorded statement in which a rider guesses at speed, or agrees that swerving was possible, is no longer merely unhelpful. It is an argument aimed at the cliff edge, and adjusters working this market know the edge is there.

How the fee is set under Rule 1.5

The Rules of Professional Conduct permit a fee contingent on the outcome of a tort matter and forbid an unreasonable one, measured against eight listed factors. No percentage appears anywhere in the rule. Paragraph (c) requires the agreement in writing and signed, with a copy handed over at signing, stating separately the shares that apply on settlement, at trial and on appeal. Ask which litigation expenses come out of the recovery. Then ask whether those expenses are subtracted before or after the fee is calculated, because that ordering moves real money.