Motorcyclists often face an uphill battle in the courtroom before the facts are ever heard. In this video, Keith E. Galliher, Jr., founder and principal attorney of The Galliher Law Firm in Las Vegas, explains the bias many jurors bring to a motorcycle case.Â
Galliher describes how jurors’ assumptions about riders — that they’re reckless, weaving through traffic, or looking for trouble — can color a case even when the rider did nothing wrong. Overcoming that presumption takes an experienced trial lawyer who knows how to reframe the story, and it’s a challenge The Galliher Law Firm is prepared to meet on behalf of injured motorcyclists.Â
TranscriptÂ
Well, because most jurors believe that motorcycle riders — or drivers, riders — are, let’s just say, not real careful. They see bikers driving down the streets, zipping between traffic, pulling up behind cars, hitting their brakes, pulling wheelies, doing all that sort of thing, and they assume, quite frankly, that that’s exactly what’s happening.Â
These people assume the motorcycle rider is probably negligent even if he didn’t commit the act of negligence in the case. You have to convince a jury that the motorcycle rider wasn’t the bad guy, because they want to believe that he was.
