Bike Accident Law Firm: Really?

Some jurors see a bike plaintiff and think this

A law firm dedicated to handling just bicycle accidents? You will not find that in Maryland. But New York is a big city.

The New York Times exaggerates a little bit. The lawyers at Rankin & Taylor handle other cases, including this one involving a masseuse who says police required her to clean a toilet at the station before releasing her. (Crazy, right?) But they don’t appear to run from the fact that their focus is representing bicyclists who get tickets in a New York that is increasingly anti-bicyclist.

Our lawyers are not taking these kinds of cases. But our law firm handles motorcycle accident and bike cases. Truth is, juries are like New Yorkers: they are skeptical of motorcycles and bikes. Bikers minding their own business don’t get noticed (sometimes to their peril). But you always remember a bike that cut you off or almost caused you to get in an accident. Bike accident lawyers in these cases need to anticipate and refute this bias from voir dire to closing.

I wrote about this a few years ago. Interestingly, as I note in this post, juries seem more biased toward bicycles than motorcycles.