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Lowcountry riders get blamed first and hurt worst. We handle motorcycle claims from our Charleston office.
Charleston is one of the better places in the country to own a motorcycle. The weather lets you ride nearly year round, and the routes are hard to beat, whether you are crossing the Ravenel Bridge into Mount Pleasant, running US 17, or taking Maybank Highway out to Johns Island on a Saturday morning. The trouble is that those roads carry heavy tourist traffic and drivers watching the scenery instead of the lane beside them. A rider has no cage, no airbag, and no room for someone else’s mistake.
Schiller and Hamilton Law Firm represents motorcyclists hurt on Charleston area roads. Our office is at 1629 Meeting Street Road, and we take cases from the peninsula, West Ashley, James Island, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and Summerville. We know how these wrecks happen here and how insurers try to price them. If you or someone in your family was hurt on a bike, call 843-350-5420 for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win.
The hardest part of a motorcycle claim often has nothing to do with the crash. It is the picture people bring to it. Adjusters, and later jurors, imagine a rider running the Ravenel Bridge at triple digits rather than a commuter heading home down Folly Road. That picture can shape the whole file before anyone opens the collision report.
We see it constantly in Charleston County. The same adjuster who would pay a fair number on a sedan claim starts hunting for reasons to blame the person on two wheels. Sometimes it is the exhaust, sometimes the gear, sometimes a ticket from years back. We answer that with evidence. We pull the report, canvass for witnesses and nearby business cameras, photograph the scene and the sight lines, and bring in a reconstruction expert when the geometry of the crash is disputed. A stereotype is not proof, and we make the other side deal with what happened.
South Carolina requires a protective helmet only for operators and passengers under twenty one, under S.C. Code Section 56-5-3660. A rider twenty one or older can legally ride bareheaded anywhere in Charleston, though a helmet is still the smarter call on the bridge or out on Highway 17.
That matters because insurers try to turn a lawful choice into fault. After a wreck on Folly Road or Savannah Highway, an adjuster may argue your injuries are your own doing because your head was uncovered, even when the impact was to your leg or your shoulder. We do not let that substitute for causation. The question is who caused the collision, and a driver who turned across your lane gets no discount for what you had on your head. If the injured rider was under twenty one the analysis changes, and it is worth walking through the facts with us before you speak to anyone’s insurer.
Most motorcycle wrecks here are not the rider’s doing. They happen because a driver never registered that the bike was there. The classic version is the left turn crash, where a car cuts across an oncoming rider at an intersection on Folly Road or a curb cut along Savannah Highway. The rider gets a fraction of a second and nowhere to put the bike.
Other patterns we see across the tri county area include:
The thread running through all of it is visibility. A motorcycle is narrow, quiet at low speed, and easy to overlook on a crowded downtown street or a dark stretch of Highway 61. When a driver does not look and you pay for it, that driver and the insurer behind them should answer for the damage.
South Carolina uses modified comparative negligence, adopted by the state Supreme Court in Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243 (1991). You can recover as long as your share of the fault is fifty percent or less. At fifty one percent or more you recover nothing. Below that line, your award drops by whatever percentage of blame lands on you.
Say a jury values your losses at 100,000 dollars and puts twenty percent of the fault on you. Your recovery becomes 80,000 dollars. That arithmetic is why defense lawyers press so hard on a rider’s speed, lane position, and gear. A few points shifted onto you is money out of your pocket, and enough points ends the case outright. Anti motorcycle bias is not just unpleasant in a Charleston courtroom. Under this rule it is a lever the other side can pull. Our job is to hold your share down to what the evidence actually supports.
Motorcycle injuries are rarely minor. Riders leave these crashes with road rash, broken legs and wrists, crushed ankles, spinal damage, and brain injuries, and some never leave at all. A Charleston claim should account for the full cost, including:
Coverage matters as much as damages. Every South Carolina auto policy must carry uninsured motorist coverage at limits no lower than the state minimum of 25,000 dollars per person and 50,000 dollars per accident, under S.C. Code Sections 38-77-140 and 38-77-150. That coverage can carry your claim when the driver who hit you had no insurance or left the scene, which is a real risk in tourist traffic. Underinsured motorist coverage is offered separately under Section 38-77-160 and can fill the gap when a minimum limits policy does not come close. Nobody volunteers this, so we go looking for every policy that might apply to you.
South Carolina gives you a limited window to sue, and missing it usually ends the case no matter how plain the other driver’s fault was. For most motorcycle claims the deadline is three years from the date of the crash, under S.C. Code Section 15-3-530.
Claims against a government body run on different rules. If a City of Charleston vehicle, a county truck, or a state agency is involved, the South Carolina Tort Claims Act generally cuts the window to two years, stretched to three only where a verified claim was filed first, under S.C. Code Section 15-78-110. Either way, waiting hurts you. Marks on Maybank Highway wash off in the next storm, business cameras overwrite in days, and witnesses stop remembering which light was green. Call early and we can lock the proof down while it still exists.
You are free to handle the claim yourself. You would be doing it against an adjuster who closes these every week and who already assumes the rider was at fault. A Charleston motorcycle accident lawyer evens that out. We investigate the wreck, take the calls and the recorded statement requests, value the claim with your medical future included, and file suit in Charleston County when the offer does not match the harm.
We take these cases on contingency. Nothing is due up front, and no attorney fee is owed unless we recover money for you. The first conversation is free and costs you nothing but the time. If you were hurt on a bike anywhere from the peninsula to Summerville, call 843-350-5420 or come by the office on Meeting Street Road, and let us deal with the insurer while you work on getting better.
Three years from the date of the crash in most cases, under S.C. Code Section 15-3-530. If a government vehicle or agency is involved, the South Carolina Tort Claims Act generally shortens that to two years, with three available only where a verified claim was filed first. Call us early so we can pin down which deadline governs your case.
Yes, if your share of the fault is fifty percent or less. South Carolina applies modified comparative negligence from Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., so your award shrinks by your percentage and disappears entirely at fifty one percent. Adjusters lean on that rule to push blame onto riders, which is exactly why representation matters.
State law requires helmets only for riders and passengers under twenty one, so an adult riding bareheaded in Charleston broke no law. Insurers still try to pin the injuries on the missing helmet. That argument does not answer the real question, which is who caused the collision, and we keep the case pointed there.
Every South Carolina auto policy must include uninsured motorist coverage, so your own policy may pay when the driver was uninsured or fled the scene. If the at fault driver carried only minimum limits, optional underinsured motorist coverage can close the gap. We check every policy within reach, including ones you may not realize apply to you.
Nothing to start. We work on contingency, so no attorney fee is owed unless we recover for you, and the first consultation is free. Call 843-350-5420 to talk through what happened, with no obligation either way.
No fee unless we recover.
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