Things to consider before hiring a lawyer for your bike accident:

Does the lawyer you are looking at work for an insurance company or work at a firm that represents insurance companies? Lawyers who work for insurance companies get paid to blame people who get hurt including people who get hurt riding bicycles.

Has the lawyer ever tried a case to a jury? The decision to settle or go to trial is always up to the client and not the lawyer. Most cases settle and very few people want to go through a trial. However, if it gets to that point, most people want a lawyer who has a proven record in trial and is willing to try cases. If the lawyer you are considering cannot provide examples of recent trial results, that person may be afraid to go to trial, or may be the type of person who settles cases to avoid the stress and time involved with a trial. Some lawyers even suggest hiring a different lawyer to try your case if the case does not settle. Why not just hire a trial lawyer from the beginning? Attorney Griessmeyer has tried numerous cases to juries including several bicycle injury cases. In June 2019 he obtained a verdict over $15 million for a person who was killed while riding a bicycle.

Has the lawyer ever tried a bike case to a jury? Bike cases involve bicycle specific laws and issues. See the bike law section of this website. Just as a surgeon who spends most of his or her time focusing on the shoulder may be more familiar with issues related to shoulders, a lawyer who spends most of his or her time on bicycle cases is likely more familiar with the type of laws and issues that often arise in these types of cases. Attorney Griessmeyer has tried numerous bicycle cases to juries and received a jury verdict on a bicycle case in 2019 that is believed to be the largest in the history of Wisconsin for bike cases.

Does the lawyer commute, race bikes, and understand the importance of exercise and being in shape? Lawyers have to make a living just as any other person. However, lawyers who are involved in the bicycle community and do the same activities as their clients may be better able to relate to the client. Part of a lawyer’s job is conveying what the client has gone through to an insurance adjuster, insurance lawyer, judge, or jury. Attorney Griessmeyer commutes year round, races bikes, and exercises to stay physically and mentally fit.

Does the lawyer do anything in his or her free time to make biking safer in Wisconsin? Attorney Griessmeyer volunteers his time to plow the Military Ridge Bike Path during winter so that people who ride bikes do not need to ride on the roads when it is dark and snowy. This makes the community safer. Attorney Griessmeyer is a current board member for Free Bikes for Kids and past secretary and board member for six years for the Wisconsin Bike Federation. He has met and worked with legislators, community members, the DNR, police departments, Mayor, and others to make bicycling safer. He has experience working with accident reconstruction engineers as well as city engineers, police, and planners related to bike crash cases.

Does the lawyer handle a significant amount of bicycle cases to be familiar with the steady changes in laws? The vast majority of Attorney Griessmeyer’s cases are bicycle related.

Does the lawyer's website show actual past bicycle injury verdict and settlement amounts or does the website just say something vague about "experience." See Griessmeyer results on the homepage of this website. Results matter. If considering a specific lawyer to help you, ask that person for actual past results, fees, costs, and how they were able to help the people who got hurt.

Have you actually spoken to or met the actual attorney handling your case? If you have only spoken with a secretary, paralegal or investigator, try to speak with the actual lawyer who will handle your case. If the firm claims many people will work on your case ask who will be responsible. As with most companies/jobs, the more people involves the more likely one person thinks someone else will do something and the more room for error. Attorney Griessmeyer is a solo lawyer who works for you and does not farm out work to paralegals, secretaries, or other lawyers. This means he has to be aware of what is going on at all times with your case.

Is a majority of the lawyer's website devoted to bicycle issues or is most of the website non bicycle in nature and bicycles are mentioned to try to pick up extra work?

How large is the lawyer's or law firm practice?   Ask the potential lawyer if a paralegal will be working on your case instead of a  lawyer.

Has the lawyer or law firm guaranteed or promised anything to you?  This is unethical.  In the legal world everything is uncertain.  All you can ask for is a lawyer who cares about you and will fight for you.  Be skeptical if a lawyer only tells you the good things about your case and not the bad.

Is the lawyer a true advocate and willing to fight for you or are they just in it for the money? Below are a few examples of fighting for clients and why in some cases it helps to hire a lawyer vs. handle the case yourself.

Reason to hire a lawyer: A person was riding a bicycle inside the bike lane. A car pulled into the bike lane and cut of the person on the bike causing him to hit the back of the car and get knocked out. Since he was knocked out he had no memory of what happened. The driver of the car (a convicted felon) told the police he was inside the bike lane for quite some time and stopped waiting to park when the person on the bike rode into him for no reason. The police believed this. Attorney Griessmeyer promptly got traffic cam video which showed the driver of the car cutting the person on the bicycle off at the last second inside the bike lane. Attorney Griessmeyer sent copy of the video to the police and the mayor and asked the police to amend their report. The police amended their report. After sending a copy of the video to both insurance companies, Attorney Griessmeyer got the insurance company of the driver and the insurance company of the person riding the bicycle to both pay maximum limits. Without a lawyer it is likely the video would have been erased and no one would have ever known what truly happened.

Reason to hire a lawyer: A person was riding a bicycle inside the bike lane. A man driving a car crossed into the bike lane, struck the person on the bicycle and broke his back. The man driving the car told the police the man on the bike launched his bike in front of the car at the last second. The police believed this because the man on the bike was struck from behind and had no memory of what happened. Attorney Griessmeyer ordered a copy of the 911 call. The person who called 911 was never interviewed by police. Attorney Griessmeyer paid an investigator to interview the 911 caller. She said she was driving behind both people and watched the person in the car cross into the bike lane striking the person on the bike. Attorney Griessmeyer provided this information to the police and asked them to follow up. They did and changed their report to find the person driving the car at fault. The case was later settled with the insurance company of the driver and the insurance company of the person riding the bicycle. 911 calls do not get preserved for very long. If the 911 recording was not received by Attorney Griessmeyer, the police report would have said the person riding the bike launched himself into the path of the car and the case would have been much more difficult to deal with. Instead, the truth came out and no lawsuit was needed to prove what happened.

Fighting for client: Attorney Griessmeyer represented a person who got hit by a car while riding a bike and was injured. The person went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor was asked to bill the person’s health insurance but instead chose not to in an attempt to get money from the person who got hurt. When Attorney Griessmeyer offered to settle with the chiropractor for a fair amount, and refused to pay the unreasonable bill (which was also arguably fraudulent), the chiropractor sued Attorney Griessmeyer. The case was eventually dismissed and the client never had to pay even one dollar to the chiropractor. Although getting sued created a lot of stress, it was the right thing to do for the client who was getting ripped off by the chiropractor. The legal system worked as it should and the injured person was protected from the fraudulently charges.

Fighting for client: Attorney Griessmeyer represented a person who was hurt while riding a bike. A large health insurance company wanted just under $40,000 out of settlement for bills it had paid for the person’s medical treatment. Wisconsin law states that a health insurance company does not get any money unless and until the injured person is made whole. In this case the person was not made whole. The health insurance company was upset that nothing was being offered (not even $1), so they demanded a court hearing despite knowing the law said they got nothing. Attorney Griessmeyer conveyed an offer that if they did not agree to take $0.00 that he would sue them for breach of contract since the contract stated they would not ask for any money when their insured was not made whole. At the deadline conveyed by Attorney Griessmeyer the company agreed to $0.00. This saved the client almost $40,000. Attorney Griessmeyer spent additional time on the case knowing he would not get any fee or make any additional money/ all the money would go to the client. This was the right thing to do even though it was hard, stressful, and a lot more work.

True Advocate: Getting money for a person who was hurt is hard to do and involves a lot of stress and hard work. The insurance company and its lawyers do everything they can to make things take as long as possible and to make things as difficult as possible. When a case is over sometimes a good lawyer/true advocate can do things to help prevent other crashes. This may include educating the public through blog posts or news articles, attempting to change laws or create new laws, and trying to make places more safe. Attorney Griessmeyer does these things. In a past case involving bicycle signage, Attorney Griessmeyer put the authorities on notice of improper signage and pushed for a change. After the case was resolved the authorities took down the improper signage making the area safer for all. In a different case, after the case was over, Attorney Griessmeyer spent time contacting the DOT to inform them that a person they gave a driver’s license to has mental illness and a history of driving through red lights and history of hallucinating and being taken into jail for medical reasons/ self protection. Attorney Griessmeyer asked the DOT to consider a medical exam and or take away the person’s license to prevent her from injuring or killing someone else.