On foot or on a bike there is nothing between you and the vehicle, and the driver’s version is usually the only one anyone wrote down at the scene. Answer a few questions and a claim specialist will call you back — then match you with an attorney who handles pedestrian and cyclist claims in your state. Free review, no fee unless you win.
Free and confidential. Submitting this does not create an attorney-client relationship.
A claim specialist will review your answers and call the number you gave us, then introduce you to a lawyer licensed in your state who handles pedestrian and cyclist claims. If there were cameras near where it happened, say so on the call — that footage does not last.
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A pedestrian accident lawyer handles claims for people struck by a vehicle while walking, running, standing at a kerb, crossing a road, or riding a bicycle or scooter. The negligence test is the same one that applies to any road collision. Two things make these claims run differently.
The first is severity. There is no vehicle around you, so an impact at speeds a car would shrug off produces fractures, internal injuries, brain trauma and long rehabilitation. That means the claim is worth more and takes longer — and it means settling before your doctors know your long-term position is a bigger mistake here than almost anywhere else.
The second is evidence. Pedestrians and cyclists are frequently taken to hospital before they can say anything, so the crash report is written from the driver’s account. Rebuilding what actually happened depends on physical evidence and on footage — doorbell cameras, shop CCTV, transit and dashcams — almost all of which is overwritten within days unless somebody asks for it. That request is the most useful thing a lawyer does in the first week.
People search for this in a dozen ways and they all land in the same place. Pedestrian accident attorney, hit by a car lawyer, crosswalk accident lawyer, bicycle accident attorney, bike accident lawyer, cyclist injury lawyer and scooter accident attorney all describe the same work.
Where the words matter is who or what hit you. A claim against a private driver runs differently from one against a bus or transit authority, a municipal vehicle, or a delivery fleet — different insurance, different rules, and in the case of public bodies, notice deadlines measured in months. A hit and run lawyer is usually working against your own insurer instead. Say which on the form.
Most of these crashes come down to a driver who did not look where a person could reasonably be expected to be — or to a road that was not safe to be on in the first place.
Drivers turning across a crossing, failing to yield, or accelerating into a crossing that was already occupied.
See If You Qualify 02Cycle lane incursions, dooring by a parked driver, right-hook and left-cross collisions, and e-scooter claims.
See If You Qualify 03The driver left the scene. Uninsured motorist coverage frequently responds, and footage identifies vehicles more often than people expect.
See If You Qualify 04Missing signals, obscured sight lines, inadequate lighting and unmarked excavations — claims against road authorities and contractors, on short notice deadlines.
See If You Qualify 05Low-speed impacts that still cause serious injury, including reversing collisions and crashes on private commercial property.
See If You Qualify 06Commercial and transit vehicles, where a corporate policy, an employer and sometimes a public authority are all in play.
See If You QualifyNot sure which one is yours? Many of these overlap — a cyclist doored into traffic and then struck is two claims at once. Pick whichever is closest and the specialist will sort it out on the call.
Start my free reviewBroadly, you have a claim worth taking to an attorney if most of these are true.
A driver who did not look, a fleet that put an untrained driver on the road, a contractor who left a work zone unlit, a municipality that let a signal stay broken.
Including injuries that surfaced days later. Head injuries in particular are routinely missed when someone walks away from the scene.
This is the contested part in most pedestrian claims, and it is answered with footage, physical evidence and sight-line analysis rather than with competing accounts.
Medical treatment, missed work, ongoing care, your bicycle and belongings, and the things you can no longer do.
Often two or three years, as little as one in some states, and a matter of months where a public body is involved. Check your deadline →
Two kinds of loss, and people routinely forget the second.
Punitive damages. Where the conduct was extreme — drunk driving, a known hazard ignored, deliberate harm — some states allow damages meant to punish rather than compensate. They are rare and capped in many places.
Almost every urban street is covered by cameras nobody thinks of as cameras: doorbells, shop entrances, ATMs, buses, parking structures, delivery vehicles and the dashcams of drivers who were simply passing. In a pedestrian or cyclist claim, one of those clips is frequently worth more than every witness statement combined, because it shows speed, signal phase and where you actually were.
Almost none of it is kept. Consumer doorbell devices commonly hold days, small-business systems often a week or two, and transit and fleet systems run on their own cycles and overwrite on schedule. Nobody preserves a clip because an accident happened outside — they preserve it because somebody asked, in writing, before the loop came round.
That is the argument for making the call early rather than waiting to see how you heal. A lawyer can canvass the block, identify which systems cover the spot and send preservation requests within days. Two weeks later the same request usually gets a polite reply saying the footage is gone.
If it happened recently, in this order. Step five is the point at which most people start looking for a lawyer.
Walking away from the scene is not evidence that you are uninjured. Head injuries, internal injuries and spinal damage all commonly present a day or two later, and a gap between the crash and your first medical visit is the main thing insurers use to argue you weren’t hurt.
If you were taken to hospital, the report was written from the driver’s account. It can be supplemented later, but only if you know it exists.
Doorbells, shopfronts, ATMs, buses, parking structures. Write down the addresses. This list is the single most useful thing you can hand a lawyer, and it decays within days.
The crossing, the signals, the sight lines, the damage to the vehicle and where it stopped, and your injuries as they develop over the following week.
You are allowed to say you will respond after speaking with a lawyer. Whether you were in the crosswalk is the whole fight in most of these claims.
Do not wash or dispose of them. Damage and transfer marks help establish the point and angle of impact.
Four rules decide what a pedestrian or cyclist claim is actually worth, and all of them are set state by state.
Most states cut your recovery by your percentage of blame. Some bar recovery entirely once you pass a set threshold, and a small number still apply the old contributory-negligence rule where any fault at all can end the claim.
Commonly two or three years from the injury, as little as one in some states, and only a few months’ formal notice where a government body is involved. Once it passes the claim is gone, however strong it was.
States differ on unmarked crosswalks, on whether drivers must stop or merely yield, and on jaywalking enforcement. Several states have narrowed or repealed jaywalking offences in recent years. The rule an adjuster quotes you is not always the rule in your state.
Some states cap non-economic damages, most often in claims against public bodies and in medical negligence. A cap can matter more to the outcome than anything about the injury itself.
These are general descriptions, not legal advice, and the rules change. Confirm anything that affects your claim with a lawyer licensed in the state where it happened — that is what the free review is for.
Searching for a “pedestrian accident lawyer near me” gets you whoever bought the biggest ad. What actually matters is that the attorney is licensed where you were hurt, because deadlines, fault rules and damage caps are all set state by state. Pick your state — or send the form and we’ll match you with a firm that handles your type of claim in your area.
Don’t see a page for your state yet? Selecting it takes you to the free case review with your state already filled in. We connect people with attorneys in all 50 states.
Every firm calls itself the best pedestrian accident lawyer in town, which makes the phrase useless. Here is what we actually check before a firm receives anyone from us — and what you should check yourself, on any firm, including ones we never mentioned.
Active bar licence in every state they claim to serve, plus a public discipline search. An open suspension is disqualifying.
Ask how many pedestrian and cyclist cases the firm has resolved, whether they canvass for camera footage as standard in the first week, and whether they have brought claims against a municipality or transit authority before — those run on different deadlines.
We track how long each firm takes to call a new claimant back. Firms that leave people waiting stop receiving cases.
Percentage, case costs, and what happens if you lose — in writing, before you sign.
Use these on any firm, including one we didn’t send you. They are the same four questions we ask, and good firms answer all of them without hesitating. If a firm won’t put the fee terms in writing before you sign, that is your answer. Injury Case Claim is not a law firm and does not represent you — we connect you with the firms that do.
Nothing up front, and nothing at all if you don’t win.
Pedestrian and cyclist accident lawyers almost always work on contingency: they take an agreed percentage of what they recover for you, typically in the region of a third, and if there is no recovery there is no attorney fee. You should never be asked for money up front, and the free consultation is standard across the industry.
On serious pedestrian injuries the firm will usually need reconstruction and medical expert evidence, and it advances those costs. What differs between firms is whether they come back to you if the case fails — get that in writing.
Our service is free to you at every stage. We are not a law firm — the lawyers in our network pay us when they take on a case we refer. That does not change the fee you agree with the firm, and it does not oblige you to hire anyone.
Every attorney we refer works on contingency.
Your details go only to the firm we introduce.
Lawyers admitted where you were actually hurt.
