Getting hit by a car while riding a bike is not a fair fight. A cyclist has no airbags and no steel cage, so a low-speed collision that would barely dent a bumper can put a rider in the hospital for weeks. If a driver struck you or someone you love on a West Palm Beach street, you are probably staring at medical bills you never planned for and an insurance adjuster who is already working to pay you as little as possible. Elstein Legal helps injured cyclists across Palm Beach County hold that driver and their insurer accountable.
Why injured cyclists in West Palm Beach choose Elstein Legal
Most personal injury lawyers have only ever worked one side of a claim. Brian Elstein worked the other side first. Before he opened his own firm, he defended insurance companies and helped decide what their claims were worth. He knows the scripts adjusters follow, the reasons they reach for to deny or discount a bicycle case, and the point where a carrier would rather settle than face a jury. He now puts that knowledge to work for the people those companies used to line up against. You can read more about his background on the about Brian Elstein page.
That experience shapes how every case is handled here:
- Your case is handled personally. Elstein Legal is a solo practice by design. Brian is the lawyer who returns your call and the same lawyer who sits across from the adjuster, not a name on the letterhead who hands your file to a paralegal.
- No fee unless he wins. The firm works on contingency. You pay nothing up front and nothing at all unless there is a recovery. “No Fees Unless We Win.”
- Reachable when a crash actually happens. Brian answers calls 24/7, including nights and weekends, because a bike crash rarely waits for business hours.
- The law, stated correctly. Florida injury law changed in 2023, and many competitor sites still publish the old rules. Getting the deadlines and the coverage right protects your claim from day-one mistakes.
What to do after a bicycle crash in West Palm Beach
The hours and days right after a crash quietly shape how strong your claim will be. A handful of steps matter more than the rest.
- Get medical care within 14 days. Florida’s no-fault law ties your personal injury protection benefits to prompt treatment. See a doctor quickly even if you only feel sore, because some serious injuries surface days later and a gap in treatment gives the insurer a reason to doubt you.
- Report the crash and get a police report. Call law enforcement to the scene so there is an official record of what happened and who was involved.
- Photograph the scene before it changes. Your bike, the vehicle, the roadway, the traffic signals, and your injuries all tell a story that memory cannot.
- Collect the driver’s insurance details and any witness contacts. Names and numbers are far harder to track down a week later.
- Talk to a lawyer before you talk to the driver’s insurer. Adjusters often call early and sound friendly, then ask for a recorded statement. Anything you say can be used to shrink your payout.
Florida bicycle accident law, stated correctly
Florida rewrote several of these rules in 2023, and getting them wrong can cost you the case. Here is where the law actually stands for a bicycle crash in 2026.
You have two years to file, not four
The deadline to file a negligence lawsuit in Florida is two years from the date of the crash for claims that arose on or after March 24, 2023. House Bill 837 cut the old four-year window in half. A surprising number of law firm websites still list four years, so do not rely on that figure. Miss the deadline and the case usually ends no matter how badly you were hurt. See Fla. Stat. § 95.11.
PIP still applies to cyclists, and it did not disappear in 2026
You may have heard that Florida repealed no-fault insurance on July 1, 2026. It did not. The 2026 repeal bills, SB 522 and HB 769, died in committee when the legislative session ended in March 2026. Personal injury protection and the 14-day treatment rule remain in force. If you own a car, or you live with a relative who does, your own PIP coverage can follow you onto your bike and pay part of your early medical costs even though you were not inside a vehicle. See Fla. Stat. § 627.736.
| What PIP covers | Detail |
|---|---|
| Minimum coverage | $10,000 |
| Share of medical expenses paid | 80% |
| Share of lost wages paid | 60% |
| Cap without an Emergency Medical Condition diagnosis | $2,500 |
| Deadline to seek initial care | 14 days |
Stepping outside no-fault: the four-part injury threshold
No-fault covers only part of your losses, and it does not pay for pain and suffering. To pursue the at-fault driver directly for those damages, your injury has to meet at least one of four conditions under Florida law, § 627.737(2):
- Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function.
- A permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement.
- Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement.
- Death.
Bicycle crashes clear this bar more often than most, because a rider absorbs the full force of a collision with nothing between them and the vehicle. See Fla. Stat. § 627.737.
Sharing the blame does not end your claim
Florida uses a modified comparative fault rule under § 768.81. If a jury decides you were partly to blame, say 20%, your recovery is reduced by that percentage. If you are found more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing. Insurers know this rule cold and often try to pin extra blame on the cyclist, which is one reason early legal help pays off.
You have the same right to the road as a driver
Under § 316.2065, Florida treats a bicycle as a vehicle and gives riders the rights and duties of any driver. A motorist who fails to yield or passes too closely can be held liable for the harm that follows.
Who pays for a bicycle crash, and what your claim may be worth
Cyclists tend to suffer the worst injuries of any crash category. Broken bones, spinal damage, road rash that needs surgery, and traumatic brain injuries are common, because a rider has nothing to absorb the force of the vehicle or the pavement. Those injuries often mean surgery and long months of rehabilitation before a person can return to work, which is the kind of loss a full claim is built to cover.
After a serious bicycle crash, the money to make you whole often comes from more than one place:
- The at-fault driver’s bodily injury liability coverage, usually the first place to look.
- Your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, which can matter just as much when the driver carries little or no insurance or is never found after a hit-and-run.
- Your household PIP, which can pay early medical costs while the rest of the claim develops.
This is where Brian’s background changes the math. He spent years on the side that valued these claims, so he recognizes how an adjuster builds a lowball number and where that number falls apart under pressure. Insurers do not volunteer their ceiling. They test whether your lawyer will actually push toward trial, and they treat a represented cyclist very differently from an unrepresented one. Because a bicycle crash is, from the rider’s side, still a motor-vehicle crash, the same coverage questions behind any car accident case shape what a bike case is worth.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage deserves special attention in a bicycle case. Florida requires drivers to carry property damage liability and PIP, but it does not require bodily injury liability, so the driver who hit you may carry nothing at all for your injuries. A large share of Florida motorists are uninsured or underinsured. If you or someone in your household bought UM coverage on a car policy, that coverage can step in when the at-fault driver’s insurance falls short or does not exist. Many riders never realize their own auto policy protects them while they are on a bike, so checking every available policy is one of the first things the firm does.
Florida now limits the past medical damages you can claim to the amounts actually paid or payable, not the full sticker price a hospital first bills, under § 768.0427. How your treatment and bills are documented affects your bottom line. Every case is different, and the value depends on how badly you were hurt and how much coverage is realistically available.
How insurers try to shrink a bicycle claim
Because Brian defended carriers, he can usually see the discount coming before it arrives. A few tactics show up again and again.
Adjusters like to argue that the cyclist was hard to see or “came out of nowhere,” shifting blame onto the rider to trigger the comparative fault reduction. They also lean on the absence of a helmet. Here Florida law is squarely on the cyclist’s side: § 316.2065(18) states that failing to wear a bicycle helmet may not be treated as evidence of negligence. Adults are not even required to wear one. An insurer that tries to dock your claim for going helmetless is misstating the law, and knowing that changes the conversation.
Another common move is the fast, friendly settlement offer that lands before you know the full extent of your injuries. Once you accept and sign a release, the claim is closed even if you need surgery months later. Slowing that process down long enough to understand your medical picture is often worth far more than the early check.
Bicycle crashes in West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County recorded roughly 25,000 traffic crashes in 2025, close to 70 a day, according to preliminary Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles data. Those crashes caused roughly 160 deaths countywide. Cyclists carried a heavy share of that harm: the county logged about 770 bicycle crashes and 19 cyclist deaths in 2025, and bicycle crashes climbed statewide that year. Rising e-bike and micromobility use has put more riders on roads that were never designed with them in mind.
| Palm Beach County, 2025 (FLHSMV) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total traffic crashes | about 25,000 (near 70 a day) |
| Traffic deaths | roughly 160 |
| Bicycle crashes | about 770 |
| Cyclist deaths | 19 |
A serious bike crash in this county often ends at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, one of only two state-designated Level I trauma centers in Palm Beach County. Injury lawsuits here are filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit, based at the main courthouse at 205 North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Cyclists and people on foot are the county’s most exposed road users, so if you were walking rather than riding, our page for people hit on foot explains how those claims work. When a bicycle crash takes a life, the family may bring a wrongful death claim, which has its own rules on who can file. Source: FLHSMV crash reports.
Results and what clients say
Elstein Legal has recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for injured clients, including a $1,475,000 recovery in a bicycle accident case involving back injuries. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict future outcomes, but they show the firm handles genuinely serious injury cases, not just fender benders.
The firm holds a 5-star rating across more than 120 Google reviews. In the words of two clients:
“Brian is absolutely the best! He was by my side every step of the way, and made me feel so comfortable. I highly recommend him, and hope that he can be your attorney!”
Chloe Fretwell, Google review
“The experience was great the communication excellent and I was always informed step by step of the process I would definitely recommend.”
Margarita Lugo, Google review
Talk to a West Palm Beach bicycle accident lawyer
If a driver hit you while you were riding, do not let the insurance company set the terms. Brian Elstein will review your crash, explain your options in plain language, and tell you honestly what your claim looks like. Elstein Legal serves the whole county from its West Palm Beach injury practice. Call (305) 299-2835 any time, day or night, or request a free case evaluation online. There is no fee unless he wins.