If you have recently been in a motorcycle accident, you may have a lot of concerns regarding how you should move forward and whether or not you should sue. If you do decide to sue, speaking to a motorcycle accident attorney should be your first step because you were driving a motorcycle and not a car at the time of the accident. (Likewise, you would not seek a motorcycle accident attorney if you were driving a car at the time of your accident.) If you also lost a very rare, expensive custom motorcycle  in the accident, you may want advice from your lawyer on how to place a value on such a unique item for the purpose of the lawsuit and monetary compensation .

The Bike Was a Very Expensive Custom Job from a Well-Known Custom Bike-Builder

For the sake of argument, let's say your damaged motorcycle was a custom job from Orange County Choppers (OCC). That would be a very unique and very expensive bike indeed, but you could easily use the purchase price of the motorcycle as your baseline estimate for its repair and/or replacement. You could also take the motorcycle back to the shop and request a full estimate for how much it would cost to restore the bike to its former glory. Both of these estimates should suffice for court purposes.

The Bike Was Custom-Built by You

When you are the person that custom-built the now-damaged motorcycle, it makes things a little more difficult to value. Your lawyer may suggest that you take the total sum of the cost of the damaged parts of the bike and use that as the value for court purposes. If you also have every last receipt of every part you purchased and installed on your bike, you may be able to tally the full value of the bike by adding up all of your receipts. However, most people do not save the receipts from every part they have ever installed on a motorcycle or car, so the estimate for just the damages based on the value of the separate parts may be your best option.

Have the Motorcycle Assessed and Valued by an Insurance Appraiser

Insurance appraisers frequently assess the value of rare, expensive and unique objects. You could request an appraisal on your bike. Even with the damages your motorcycle has sustained, the appraiser should be able to give your bike a very fair estimate of its value when it is whole again, and complete.

For more information, talk to a professional like Scherline And Associates.

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