If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident in Arkansas, one of your first questions is probably about what compensation you can recover for your injuries and losses.
The answer depends on several factors, including the severity of your injuries, who was at fault for the accident, and what insurance coverage is available.
Arkansas law allows motorcycle accident victims to pursue several types of compensation, and understanding these categories can help you know what to expect as your case moves forward.
Types of Compensation Available After a Motorcycle Accident in Arkansas
Arkansas personal injury law divides compensation into two main categories: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Each type covers different losses you may have suffered because of the accident, and both are important to your overall recovery.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the financial losses you can calculate with receipts, bills, and documentation.
These are often the most straightforward to prove because they have a specific dollar amount attached to them.
Medical Expenses
Medical expenses typically make up the largest portion of economic damages in motorcycle accident cases.
These costs include emergency room treatment, hospital stays, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and any follow-up care your injuries require.
Arkansas saw 94 motorcycle fatalities in 2022, and many more riders suffered serious injuries that required extensive medical treatment.
Motorcycle accidents often result in catastrophic injuries like traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, broken bones, and severe road rash because riders lack the protective shell that car occupants have.
Your medical expenses claim can include both past treatment costs and future medical care you will need because of your injuries.
If your doctor says you will need ongoing therapy, additional surgeries, or long-term care, those projected costs become part of your claim.
Keeping detailed records of every medical appointment, prescription, and therapy session strengthens this part of your case significantly.
Lost Wages and Income
When your injuries keep you from working, you can seek compensation for the wages you’ve lost during your recovery.
This includes your regular salary or hourly pay, bonuses you would have earned, and benefits like health insurance or retirement contributions your employer would have made.
If your injuries are so severe that you cannot return to your previous job or cannot work at all, you may also claim lost earning capacity.
Lost earning capacity accounts for the difference between what you could have earned over your lifetime and what you can now earn because of your injuries.
Calculating lost earning capacity often requires testimony from economists and vocational rehabilitation professionals who can project your future earnings.
Property Damage
Your motorcycle and any personal property damaged in the accident are part of your economic damages.
This includes the cost to repair your bike or its fair market value if it was totaled, plus any riding gear, electronics, or other items destroyed in the crash.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate you for losses that don’t have a clear price tag but still affect your quality of life.
These damages recognize that a serious injury takes much more from you than just money.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering covers the physical discomfort and emotional distress your injuries have caused.
This includes the immediate pain from the accident and ongoing discomfort from your injuries as you recover.
Motorcycle crash injuries often involve extensive rehabilitation periods where pain becomes a daily reality.
The severity of your injuries, the length of your recovery, and whether you will experience permanent pain all affect how much you can recover for pain and suffering.
Emotional Distress and Mental Anguish
Beyond physical pain, motorcycle accidents can cause significant psychological harm.
Many crash survivors experience anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fear of riding again.
These emotional injuries are real and can dramatically affect your daily life, relationships, and ability to enjoy activities you once loved.
Arkansas courts recognize that psychological injuries deserve compensation just like physical ones.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
If your injuries prevent you from participating in activities that gave your life meaning and pleasure, you can seek compensation for that loss.
This might include hobbies like riding your motorcycle, playing sports, spending time with family, or traveling.
When an accident takes away the things that make life enjoyable, the law acknowledges that loss as a compensable harm.
Disfigurement and Scarring
Motorcycle accidents frequently cause visible injuries like scars, burns, and permanent disfigurement.
Road rash alone can leave lasting marks on your body, and more serious injuries may require multiple surgeries that still leave visible scarring.
Compensation for disfigurement accounts for the embarrassment, self-consciousness, and social difficulties that can come with visible injuries.
Punitive Damages
In rare cases where the at-fault driver’s behavior was especially reckless or intentional, Arkansas courts may award punitive damages.
These damages punish the wrongdoer and discourage similar behavior in the future.
Punitive damages might apply if the driver who hit you was extremely intoxicated, was street racing, or intentionally tried to harm you.
However, most motorcycle accident cases do not qualify for punitive damages because they involve ordinary negligence rather than egregious misconduct.
Factors That Can Increase Your Compensation
Several factors can make your motorcycle accident claim worth more money.
Understanding these factors helps you see why some cases settle for significantly higher amounts than others.
Severity of Injuries
More serious injuries result in higher compensation because they cost more to treat and cause greater disruption to your life.
A broken leg that heals in a few months is worth less than a traumatic brain injury that requires years of rehabilitation and leaves you permanently disabled.
When your injuries are severe, your medical bills climb, your lost wages accumulate, and your pain and suffering lasts longer.
All of these factors combine to increase the overall value of your case.
Clear Liability
When the evidence clearly shows the other driver was entirely at fault for the accident, your case becomes stronger.
Police reports that cite the other driver for traffic violations, witness statements that support your version of events, and video footage of the crash all help establish clear liability.
Insurance companies have less room to argue about fault percentages when the evidence points directly at their policyholder.
Quality of Documentation
Strong documentation throughout your case builds value at every stage.
Photographs of the accident scene, your injuries, and vehicle damage create a visual record that supports your claims.
Medical records that consistently document your symptoms, treatment, and limitations show the insurance company exactly what you’ve been through.
Keeping a journal of your pain levels, limitations, and emotional struggles provides additional evidence of your non-economic damages.
Permanent or Long-Term Effects
Injuries that leave you with permanent limitations or ongoing medical needs increase compensation significantly.
If you will need medication, therapy, or medical equipment for the rest of your life, those future costs become part of your claim.
Permanent disabilities that affect your ability to work, care for yourself, or enjoy life add to both your economic and non-economic damages.
Factors That Can Decrease Your Compensation
Just as some factors increase your claim’s value, others can reduce what you ultimately receive.
Being aware of these factors helps you protect your case from the start.
Arkansas Comparative Fault Rules
Arkansas follows a modified comparative fault system under Arkansas Code Section 16-64-122, which can reduce or eliminate your compensation based on your share of responsibility for the accident.
If you are found less than 50 percent at fault for the crash, your compensation gets reduced by your percentage of blame.
For example, if your total damages equal $100,000 and you were 20 percent at fault, you would receive $80,000.
However, if you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you cannot recover any compensation at all.
Insurance companies know this rule well and often try to shift blame onto injured motorcyclists to reduce what they have to pay.
Helmet Use Considerations
Arkansas requires motorcycle riders under 21 to wear helmets under Arkansas Code Section 27-20-104, but riders 21 and older can legally choose not to wear one.
However, if you weren’t wearing a helmet and suffered head injuries, insurance companies will argue that your injuries would have been less severe with proper protection.
They use this argument to reduce your compensation under the comparative fault rules, even though you weren’t required by law to wear a helmet.
Statistics show that 57 percent of motorcycle occupants killed on Arkansas roads were not wearing helmets, which gives insurers data to support their arguments about helmet use.
Gaps in Medical Treatment
When you skip doctor appointments or stop treatment before your doctor releases you, insurance adjusters use those gaps against you.
They argue that if you were truly hurt, you would have continued getting medical care.
Following your doctor’s treatment plan completely shows the insurance company you take your injuries seriously and prevents them from minimizing your claim.
Pre-Existing Conditions
If you had health problems or prior injuries before the motorcycle accident, insurance companies will try to blame your current symptoms on those pre-existing conditions.
They want to avoid paying for injuries they claim already existed before the crash.
However, Arkansas law allows you to recover compensation when an accident aggravates or worsens a pre-existing condition.
Your medical records comparing your condition before and after the accident can prove that the crash made your prior problems worse.
Policy Limits
Arkansas requires minimum motorcycle insurance coverage of $25,000 per person for bodily injury and $50,000 per accident under Arkansas Code Section 27-22-104.
These minimums are low compared to the actual costs of serious motorcycle injuries.
If the at-fault driver only carries minimum coverage and your damages exceed that amount, you may not be able to collect your full compensation from their policy.
Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy can help bridge this gap if you have it.
How Recent Arkansas Law Changes Affect Your Medical Bill Recovery
A new Arkansas law that took effect on August 4, 2025, significantly changes how medical expenses are calculated in personal injury cases.
House Bill 1204, now known as Act 28, amended Arkansas Code Section 16-64-120 to change the rules about recovering medical costs.
Under the old law, you could recover the full amount your medical providers billed, even if your health insurance negotiated those bills down to a lower amount.
The new law limits you to recovering only the amount actually paid or still owed for your medical care.
This means if your hospital bills $50,000 but your insurance company negotiated that down to $20,000, you can now only claim the $20,000.
This change can substantially reduce the medical expense portion of your claim, making it even more important to identify all available sources of compensation.
Wrongful Death Compensation for Fatal Motorcycle Accidents
When a motorcycle accident results in death, surviving family members can pursue compensation through a wrongful death claim under Arkansas Code Section 16-62-102.
These cases allow families to recover damages for the losses they suffer when a loved one is killed by someone else’s negligence.
Arkansas law identifies specific beneficiaries who can receive compensation from a wrongful death claim, including the surviving spouse, children, parents, brothers, and sisters of the deceased.
The law also extends to people who stood in a parental role to the deceased or to whom the deceased served as a parent figure.
Types of Wrongful Death Damages
Wrongful death claims in Arkansas can recover two types of damages: those suffered by the estate and those suffered by surviving family members.
The estate claim covers losses the deceased experienced, including medical expenses incurred before death, pain and suffering the victim endured between the accident and death, and lost wages during that period.
The family claim compensates surviving relatives for their own losses, including funeral and burial expenses, loss of the deceased’s future income and financial support, loss of services the deceased would have provided to the household, and mental anguish and grief caused by the death.
Arkansas law specifically allows compensation for a spouse’s loss of companionship and any mental anguish resulting from the death.
The court or jury determines how the wrongful death settlement gets divided among the beneficiaries based on each person’s relationship to the deceased and the losses they personally suffered.
Wrongful Death Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations for wrongful death claims in Arkansas is three years from the date of death, not from the date of the accident.
This distinction matters when the victim survives for some time after the crash before passing away from their injuries.
Missing this deadline means surviving family members lose their right to pursue compensation, so starting the legal process promptly is critical.
Loss of Consortium Claims for Spouses
When a motorcycle accident leaves a rider with serious injuries, their spouse may have a separate claim for loss of consortium.
Loss of consortium compensates the non-injured spouse for the ways the accident has damaged their marital relationship.
This claim recognizes that a severe injury affects more than just the person who was hurt.
What Loss of Consortium Covers
A loss of consortium claim can include compensation for the loss of companionship and the emotional connection you shared with your spouse before the accident.
It also covers the loss of intimate relations if your spouse’s injuries have affected your physical relationship.
The loss of household services your spouse used to provide, such as cooking, cleaning, yard work, and childcare, can also be part of this claim.
Changes in your spouse’s ability to participate in activities you once enjoyed together, like traveling, attending events, or simply spending quality time, factor into the compensation as well.
If your spouse’s cognitive or emotional state has changed because of a brain injury or the trauma of the accident, the impact on your communication and emotional intimacy can be included.
Proving a Loss of Consortium Claim
To succeed with a loss of consortium claim, you must show how your marriage functioned before the accident and how it has changed since your spouse was injured.
Evidence can include your own testimony about the relationship, statements from family and friends who observed your marriage before and after the accident, and photographs or videos showing your life together.
The strength of a loss of consortium claim typically depends on the severity of the injured spouse’s injuries and how significantly those injuries have altered the marriage.
Keep in mind that pursuing this claim means the intimate details of your marriage may become part of the legal proceedings, including questions about your relationship before the accident.
Need Help With Your Arkansas Motorcycle Accident Claim?
Motorcycle accident compensation in Arkansas covers medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses when another driver’s carelessness causes your crash.
The amount you can recover depends on the severity of your injuries, how clearly fault can be established, and what insurance coverage is available.
At Shamieh Law, we are Arkansas motorcycle accident lawyers who treat every client like family and fight to get fair compensation for your losses.
With over $250 million recovered for injured clients, our team has the experience and track record to handle your motorcycle accident case.
We get started fast and use cutting-edge technology to gather evidence and build your case quickly.
Contact us today by calling 501-361-1334 to discuss your motorcycle accident claim with our team.