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Lawyers find work from local cyclists
BETHANY KRAJELIS
Law Bulletin staff writer
Published: November 14, 2011
When James M. Freeman left the law firm world to go out on his own, he ran into a pretty big roadblock — he had no clients.
"I didn't really know what I was going to do," Freeman said. "I didn't have any cases and I didn't want to go back to a big firm."
Without a steady form of income and a lot of free time on his hands, Freeman said he convinced his business owner friend to give him a job.
"I went from a senior associate at a big defense firm to a bike mechanic," he said, with a laugh.
Although it wasn't exactly how he planned on using his law degree, the 38-year-old avid cyclist and runner said the time he spent turning wrenches helped him discover a relatively untapped market within the legal profession.
"One day, a guy came through the door with a mangled bike and a cast," he said. "We started talking and the next thing I knew, I had a case."
That, Freeman said, was when he realized the combination of his longtime hobby and law degree could serve as a source of business. Word spread quickly through Chicago's cycling community and before he knew it, Freeman had enough clients to hire an attorney and paralegal.
Five years after venturing out on his own, Freeman said he's managed to grow a rather successful practice representing bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users. Bike-related cases, he said, make up 95 percent of his law practice.
"It is a dream come true," he said. "I'm going to retire on hit-and-runs."
Freeman said he doesn't expect his practice to slow down any time soon given that Chicago plays home to countless cyclists who commute to and from work each day.
While bike-related cases don't make up the majority of Michael S. Keating's law practice, they do account for a decent portion, he said.
Like Freeman, Keating is an avid, year-round bicyclist.
Keating said he first became familiar with the city's cycling community as a bike-commuting student at DePaul University College of Law.
"I saw the unique challenges that bicyclists face in an urban area," said Keating, who now commutes from his Evanston home to the Metra station via bike.
Both bike-loving lawyers said their experiences on the road, as well as the injuries they suffered along the way, have made them better advocates for their injured clients.
Keating, 36, said as a teen, he got hit by a motorist who pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake. And just a few years ago, he said, a car ran over the front wheel of his bicycle when he stopped at a red light.
"Someone who doesn't regularly ride does not understand what my clients have gone through," he said. "I understand the traffic patterns. I understand the challenges. I know what it's like."
Freeman, who used to compete in cycling races, said he has been hit by cars at least three times over his lifetime.
Like Keating, Freeman also managed to walk away from the incidents without serious injuries.
Both Freeman and Keating run blogs dedicated to bike-related law. Freeman said the blog provides an avenue to give his clients and other cyclists the latest information on bike-related litigation and policy initiatives.
While both lawyers said the city and state have come a long way in the past decade by adding more bike lanes and laws to protect cyclists, they said their comrades still face their fair share of challenges.
Freeman said in 2007, Illinois implemented the so-called three-foot rule. This law, he said, requires motorists to leave 3 feet between their vehicle and bicyclists when passing.
The next year, Keating said, Chicago passed ordinances that codify how motorists should handle bicyclists. Since then, many cities worked to make their streets safer for cyclists.
Shortly after taking office, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his desire to see more bike lanes throughout the city.
While Keating and Freeman agree that Illinois is pretty progressive when it comes to protecting cyclists, both attorneys said there is an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that is quite the opposite.
In 1998, the state high court in Jon P. Boub v. Township of Wayne, et al., held while cyclists are permitted users of the road, they are not necessarily intended users.
The distinction between "permitted" and "intended" plays a big role when it comes to liability, Freeman said.
For instance, if a cyclist gets injured on a road that has bike signs or lanes displayed, that town can be held liable because the placement of such signage shows that the road is both permitted and intended for cyclists.
If there is no sign, however, Freeman said that municipality can get around liability because the lack of signs and bike lane designation suggests that the road is not intended to be used by cyclists.
The justices were split on the Boub ruling and the dissenting justices noted that the liability issue could prevent municipalities from installing bike infrastructure.
Both Keating and Freeman said they would like to see that ruling either overturned or fixed through legislation.
Ed Barsotti, executive director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists, said his advocacy group worked with lawmakers for several years to try to address the Boub ruling to no avail.
Barsotti said the Boub ruling is unfair to cyclists and creates a liability disincentive for municipalities to make their communities more bike friendly.
"Legislatively, it's clearly not the right time. We tried for seven years," he said. "It doesn't seem feasible at the moment, so what we have been trying to do since then is convince towns that it's not that big of a deal."
Barsotti said when talking to municipalities, he compares liability with bikes to the liability that comes along with city sidewalks. If cities continue to put in sidewalks despite their attached liability, Barsotti questioned why the same wouldn't go for bike lanes.
Aside from the dangers that come with sharing the road with vehicles, Freeman and Keating said their fellow bike lovers also face being dubbed as careless and dangerous, a stereotype that can affect their injury cases.
"There are some negative conceptions by some people in the public that bicycles don't have that same right to the roadway," Keating said.
From his experience, Keating said insurance companies don't always treat cases involving injured bicyclists with the same level of respect that they would treat collisions between two motor vehicles.
"My experience has been that there is an assumption on typically the insurance adjuster's part that the bicyclist did something wrong," Keating said.
Freeman said insurance companies often try to deny claims he files for clients in hit-and-run accidents.
He said when his clients are injured in hit-and-run incidents, he usually files an uninsured motorist claim. The insurance companies, he said, try to say that this type of coverage doesn't apply to cyclists.
Freeman, however, said that is not true. Uninsured motorist coverage, he said, does not require insurance holders to be driving a vehicle. He said it activates when a person is involved in an accident with a vehicle, regardless of whether he or she is on two or four wheels.
"I understand all the views of the road," he said. "Pedestrians don't like getting run over by bicyclists. Drivers don't like that bikes get around faster than them and bicyclists don't like that drivers don't respect them."
That's why Freeman wants city officials to better enforce bike ordinances. He said if cyclists knew they would get ticketed for running a light, they would stop doing it and that in turn, could help their reputation with motorists.