Law Office of Thomas E. Sokat

12/20/2025

12/16/2025

E-Bikes Are Booming—So Are the Risks. Here’s What Riders (and Parents) Should Know.

In late November, The New York Times highlighted a hard truth many Bay Area families are now learning the scary way: “e-bikes” aren’t all the same—and some of the fastest, throttle-driven models (and “e-motos” that masquerade as e-bikes) can create real hazards on streets, trails, and around schools. The Times’ reported story (published Nov. 30, 2025) describes how a severe crash in a Bay Area community helped push local leaders toward reform. 

As a California personal-injury lawyer, I’m seeing the same themes in real cases and real lives: higher speeds, heavier bikes, younger riders, and a big gap between what people think they bought and what the device can actually do.

What’s changed after e-bikes came upon the scene and why it matters:

Speed + weight + inexperience is a bad combination. Even a “legal” e-bike can move fast enough to turn a simple fall into a catastrophic injury. Hospitals and researchers have been warning that e-bike injuries are rising and can be severe. 

And in parts of the Bay Area, officials are responding with tighter local rules, especially for minors and throttle-powered bikes. Marin County, for example, implemented a pilot approach aimed at Class 2 (throttle) e-bikes for younger riders, along with stricter helmet expectations.

Practical safety steps that actually help:

If you ride—or your child rides—these are the basics that reduce risk:

Wear the right helmet, every ride. (And replace it after a crash.)

Treat higher-speed devices like motor vehicles, not bicycles. Higher speeds require higher caution.

Avoid sidewalk riding unless clearly permitted—and slow way down anywhere pedestrians are present.

Don’t modify bikes for speed. Many serious incidents involve bikes altered to exceed design limits. 

Battery safety: use the manufacturer charger, avoid damaged/wet/corroded batteries, and follow safe disposal rules for suspect batteries.

If you or a family member has been injured in an e-bike collision—or by a battery fire—talk to a lawyer early to preserve evidence and understand your options.

Unregulated e-bikes are a growing danger on American streets. In one Bay Area town, a terrible accident finally led to reform.

12/05/2025

"But contingency fee caps — including the 25% cap Uber is peddling in California — throw a wrench into this delicate system by making it impossible for many poor people to find lawyers. Lawyers invest their time, energy and talent in pursuing their clients’ claims. Restricting an attorney’s ability to recover on that investment leads attorneys to turn away individuals with valid legal claims — and that prevents individuals from obtaining the legal representation they need to vindicate their rights — as shown by study after study. Uber knows that fee caps prevent injured individuals from bringing legitimate claims before a court. It’s counting on it."

The 25% cap being pitched by UBER would not just limit contingency fees to 25%; it would require that all attorneys fees, case expenses, medical expenses and health care insurance liens to be satisfied out of that 25%, thereby making it impossible for many seriously injured people to find or afford legal representation.

“Uber wants to lock poor, injured plaintiffs out of the courthouse — and it’s asking California voters to help.”

11/24/2025

"Both U.S. and international law provide authority for law enforcement officials to arrest alleged drug traffickers or other individuals suspected of terrorist acts, whether on the high seas or in U.S. territorial waters, and to try them in accordance with due process of law in U.S. courts. Indeed, this law enforcement paradigm has been applied, on a bipartisan basis, by presidents over the decades to block or slow the unlawful trafficking of drugs into the United States. There is, however, neither a lawful nor factual justification to engage our armed forces to use lethal force in international waters in the absence of lawful armed conflict or self-defense."

Congress must act promptly, as pending legislation proposes, to make clear to the President and the nation that the President’s threat of similar attacks on Venezuelan vessels (and on Venezuela itself) are unlawful and must not be repeated.

11/18/2025

Here is another serious injury which occurred in Berkeley-in this case involving a motor vehicle striking a pedestrian. Please be careful out there folks.

Authorities said the woman, who was in her mid-60s, was conscious but struggling to speak at the scene.

11/18/2025

I do not know much about the details of this accident in Berkeley. But it is always tragic when people lose their lives while cycling or walking. Many of the most catastrophic accidents that I have seen, while representing seriously injured clients, have involved cyclists or pedestrians being struck by motor vehicles. Be careful out there while riding or walking, folks, especially during the holidays when there is a lot of dangerous, distracted driving.

Join your neighborhood | Nextdoor

11/13/2025

This is an egregious case of greedy corporate behavior by UBER. If passed, and you are seriously injured in an auto accident due to the negligence of another, good luck in finding an attorney to take your case on a contingency. I'll be looking for other ways to get a ride in the future.

In the last days of the legislative session, Uber leveraged its political power for a change in the uninsured motorist coverage it must buy under state law. Now, if you are hit by an uninsured motorist while in an Uber, Uber no longer has to have coverage for $1 million in damages, but $60,000 p.....

12/17/2024

This is part of what the California Vehicle Code states regarding the operation of bicycles. Please ride safely out there!

ARTICLE 4. Operation of Bicycles [21200 - 21214] ( Article 4 added by Stats. 1963, Ch. 479. )

21202.
(a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:
(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
(2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
(4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.
(b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway of a highway, which highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more marked traffic lanes, may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of that roadway as practicable.
(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 674, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 1997.)

12/17/2024

For the genius of the constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.

09/02/2022

It's officially the start of Transit Month! Want to celebrate with us? Enjoy rides on BART for 50% off all month.

Join us September 2022 to celebrate the role of transit in the Bay Area with events, rides, and prizes! In our seventh annual event, we are yet again partnering with our friends at Seamless Bay Area to joyfully celebrate the buses, trains and people that make the wonderful transit system we all know...

09/02/2022

Always wear a helmet when riding your ATV through the corn.