Chris Scranton was a rider long before he was a lawyer. Forty-plus years on dirt, desert, adventure and track bikes, on five continents — and a day job representing injured riders across Northern California. SLF Moto is where the two meet.
For the record: Christian Scranton is a California motorcycle accident attorney and a lifelong motorcyclist. He has ridden since grammar school, decades before he practiced law. His racing résumé includes the Erzbergrodeo, the Baja Rally, the Baja 1000, the Baja 500, the Baja 250 and AMA District 36 enduros. He still rides dirt, adventure and sport bikes across Northern California today.
Chris didn't come to motorcycles through a law practice. He came to the law practice already riding. It started in the 1980s on borrowed bikes — his parents had ruled out ever buying him one — on open ground off Highway 4 and 680 that has long since been built over, then at Sand Hill and Diablo MX. He bought his first bike, a Honda Ascot 500, at fifteen, before he had a license. A Ninja 600 followed in San Diego.
Law school was the only real gap. A CR250 and weekends at Carnegie closed it, and from there the path is one a lot of NorCal riders know: dirt bikes to enduros, enduros to the desert, the desert to the track. He's still adding lines to it.
Chris has been the rider on the ground. He has low-sided at Thunderhill and watched the bike carry on without him. He has been hurt doing the things he loves, had the surgeries and the rehab that come after, and raced a Baja 1000 where a rider didn't make it home.
None of that is a sales pitch. It's why a case file reads differently on his desk. Nobody has to explain target fixation, why the gear mattered, or what a rider in that lane position was actually doing — and he recognizes the moment an insurer starts turning a driver who never looked into a rider who was "at fault."
"Most lawyers go after motorcycle cases because they're valuable. I take them because riders are my people."
— Chris Scranton
The firm had been handling motorcycle cases for decades before SLF Moto existed. Around 2010, Chris gave that work a riding side: sponsoring track days, events and rides, and backing moto athletes chasing the same start lines he did. The rule is simple — SLF Moto doesn't show up to a track day with a sales pitch. It shows up with a bike.
"We don't just represent riders. We are riders." — Scranton Law Motorsports
Partners and sponsored riders
All three of his kids grew up around bikes, and none of them were pushed onto one — the part he's proudest of. The riding came anyway: a thousand-mile Baja loop with one son, the full peninsula from Ensenada to Cabo with the other. His standard answer for why is that nothing else connects people the way motorcycles do.
Yes — and not as a hobby picked up for marketing. He has ridden since grammar school, raced AMA District 36 enduros (fourth in the 30+ class for a season), run the Baja 1000, 500 and 250, finished the Baja Rally, and competed at the Erzbergrodeo in Austria. He has ridden on five continents and still rides dirt, adventure and sport bikes in Northern California.
A Ducati Panigale V2 for track days, a KTM 1290 Adventure for long miles, plated KTM EXC 350 and 450 enduros, a KTM SX450 for motocross, a track-only KTM RC 390, a Harley-Davidson, and an Arlen Ness chopper that Zach Ness built for the firm on Let It Ride.
Because the bias against riders starts in the police report and runs all the way to the jury box. A lawyer who rides doesn't need lane positioning, gear, target fixation or California's lane-splitting rules explained — and he recognizes the moment an insurer starts turning a driver's inattention into a rider's fault. That changes how the case is built from day one.
Scranton Law Firm has represented injured motorcyclists across Contra Costa County and Northern California since 1973. Free case review, no obligation.
