Bus Accidents in California: What You Should Know

Millions of people climb aboard municipal and intercity buses every year. California is home to more fatal bus accidents than almost any other state in the Union. These cases are very complex, both substantively and procedurally.

Substantively refers to the meat and potatoes of a personal injury salad. The lettuce and tomatoes are the injuries in the case. These injuries are usually quite severe, mainly because bus passengers are unrestrained and unprotected. Most buses don’t have seat belts or airbags.

Procedurally (the salad dressing), bus accidents injure people from multiple counties and even multiple states or countries simultaneously. Additionally, an out-of-state holding company usually owns intercity buses, and sovereign immunity laws protect municipal bus drivers.

To continue with this relatively weak metaphor, a California Bus Accident Lawyer tosses the salad and obtains maximum compensation for victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. In bus accident cases, as in all other personal injury cases, maximum compensation is a process, not a result.

Evidence in Bus Accident Cases

All successful personal injury claims are built on evidence. A Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney must establish negligence, or a lack of care, by a preponderance of the evidence, or more likely than not.

Medical bills are usually the most crucial evidence in a bus accident claim. Most victims are ejected from buses during collisions, so they often sustain catastrophic injuries. On top of that, they usually sustain severe motion-related injuries, like internal and brain injuries.

Medical bills provide basic information, such as diagnosis, treatment, and cost data, that’s vital to a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer’s case. However, in most cases, more evidence is needed.

Compensation for medical bills is only available if the bills are reasonably necessary. The treating physician’s testimony, by itself, may be insufficient. Additionally, many cold, clinical medical bills reveal nothing about the victim’s pain and suffering. Finally, these documents don’t prove the need for probable future medical treatment.
So, a personal injury lawyer often partners with an independent doctor who addresses these deficiencies.

Legal Theories

This section will be short. Proving negligence in a bus accident claim is often relatively straightforward. Commercial drivers, like bus drivers, have a duty of utmost care.

Commercial drivers have very little room for error. What might be a one-off “accident” in a noncommercial driver case is usually negligence in a commercial driver claim.

A few limited defenses are available. We mentioned the sovereign immunity defense above. But it only applies to government employees, not government contractors, at least in most cases. Furthermore, standard negligence defenses, such as comparative fault, are more challenging for defendants to prove, once again, because of the higher duty of care.

Starting the Case

With this foundation of law and evidence in place, Bus Accident Attorneys can open informal settlement negotiations.

If damages and liability, the two issues discussed above, are crystal clear, an insurance company usually has a legal duty to settle the case almost immediately. However, although these issues are often straightforward, they’re rarely crystal clear.

So, attorneys usually file legal paperwork to pressure insurance companies into a settlement. This necessary action might delay the settlement, but it’s the only way to ensure its fairness.

Generally, insurance companies file procedural motions which ask the judge to throw the case out of court. But a well-prepared lawyer usually brushes away these motions. There’s more good news. During discovery, a court-supervised information exchange process, damning evidence the insurance company tried to hide usually comes to light. Therefore, the settlement value increases.

Ending the Case

Generally, court filings also trigger mandatory mediation requirements. Court-supervised mediation includes a duty to negotiate in good faith.

The complexities mentioned above in bus accident cases can delay settlement until this time. During mediation, defendants must earnestly try to settle cases. They cannot go through the motions and say, “I’ll see you in court,” a common insurance company tactic during informal negotiations.

Furthermore, insurance companies must compromise whenever necessary to settle the case. “Take it or leave it” is not a good-faith stance because it leaves no room for negotiation.
Because of these rules and because mediators are highly skilled professionals, civil mediation is about 90 percent successful in Southern California.

Contact Our Experienced Bus Accident Lawyers Today!

An extensive bus accident settlement comes at the end of a step-by-step process. For a free consultation with an experienced Bus Accident Attorney in California, contact the Law Offices of Eslamboly Hakim. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.

Credit: Photo by Midjourney