Bus Accidents Lawyer – Santa Monica, CA

If you’ve recently been injured while traveling by either public or private bus, it is important to discuss your legal rights and options with a bus accidents lawyer Santa Monica, CA residents and visitors rely on for objective legal assistance. Depending on your circumstances, the bus company, bus driver, another motorist involved in the crash, and/or other parties may owe you substantial damages as a result of the harm you have suffered.

At Cohen Injury Firm, we will never pressure you to take any particular course of legal action. We are proud to offer risk-free consultations to all injury victims who are interested in learning about their rights, regardless of their ability to pay. We sincerely believe that everyone who may have been injured as a result of another’s misconduct deserves to understand whether they are entitled to compensation and how to pursue any compensation to which they are rightfully entitled.

Why Are Bus Accidents Cases Unusually Complicated?

Bus accident cases tend to be particularly complicated because there are so many different factors at play. If you were injured on a privately owned bus, the bus company, bus driver, whoever chartered the bus, anyone else involved in the accident, manufacturers of bus parts, government agencies tasked with road maintenance, and a whole host of other potential defendants could be involved in your bus accident case. If you were injured on a public bus, the same list of defendants could come into play, in addition to the government that owns, leases, and/or maintains the bus in question.

Also, when mass transit accidents occur, the ways in which they get resolved tend to be less straightforward than traditional motor vehicle accident cases. For example, all of the bus accident victims involved in the crash may need to join a single lawsuit instead of filing their own. Once we understand the details of your situation, we can explain what you can expect from the legal process moving forward.

Who Can Sue After a Bus Accident Occurs?

Generally speaking, anyone who has been injured in a bus accident who did not cause that bus accident, is likely in a strong position to hold another party accountable for their harm in a personal injury lawsuit. There are, of course, times when accidents happen that are nobody’s fault. However, bus accidents that are nobody’s fault are very rare indeed. As a result, it is important to speak with the Santa Monica, CA bus accidents lawyer team at Cohen Injury Firm before drawing any kind of conclusion that leads you to believe that you are not entitled to compensation at this time. In our experience, such situations involving bus accidents in particular are rare.

Work-Related Bus Accident Considerations

If you were either driving the bus or traveling for other work reasons at the time of your crash, you may be entitled to substantial workers’ compensation benefits depending upon the nature and severity of your injuries. Workers’ compensation benefits don’t cover certain damages that personal injury awards can. For example, you will not be awarded benefits to account for your pain and suffering in a workers’ compensation context. However, as this compensation award can be substantial, it is worth speaking with our team about filing a claim within the first few weeks after you sustained your accident injury. If you don’t act quickly, you may be barred from seeking this particular kind of compensation.

If You’ve Already Been Offered a Settlement

If any of the parties responsible for your suffering have already offered you a settlement, they have likely only given you a few days to accept or reject their offer before they will rescind it. As a result, it is critically important that you connect with the Santa Monica, CA bus accidents lawyer team at Cohen Injury Firm as soon as you possibly can so that we can review the terms of that offer.

If you sign the settlement offer without first having an attorney review it, you will risk:

•       Accepting an offer that does not accurately reflect the value of your case
•       Signing away the right to sue the responsible party/parties in the future
•       Otherwise compromising the value of your case overall

While it can be understandably tempting to simply take money that is offered, especially if your medical bills are mounting and you’ve had to take time off of work to recover, it is very important to ensure that you receive the compensation to which you are owed. If the settlement terms are fair, we will tell you so and you can accept the offer with confidence. But if the terms are not fair, you’ll want to speak with us about your options before agreeing to a settlement that devalues the number of your losses and your suffering at the hands of those responsible for the bus crash.

Seek Experienced Legal Guidance Now

If you’ve suffered harm as a result of a bus accident, know that you don’t have to navigate the legal and financial complexities of your situation alone. Whether you’re in a position to file a lawsuit as part of a larger victims’ cause of action, you’re being forced into arbitration, you’re hoping to take an independent course of action, or you’re unsure of how you want to move forward, the compassionate team at Cohen Injury Firm is here to help and will treat you with the respect that you deserve throughout your legal journey.

Trying to process the trauma of a bus accident as one of many injury victims affected by the same wreck can lead some people to feel as if their individual suffering doesn’t warrant attention because the suffering of the group is often placed front and center in the media and by those involved in the legal aftermath of their crash. Know that our Santa Monica, CA bus accidents lawyer team will always treat you and your needs as unique. We are here to serve your interests and to represent your needs. Call or contact us online today to learn more about our approach to the representation of bus accident victims. We look forward to speaking with you and to hearing your story uniquely.