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Milwaukee Bus Accident Lawyer
Accidents involving buses can be difficult to seek compensation for, but you deserve compensation from those at fault. Find out how to pursue your claim by contacting a Milwaukee bus accident lawyer.
Whether you were a passenger, a pedestrian, or the driver of another vehicle, getting injured in a bus crash can create a situation that is very challenging to get fully compensated for. While “normal” auto wrecks involve vehicles that are privately owned, most buses have more than one entity involved in their operation, and it’s entirely possible that more than one of these parties were at fault for what happened.
The aftermath of a public transportation crash can be difficult to sort out, but a Milwaukee bus accident lawyer from the Law Offices of Gary S. Greenberg can help you make sense of everything and bring your case to the best resolution possible.
What Makes Milwaukee Bus Crashes Complicated?
As mentioned above, it’s the rare bus that doesn’t have more than one party involved in maintaining and running it. While this is most obvious in the case of public transportation buses such as city metro buses and school buses, it’s often true with privately owned commercial tour and party buses, as well.
It will be important to conduct a full investigation of the wreck to determine which of these entities was responsible. Even if fault seems obvious, there are often additional underlying causes that will enable you to name more than one party in your personal injury claim, thereby increasing your potential settlement amount.
Investigating your bus wreck won’t be easy, though. Even if you weren’t injured, it would be almost impossible for you to handle an investigation on your own. Your bus crash attorney in Milwaukee may need to find crash scene experts who can recreate the scene to figure out what caused your bus crash and who is responsible.
In addition, your attorney will need to do a lot of work to get to the bottom of your crash, such as the following:
- Interview all available witnesses
- Work with expert witnesses, especially crash scene experts and medical experts
- Obtain all medical evidence of your injuries and damages
- Gather police and crash reports
- Collect other evidence, including photo and video evidence
- Interview other bus crash victims (if applicable)
- Help you document all of your damages
Common Factors That Lead to Milwaukee Bus Accidents
Hopefully, all of that investigative work will bear fruit and your attorney will know what caused your crash and who is liable. We will use that evidence to file a claim against the responsible party. You may file your claim for compensation against only one party, but in some cases, you may need to file it against more than one party.
In the case of a bus crash, you may be able to file a claim against the driver of the bus and the company that owns the bus, for example. Your evidence will be used to show the other side that you’re owed payment for your losses.
Your Milwaukee bus accident lawyer will help you consider the evidence against each of these parties to determine if they played a role in causing your accident and injuries:
- Bus Driver – The bus driver could be at fault if distracted, drowsy, or drunk driving were involved. Speeding and other types of reckless driving could also implicate the driver.
- Drivers of Other Vehicles – If more than one automobile was involved in the crash, it’s entirely possible that other drivers could be at fault for all of the above reasons.
- Bus Owner – Whether the bus is owned by a government transit agency, a school district, or a private company, they are responsible for hiring qualified drivers and keeping the bus in good working order.
- Servicing Company – It’s not uncommon for bus maintenance to be contracted out to another company. If they installed a part improperly or caused the wreck in some other way, you can hold them responsible.
- Government Agency – An additional government entity could be at fault if dangerous road conditions caused the crash, such as potholes, steep shoulder drop-offs, or missing guardrails.
Claims Against the Government in Wisconsin
While Wisconsin provides a statute of limitations of three years for the majority of personal injury claims, claims involving government entities have special considerations. If your bus crash involved a public transit bus or school bus, you’ll need to contact a Milwaukee bus accident lawyer as soon as possible. This is because you have to file notice of your claim within 120 days or you could lose your right to file.
Once your claim is submitted, the government will either pay it or deny it. If denied, you can then proceed with a normal personal injury claim, in which case you’ll have the standard three years in which to file suit. Note that if your bus wreck involved a privately owned bus, the standard three-year statute of limitations will apply from the beginning.
Negotiating Compensation for Your Milwaukee Bus Wreck
Whether your claim is against a government agency or a private individual, getting full compensation can be a challenge. Your payout will probably come from an insurance company in the end, so it will be necessary to fully demonstrate how much compensation you deserve and why.
Gathering Evidence
Dealing with insurance companies is another challenging aspect of winning a personal injury claim. Insurers are in the business of making money, and they don’t want to pay accident victims a large settlement. They really don’t want to pay settlements of any kind, but they’d prefer to pay the lowest settlement they can possibly get away with.
Showing the insurance company a pile of evidence and then crossing your fingers and hoping for the best isn’t going to work. Your attorney is going to have to fight for the money that’s owed to you, and that’s usually a tough fight.
Negotiating
Trying to negotiate with insurers on your own will likely result in a low payout that doesn’t cover all of your damages and losses. Injury attorneys have worked for years to hone their negotiating abilities, and we would be happy to put those abilities to work on your case.
Underhanded Tactics
You must also be careful when dealing with insurance companies. Especially in the case of a Milwaukee bus collision, you probably will have multiple insurance companies calling you to try to figure out what happened.
They aren’t calling you out of concern. They’re hoping they can identify some way of lowering the total settlement amount they must give you and possibly other bus crash victims.
Insurers have many methods of lowering your claim’s value. Look through the following list of tactics to watch out for:
- A low early settlement offer that covers only your current damages and not your future ones
- An insurance adjuster who calls you and asks to record your statements
- Bullying tactics, such as threatening to take you to court or claiming your injuries occurred in some other incident outside of the bus accident
To get the settlement you deserve, your Milwaukee bus collision attorney will communicate with insurance companies on your behalf and make sure none of their underhanded tactics work.
Seeking Financial Damages for a Bus Wreck
You’ll need to work closely with your Milwaukee bus accident lawyer so that all of your financial losses and non-economic damages can be included in your claim. This includes your future accident-related needs as well as your current ones.
Your financial damages will include virtually any monetary loss you’ve experienced because of the bus wreck. This includes medical bills, mobility equipment, medication, property damage, therapy, transportation expenses, and lost wages and income.
Your non-economic damages can be harder to account for because they represent the negative impact the accident and injuries have had on your life, which won’t have an obvious dollar value. These include pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and decreased enjoyment of life.
Contact a Milwaukee Public Transportation Accident Lawyer
Recovering from a bus accident can be expensive, and when you weren’t at fault, you deserve a settlement to cover these damages. The Law Offices of Gary S. Greenberg has decades of experience in personal injury law, and we can help you recover the settlement you are owed.
To schedule a free case evaluation with a Milwaukee bus accident lawyer, simply complete the contact form on this page or call 414-271-7007.