ARLINGTON BUS ACCIDENT LAWYER

If you have been injured in an Arlington County Bus Accident, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Contact the experienced the bus accident attorneys at Blaszkow Legal, who can begin fighting for your rights today. Don't allow insurance companies, insurance adjusters, and defense lawyers to minimize your claim, or take advantage of you!

Why you need an Arlington bus accident lawyer

Plus accidents can have many causes, but one thing is certain: because a bus is designed to transport many people, these accidents often wind up with many people injured, meaning many claimants. More often than not, there are more claims filed than there is insurance coverage available to compensate those injured. For example, if someone with a minimum car accident policy in Virginia hits the bus, the injured people will file a claim against the negligent driver. That negligent driver's insurance coverage is not going to be sufficient to help everyone!

There are however, other sources of recovery that the experienced attorneys at Blaszkow Legal know how to pursue. We know how to obtain insurance benefits from the bus companies themselves, as well as from individual bus riders' underinsured or uninsured motorist policies, if applicable.

What insurance coverage applies in which situations is going to be determined by who is negligent, meaning what person, or entities, caused and/or contributed to the accident.

Determining negligence in an Arlington Bus Collision

Different parties, and sometimes multiple parties, can be negligent in Arlington County bus accidents. In order for us to determine everyone who is involved, it is vital that you reach out to a bus accident lawyer right away. The more evidence we can develop, the stronger we can make your case.

Negligence is very fact-specific. In bus accident cases, we find negligence usually lies with one of the following people:

• Other motorists

• Bus drivers

• Bus company

• Bus maintenance personnel

• Bus company contractors

Again, this determination is very fact specific. If another vehicle slams into the side of the bus, and the bus driver has done nothing wrong, then negligence in that scenario lies with the driver of the car that hit the bus. However, if the bus driver ran a red light, perhaps there is negligence on both the car driver, as well as the bus driver. In a third example, what if the bus driver is approaching a red light, and the brakes do not work on the bus, and it goes into the intersection and hits something? There are many questions in this kind of situationL: who inspected the bus? Did the driver inspect the bus before the taking it out of the bus yard? Did someone do a bad job of maintaining the bus?

Some common causes of Arlington County bus accidents include:

• Drunk driving/DUI

• Impaired driving

• Aggressive driving

• Bus driver fatigue

• Distracted driving

• Speeding

Investigating an Arlington County bus accident

Once you retain Blaszkow Legal, we set to work our team of attorneys, investigators, and paralegals to work on figuring out exactly what happened, and who was involved. We liaise with the police department to get their reports, and their investigatve information. However, you cannot rely on the police to do a full and thorough investigation. This is not to say that the police are not competent! It is to say that they are looking for different things. Often times, once a police officer has determined the basic facts of the crash, the investigation ends. He is not required to go any farther. In the civil realm, we want more information than that.

We always look for witnesses, who may have seen any or all of the subject accident. It's important to interview people as soon as possible, because the longer you wait, the more their recollection becomes fuzzy over time.

We always review the scene of every crash to see if we can find any surveillance camera footage that may have caught the accident. Surveillance cameras on buildings and homes and businesses are an incredible resource in bus accident litigation. However, time is of the essence! Camera systems will write over themselves if footage is not specifically secured and preserved. While some amazing camera systems will keep footage for 30 days or more, other systems can be much, much less. We need to identify this footage, and preserve it immediately.

Determining the value of an Arlington bus accident case

The most common question we are ever asked in Arlington County bus accident cases is: "How much is my case worth?" The reality is that no two cases are alike. Just because you are on the bus, sitting next to someone, and you were both thrown from your seat, does not mean you have the same case! Each case is individual. Your claim is for your injuries, and how the accident has impacted your life. Someone who had physical therapy for three months does not have the same case as someone with a broken arm.

The value of a case is based on damages. Damages are the things that you can claim as to how the accident has impacted your life, and in what ways: financially, physically, emotionally, and more. Damages are often subdivided into two categories - non-economic damages and economic damages.

Some examples of non economic damages include:

• Pain and suffering

• Inconvenience

• Permanency of any injuries

• Scarring

• Surgical marks

• Impairment in activities of daily living

• Emotional trauma

• Post traumatic anxiety

Economic damages are black and white, in that they are quantifiable. If medical bills were $10,000, then that part of your claim is $10,000. Some examples of economic damages include:

• Emergency room bills

• Ambulance transport

• Emergency room physician bills

• Radiology invoices

• Prescription receipts

• Physical therapy cost

• Property damage

• Time lost from work

• Loss of earning capacity

Negotiating a Arlington bus accident claim

It is our job to fight for you, and for all of the compensation that you deserve. It is dangerous to try to negotiate yourself. Let us explain why.

The insurance industry uses a lot of tricks and tactics to try to get you to settle your case without giving you fair value for your case. You have to remember that insurance companies work for themselves, and their stockholders. They do not stay in business by handing money to people who ask for it. Instead, they can sometimes be conniving.

For example, if you went to the emergency room and the emergency room bill was $10,000, and the copay on your insurance was $1,000. This means that you are out of your pocket by $1,000. The insurance company may immediately offer to pay you $2,000. Have you gotten fair value for your claim? It sounds like you just got twice your money, right?

WRONG! The value of that claim is for the full price of the medical services that were rendered to you, not what came out of your pocket! If the medical bill was $10,000, then your claim is for $10,000, not just your copay or deductible! Health insurance is called a collateral source. The insurance companies do not get the benefit of that!

If you try to negotiate your case on your own, there is a very strong chance that the insurance companies are going to take advantage of you, and minimize your claim.

Timelines and statutes of limitations for Arlington County bus accidents

If you have been involved in a bus accident in Arlington County, and we're injured, then according to Virginia law, you have two years from the date of the accident to bring any lawsuit. However, this is not the only deadline that you need to know about!

The two-year statute of limitations applies to filing the lawsuit. However, if you were on an Arlington ART bus, then you were on a bus that is owned by Arlington County itself. That makes it (ART, or Arlington Transit) a government entity. County governments must receive notice of any potential claim within 6 months, according to the law. If you do not properly notify the county, then you may have waived your claim when you try to file the lawsuit later on. This is a very important fact that many people don't recognize. Always contact an attorney right away.

Contact an experienced Arlington County bus accident attorney

Bus accidents can impact your life significantly. If you have been injured, then you have had a lot to deal with, from collections calls, to nagging insurance companies, to maybe even the press banging down your door. Get someone on your side right away who can help take some of these stresses away from you, and fight for your rights!

Joe Blaszkow and his team at Blaszkow Legal have been fighting for our clients, and getting the compensation they deserve, for over 40 years! We work on a contingency fee basis, which means we don't get paid unless you collect money.

Timelines may already be ticking away!. Contact us today, and let Joe Blaszkow and his team get you the Justice you deserve. Call 703-879-5910 for a free consultation