Were you or a loved one seriously injured and have questions about what to do when injured on a bus? Contact our Stillwater attorneys today.
1) Choose the Right Attorney
When you have a situation when you or a loved one’s been injured on a school bus, you need to hire an attorney immediately. The question is, how do I choose a lawyer or an attorney in Oklahoma to represent me involving a situation with a school bus? Obviously, you need to do your due diligence. You need to search, you need to read backgrounds, you need to find someone who’s experienced with wrecks, and more importantly, someone who has dealt with school bus wrecks. I think that you have to feel comfortable with this attorney. You have to find an attorney that you will trust in helping you navigate through this. Don’t wait long because the statute of limitations on a school bus is a year, and you need to make sure you give notice to the government entities involved. If in doubt, just get to an attorney as soon as you can.
2) Avoid These Mistakes
When you have a child who is injured on a school bus, whether it’s in a wreck, whether it’s in an altercation with another student, or whether it’s due to some type of negligence or an intentional act of the bus driver, you need to do something about it, and that’s the biggest problem. I think the mistakes parents make is that they don’t do anything – “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal,” or “I think my child’s okay.” What you don’t understand is this could be a pattern with the school bus driver. He could be causing these problems on a routine basis. It could be a major injury. It could be a major problem for you or your friends, or your family, so I believe what you should always do is you should notify the school district if there’s an incident on the bus that happens and your child’s injured. I think you should always make an incident report or file a claim with the school district to protect not only yourself, but if it ever happens again, there will be actions taken against the school bus driver and you may prevent a loss of life, maybe, by taking these actions early on.
3) Liability
When either yourself or loved one has been injured on a school bus, you need to determine the liable party. If the bus driver causes the wreck, then the school bus driver and the school is liable. Sometimes there could be other people, third-parties involved, other insurance companies and various issues, but it’s a pretty slippery slope too. It’s not all that clear cut for the average person. I would just suggest you hire an attorney that has experience with this type of injury as soon as you can.
4) Statute of Limitations
If your child or loved one was injured on a school bus in Oklahoma, you’re governed by the Governmental Tort Claim Act statute of limitation, which is one year. You have to give notice before you can file a lawsuit. So many days has to pass to have the school district make a response to you. You have to give them a chance, first, to review the claim before you file it. Again, it’s kind of a unique statute and it’s not easily understood by the average citizen of Oklahoma, so I would suggest contacting an attorney as soon as you can and put this in their hands to handle it so you don’t miss any of your rights.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured in a bus wreck and have questions about what to do when injured on a bus in Oklahoma? Contact a Stillwater bus accident lawyer at Murray Law Firm today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation. Let our experience work for you.
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