Phoenix bus accident lawyer discusses wrongful death claims | Kelly Law Team

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Kelly Law Team
1 E Washington ST Suite 1520
Phoenix, AZ 85004
602-283-4122

Chapters:
Intro: 0:00
Insurance Policies: 0:27
Wrongful Death Experience: 1:23
Factors in Bus Accidents: 2:33
Negligence: 3:20
Hiring a Lawyer: 4:23

Transcript:

Hi, my name is John Kelly, and I want to talk to you about bus accident cases as they relate to wrongful deaths in Phoenix. If there's a bus accident that has wrongful death claimants in it, there's some very unique factors that we want to look at. The first unique factor that you probably are already aware, is that we're likely going to be going after a corporate policy, meaning an insurance policy that is a corporation. So if it's a large bus, there's certain companies that have these buses that would have large insurance policies.
But what you may not know is that what they do is if they have a claim and there's multiple claimants or just a single claimant, they're going to hire a law firm to defend that claim. And that law firm's going to get on the case almost immediately when the accident happens. So the corporate company is going to call a local law firm that's handled wrongful death claims in the past, and maybe that's all they do, wrongful death defense, or similar large cases. And those lawyers are going to be getting to work on the case to defend it. And they want to know what happened in the accident and start researching it.
So you want to get ahead and make sure that you're hiring a lawyer pretty quickly, if you have, unfortunately, lost someone in a bus accident. And make sure that that law firm has some experience with the wrongful death claims and making sure that they're hiring an investigator, right away, to look at and counteract this defense firm, that's already working the case to make sure that you have the tools you need to move forward in a successful claim. So how do you counteract that claim, that defense firm that's already working the case and building up their defense? You make sure that you have a firm that has a good investigator, who can get the information, the witnesses, the details put together for you really quickly, so that you start understanding exactly what might have happened.
And some of this stuff is extremely detailed. Going to the scene, taking measurements, reviewing witness statements, tracking down certain witnesses, looking at the corporation. How they're incorporated, what employees they have, how large they are, what policies they may have. What we start to look at is some of the things that are very important in a bus accident, is how did the accident happen? Was it the driver of the bus's fault? Did the corporation have a good knowledge about who this driver is? What were their driving habits? Did they have any kind of issues when they hired him? Can we make a negligent hiring claim? Was there substance abuse issues, for instance. If that's the case, what did the corporation do to make ensure that the driver was a safe driver?
And what did they do to make sure that they had tested them to make sure that they're not on substances that could cause them to be negligent on the road and hurt others. That driver may have had emotional issues that other employees were aware of and didn't bring that to the attention of the corporation. So the employee's negligence carries up to the corporation. So it whatever the employee did that was negligent, as long as the corporation has ties in that, we can make a claim against them.
The other thing that often comes up in bus accidents is product liability claims. So what was the actual cause of the accident? Well, maybe it was a tire that exploded at high speed and caused the bus to swerve. So if a tire exploded, was it the manufacturing of the tire? Was it the corporation was buying discount tires and not replacing them soon enough? Was it the maintenance company that was maintaining the bus, who failed to notify the corporation that they needed to have new tires placed on the bus? There's a million different things that could be the scenario there. And tires are just one of the products that maintains the safety of a bus on the road.
So anytime these kind of cases come up, it's important to understand the nitty gritty details of them. To get on top of them early and hire a lawyer who's competent, who's handled wrongful death claims, who's handled bus accidents before. And can jump on and make sure that you're getting your pieces in place to make sure that you have a strong claim.
If you'd like to talk a bus accident over, please give me a call 602-283-4122. And I'd be happy to give you a free consultation.