Car Hit By a Bus

Answer:

We got an inquiry through our website yesterday. The writer wanted to know what she should do because her car was hit by a bus in the state of Florida. That bus was a school bus and these things happen. She had already left the scene but she had spoken with the police officer and he had given the ticket to the bus driver. There are certain nuances in the law because of school bus is operated by a transit authority in the county so that entity is an agency of Florida. You may have heard of the term sovereign immunity. It doesn’t mean that they’re immune from all liability. It does mean as it did in old English law that the King gets to say how much you can sue him for. Our law is fashioned after that. There are certain caps for recoverable damages that apply if you get hit by a school bus. If you get hit by a county bus, that’s also a governmental agency. Generally, unless it’s some kind of private hire bus, it’s going to be some kind of governmental agency. Those claims involve certain kind of notices that you have to give to the governmental entities and six months has to pass before you can really get any traction on trying to get your claim solved. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to navigate a county bus, school bus, transit authority bus accident case without having a lawyer because if you don’t give the appropriate notices to the governmental entities, your claim is going to be barred in three years. You want to make sure that you give the appropriate information and a lawyer can help you do that.