Allentown Bus Accident Lawyer

Personal Injury Lawyers / Allentown Personal Injury Lawyer / Allentown Bus Accident Lawyer

An Allentown bus accident lawyer is here for you whenever you are ready. Across the country, Americans rely on buses to get where they need to go. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Americans took 9.9 billion trips on public transportation last year. Commuters take 34 million trips on buses, trains, and trolleys daily. Allentown residents are no different. They travel daily by bus to work, school, appointments, and shopping centers. However, a bus accident can change everything in the blink of an eye.

If you or someone you love suffered an injury caused by a catastrophic collision, we are here to help. Our experienced bus crash lawyers have fought for accident victims and their families for over six decades. Time and time again, our legal professionals win big for those suffering from injuries.

We believe everyone deserves justice, so consultations are always free, and our policy is simple: you won’t pay us anything unless we win for you. That means it costs you nothing out of pocket. Call us today.

Why Choose Munley Law for Your Bus Accident Case?

We are proud to be a family law firm from northeastern Pennsylvania. For over 60 years, our Allentown personal injury lawyers have fought for victims and their families. We know how to take on the big insurance and transportation companies to prove liability, and we always fight to get our clients the maximum payments for their suffering. To learn more about the millions we have won for our clients and what it means to have an Allentown school bus accident attorney from Munley Law representing you, schedule your free consultation immediately.

Understanding Your Legal Rights After a Bus Accident

How do you know if you have legal rights after being injured? Victims are often confused about the best way forward, and that’s completely understandable. It’s always best to speak to an attorney and to do so as quickly as possible. It’s sometimes hard to tell whether you may have legal recourse. Our attorneys have experience responding to these types of claims, and we can help you decide your options.

Oftentimes, a lawyer can help you prove that someone acted negligently. Negligence is a legal concept and has a special meaning under Pennsylvania law. Typically, it just means that someone owed you a duty to act with a certain level of care, and they failed to act carefully, which caused your injury.

In Pennsylvania, a negligence claim has four elements: duty, breach, causation, and compensation.

• Duty: this means that the defendant, the person who did wrong, owed you a duty not to cause harm. Whether a duty exists is a complex question. But generally, a person owes you a duty not to cause foreseeable harm by their actions. That means you can hold a bus driver or a company responsible because they owed you a duty as a passenger, pedestrian, or someone else on the road.

• Breach: To prove breach, you must prove that the wrongdoer failed to act according to a specific standard of care. Generally, all people must act as a reasonably prudent person would in any given situation. If a bus driver crashes because they weren’t paying attention, or if the company fails to maintain their buses as they should, they will have often breached a duty.

• Causation: causation is simple in theory, but often a complex factual and legal issue. You must prove that the breach of a duty, what the wrongdoer did, caused your trauma. This can sometimes be difficult when it comes to bodily harm. That’s where expert witnesses come in.
• Compensation: you must also prove that the breach of a duty caused you financial or emotional compensation. This is where we must prove the amount of money involved.

Experienced legal professionals know how to build a negligence claim. Many different parties may have been negligent in causing the wreck.

Why Hiring The Right School Bus Accident Lawyers Is Important

Why do you need a lawyer? The right lawyer is always going to work to make sure your rights are protected in the wake of a motor vehicle collision. No matter how big or small, car accidents in Allentown have consequences, and there will be many players involved. You should be able to focus on getting medical care and dealing with any damage caused by the collision. Your lawyer can focus on holding the wrongdoer accountable.

Here are just a few reasons you shouldn’t try to navigate the aftermath of an collision alone:

Bus Crashes Are Legally Complex

Bus accidents involve many players, and many times each of these players is going to react to a motor vehicle collision by trying to minimize their own financial exposure. You need a lawyer to make sure you’re not left holding the bill for the damage caused by someone else’s wrongdoing.

Passengers, the bus driver, the driver of any other vehicle involved, the operating company, policy insurers, any government agency involved in the operation of the vehicle, the company that does the maintenance, and the company that makes any parts (just to name a few) all have a vested interest in the outcome of an collision . It’s hard to know which of these parties is responsible for the trauma you suffered. An experienced legal representative can help you get to the bottom of it.

Lawyers Can Help Settle Your School Bus Accident Claim Without Going to Court

Of course, counselors are familiar with fighting cases in court. But, sometimes the best option is to resolve a dispute well before a formal lawsuit. Whether you’re fighting with your own insurance company, someone else’s, or an individual party involved in the crash, getting a lawyer involved early can help get the claim resolved faster. Sometimes, counselors can do this just by being involved in negotiations. After all, people are sometimes more forthcoming if they know that you are armed and ready to take a dispute to court.

Other times, we can help by writing a formal demand letter. This is essentially a letter explaining your claim, the reasoning behind your entitlement to money, and the underlying statutes. Sometimes, all it takes is someone who can speak the insurers language, or who can get through to the counselors representing the person who did you wrong. These letters sometimes resolve cases long before a formal court hearing could.

A Law Firm Can Give You a Comprehensive Case Evaluation

Because of the complexity of bus accidents, there can be a lot of groundwork to cover. A lawyer can identify and interview witnesses. Fellow passengers, other drivers, bystanders, and other witnesses can have invaluable information. We’ll find them, interview them, and preserve their testimony for use in court.

We’ll also gather documents and other physical evidence. This can be photographs of the vehicle, the scene of the incident, and any damage caused. Furthermore, we can track down surveillance video and other camera footage of the event; this can be used both when advocating against insurers and in court. Additionally, sometimes an collision is caused by faulty maintenance or a malfunction with a part. These cases require us to track down maintenance records and other reports. We know where to look, and have experience tracking this evidence down for our clients.

Furthermore, sometimes you will need an expert witness. This could be a medical expert who can testify to your injuries and how they will impact your life. It could also be an expert tasked with calculating the different ways the collision has cost you money. These witnesses can be the difference between winning and losing. Our team of experienced legal professionals has worked with experts across Pennsylvania and the country to support our clients. We know how to do it effectively and efficiently.

An Attorney Can Represent You in Court and During Negotiations

You should never have to go up against the powerful entities (organizations, insurers, and sometimes the government) who stand in your way after a coach incident alone. Sometimes, insurers or employers will attempt tactics similar to those seen in workers’ compensation disputes by arguing that you’re at fault, even when you aren’t. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Furthermore, sometimes there are unique challenges to recovery, for example, when a school bus is involved. An experienced firm can aggressively represent your interests.

Our extensive experience includes navigating challenging negotiations, especially in severe cases involving trauma, such as a brain injury, to protect your interests effectively. We can ensure these powerful entities don’t overpower your interests in negotiations or informal discussions. Our nationally recognized attorneys excel in the courtroom when litigation becomes necessary, particularly in sensitive matters like wrongful death claims. We’re ready to put them to work to get you the compensation you deserve.

How Long Does a Bus Accident Case Usually Take?

This, unfortunately, depends. Our legal professionals will always work to make sure your case gets resolved as quickly as possible. We know that after a collision, you often need the money owed to you to move forward. That’s why we’ll do our best to resolve your claim through early negotiations or a demand letter. Sometimes, when we present your demand up front and can explain why you’re entitled to compensation informally, we can get fast results. In those cases, we can resolve your case within a few weeks to a few months.

If we have to proceed to formal court proceedings, things may take longer. The speed of litigation often varies with court schedules, especially in cases involving severe injuries from motorcycle accidents, though we aim to streamline the process whenever possible. But we’ll never let our opponents drag their feet. That said, litigating in court can take up to a year, possibly more.

How Much Compensation Can You Get After a Bus Accident?

How much compensation you receive can depend on many factors. During a free consultation, we can help you get a good idea of your compensation. However, the ultimate amount you can recover will depend on: (1) the type and severity of your injuries; (2) whether your injuries are permanent; (3) whether you were forced to miss work, and for how long; (4) if you’ll be able to return to your job after you recover; (5) whether you were in any way at fault for the incident or your trauma; (6) whether any of your property was damaged or destroyed.

An experienced firm can help you recover both economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damage is meant to compensate you for things like: past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages, rehabilitation and recovery expenses, nursing care, and property damage. Expert witnesses, crucial in cases like product liability lawsuits, often play a significant role in calculating economic damages you’ve suffered, and we are skilled at utilizing their insights effectively. We do this not only to lessen the financial burden of a collision, but to ensure you’re taken care of in the coming years.

Noneconomic injuries are more intangible, and can include money to compensate: the pain and suffering you endured as a result of the collision, a reduced quality of life, disfigurement, and many other types of impairments a serious injury might cause.

You may have heard the term “punitive damages” before. Sometimes, punitive damages are available. These damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer(s) for their evil actions. These damages are often difficult to obtain, but they are a powerful weapon in the right case. If you think the bus driver’s actions were intentional acts, or someone was acting recklessly (meaning they knew about a risk and acted anyway), contact us immediately.

What If You Are Partially at Fault for the Bus Accident?

Are you worried you might share some fault for an accident? That’s ok. First, it’s natural to think the worst and blame yourself after a collision. You also shouldn’t necessarily trust what a bus company, insurers, or other involved party tells you about what happened. Even still, if you’re worried that you might have in some way caused an accident or made it worse, you should give us a call as soon as possible.

You can still recover some money. In Allentown, just because you may share some blame with someone else, as long as you aren’t overwhelmingly at fault, our lawyers can still help get you some of the money you deserve. That being said, tell your legal representative about your concerns. It’s always best that your attorney knows everything; that’s the only way they can help you! Generally, nothing you tell your attorney can be used against you so that you can talk to us openly. Just let us know if you have any concerns.

Contact Munley Law for a Free Bus Accident Consultation

At the end of the day, the compassionate and experienced legal professionals at Munley Law have been doing this work for decades. You aren’t just another bus accident to us; we’ll listen to what happened, explain your rights, and give you your options for moving forward.

Call us today, or fill out the form on this website. Contacting us is completely free and won’t obligate you to do anything. What’s more, you won’t pay us unless (and until) we win, and any payment we get comes out of the money we recover for you. Nothing comes out of your pocket, ever.

Reviewed by Bernadine Munley, Esq., Personal Injury Attorney at Munley Law, on July 17, 2025.

Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys

609 Hamilton St.
Allentown, PA 18101
(610) 857-7424
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