Train And Transit
Accident Lawyers.
If a government unit is on the other side of your claim, a written statement has to be filed within six months of the injury, and an action commenced after that without it is dismissed. On this page the date matters more than the event.
Is The Deadline Different When A Public Carrier Is Involved?
Four dates govern a rail or transit injury, and which of them applies to you depends on who owned the train and on what you were doing there.
Six months notice
Two years
Three years
The date it happened
Why Does It Matter Who Runs The Service?
Because one answer puts an ordinary two year claim in front of you and another puts a six month piece of paper in front of it.
A typical state's notice statute applies to a claim against a government unit. Where it applies, a written statement has to be filed in the office of the government unit within six months of the date the injury was sustained, and if it is not, any civil action commenced against that government unit more than six months after the date of injury shall be dismissed and the claim barred. Whether a particular operator, authority or contractor is a government unit for that purpose is the first thing to establish, and it is not always obvious from the livery on the side of the train.
A different regime again applies to people who work on the railroad. A railroad employee's claim runs under federal law, and no action may be maintained under that chapter unless commenced within three years from the day the cause of action accrued. That is a longer clock than the ordinary one, and it is the answer to a question conductors and maintenance crews ask often.
Federal law also shapes what a rail passenger claim can be worth. Punitive damages in a rail passenger claim may be awarded only where the plaintiff establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from conduct carried out with a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of others, and the aggregate allowable awards to all rail passengers against all defendants arising from a single accident are capped by statute. This page does not print the figure.
What Does The Written Statement Have To Say?
The statute prints the list. It is short, it is specific, and a statement missing one of these is an argument waiting to happen.
Who the claim belongs to
Name and residence addressThe name and residence address of the person to whom the cause of action has accrued, which is not always the same person as the one who was hurt.
Who was injured
Name and residence addressThe name and residence address of the person injured, spelled and addressed the way the medical records have it.
When it happened
The date and the hourThe statute asks for the hour as well as the date, which is why the incident report and the ticket or fare record are worth keeping.
Where it happened
Approximate locationThe approximate location where the accident occurred: a station, a platform, a car number, a crossing, a stretch of track.
Who treated you
Name and address of any attending doctorThe name and residence or office address of any attending physician, which means seeing somebody early does two jobs at once.
What If I Was Hurt On A Platform, Not On A Train?
The place changes almost nothing about the deadline and almost everything about who has to answer for it. Four assumptions, and what actually governs.
What people assume
- A platform fall is an ordinary slip and fall, so there is no rush
- There is one operator, and they will have investigated it
- A bus claim and a train claim are different kinds of case
- The two year deadline is the only one to worry about
What actually governs it
- If a government unit owns or runs the station, the six month notice statute is in play from day one
- A station, a platform, a concourse and a car can sit with different owners and contractors
- What matters is who ran the vehicle or the property, not whether it had rails
- The notice deadline can expire while treatment is still running
- Notice of claim against a public bodyA claim against a town, a county or a public agency can require a written statement filed within months, naming who was hurt and the date, time and place.
- Missing the noticeWhere a notice rule applies, a lawsuit started without the notice can be dismissed, whatever the merits of the claim.
- Statute of limitationsSets the time to start a lawsuit for an injury or a death caused by someone else's negligence, often two years, usually counted from the injury.
- Railroad worker claimsAn injured railroad worker's claim against the railroad runs under federal law, with its own deadline rather than the ordinary one.
- Passenger rail limitsClaims by passengers against a passenger railroad can be subject to federal limits on the total amount payable for one accident.
How Injury Deadlines Actually Work.
Does A Bus Claim Work The Same Way?
Usually yesThe question is the same one: is a government unit on the other side. If it is, the six month written statement is in play whether the vehicle had rails, tires or both, and the rest of the file looks like any other collision, with the same first party medical benefits paying the early bills. Bring the fare record, the route and the time, and somebody will work out which clock you are on.
Questions About Rail And Transit Claims.
The firm's own guidance lists what these files involve: derailments, collisions with debris on the track, collisions between trains, fires and hazardous chemicals, signal and operator error, and track defects. These are the questions those calls start with.
Sooner than on an ordinary crash. If a government unit is involved, a written statement has to be filed within six months of the injury, and an action commenced after six months without it is dismissed. Nobody wants to discover that in month seven.
The firm's own guidance covers that: people hurt near a train are pedestrians, motorists, cyclists and railroad workers as well as passengers. Which clock applies still depends on who ran the train and on whether you were working at the time.
Yes, materially. A railroad employee's claim runs under federal law, and no action may be maintained under it unless commenced within three years from the day the cause of action accrued. Say that you are an employee on the first call, because it changes everything that follows.
Usually the operator first, and sometimes a federal body as well. What that means for you in practice is that a version of the incident is being written down by other people from the first hour, which is the argument for getting your own account and your own photographs recorded early.
Yes, and someone will come to you at home or in the hospital in Harlow County, the neighboring counties, North Ridley or just over the county line. The phone at (555) 018-4420 is answered at any hour by a person.