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New Orleans Bus Accident Lawyers
The first question in a bus case is not how badly you were hurt. It is whose bus was it - because a city bus, a school bus, and a charter bus are three completely different claims, with three different sets of rules.
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The Short Version
Bus accidents in New Orleans - the quick answers
- Whose bus? An RTA bus, a school bus, and a private charter follow completely different rules.
- RTA is a public entity. Louisiana caps general damages against public entities at $500,000 - but medical care and lost earnings are not capped.
- Claims against public entities can carry additional notice requirements that arrive early.
- As a common carrier, a bus operator owes passengers a high duty of care. That standard works for you.
- Private charter and tour buses are not capped at all - and often carry substantial commercial policies.
- Buses have onboard cameras. That footage is often the best evidence in the case, and it does not last.
- There are no seatbelts on most buses. A hard stop throws standing passengers into poles and seat backs.
Hurt on or by a bus? We're on your side.
Buses move an enormous number of people through this city every day, and most of the time they do it safely. But a bus is a multi-ton vehicle with no seatbelts, passengers standing in the aisle, huge blind spots, and a driver operating on a schedule - and when something goes wrong, the people who get hurt are usually the ones with the least protection of anyone on the road.
And then the case turns out not to work the way people expect. If it was an RTA bus, you are making a claim against a public agency with in-house counsel, its own procedures, a statutory damage cap that almost everybody misunderstands, and onboard video that disappears if nobody demands it. If it was a charter or tour bus, none of that applies and the rules are different again. Getting that first question right changes everything.
- Demand preservation of the onboard video before it is overwritten
- Determine immediately whether a public entity or a private carrier is the defendant
- Handle every notice requirement that comes with suing a public entity
- Pull the driver's file, training records, and maintenance logs
- Hold the operator to the high duty of care a common carrier owes passengers
- Identify every defendant - including the ones the cap does not protect
- Prove the medical care and lost earnings the cap does not touch
- Negotiate hard - and file suit if they refuse to be fair
What to do after a bus accident
One step matters more than all the others, and it is the same one almost nobody knows to take. Read step five.
1
Call 911
Get police and paramedics on scene and make sure an official report is written. The bus operator will document the incident their own way, and their report is not written for you.
2
Get medical attention
Buses have no seatbelts. A hard stop throws standing passengers into poles, seat backs, and each other, and neck and back injuries frequently do not appear until the next morning. Go and get checked.
3
Note whose bus it is
RTA. School board. Charter company. Tour operator. Photograph the livery, the number on the side, and any company name. This single fact determines which body of law governs your entire case.
4
Get witnesses
A bus is full of people, and almost all of them are strangers who will be gone in ninety seconds. Their names and numbers are worth more than nearly anything else you can collect.
5
Ask us to demand the onboard video - immediately
Buses carry cameras, and that footage is frequently the single best piece of evidence in the case. It also runs on systems that overwrite. A prompt written preservation demand is the difference between proving your case and arguing about it.
6
Call the Forstalls
Before you speak with a claims department. If it was a public entity, procedural traps arrive earlier than you expect.
The First Question Decides Everything
Whose bus was it?
An RTA bus means a public entity claim: a $500,000 cap on general damages, notice requirements that arrive early, and a common carrier duty that works in your favor. A charter or tour bus means a private defendant with no cap and often a substantial commercial policy. A school bus means something different again. Same injury, same pain - three completely different cases. Get the answer wrong and you can damage a good claim before you file it.
Public bus or private bus - the rules that change
This is the fork in the road, and everything downstream depends on which way your case goes.
Common Carrier: A Higher Duty
This works in your favor and applies to buses generally. A carrier that takes the public aboard owes its passengers a high degree of care - a heavier standard than an ordinary driver owes you. A violent stop that throws standing passengers across the aisle is not automatically excused.
RTA: The $500,000 Cap - And What It Does Not Cap
Louisiana limits general damages against public entities to $500,000 per injured person (La. R.S. 13:5106). But the cap excludes medical care and related benefits, and lost earnings and future earnings. Those are not capped. People hear the word and assume their case is worthless. Usually it is not.
RTA: Notice Requirements Come Early
Claims against public entities can carry procedural and notice obligations that arrive well before the ordinary filing deadline. Missing one can damage a perfectly good case before it is ever filed.
Charter, Tour & Private Buses: No Cap
A private bus company is not a public entity. The $500,000 cap does not apply, and these operators frequently carry substantial commercial liability policies. They may also be subject to federal motor carrier safety regulations.
School Buses
May involve a school board, a private contractor, or both, and can carry their own procedural rules. The duty owed to children is taken very seriously, and so is the record-keeping.
2 Years to File - But Do Not Wait
For injuries on or after July 1, 2024, you generally have two years. But the notice clock and the video clock both run much faster than that.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts - call us and we'll tell you where you actually stand.
Why bus cases are different
People assume a bus claim is a car accident claim with more passengers. It is not. Depending on who owns the bus, almost everything about the case can change - the defendant, the deadline, the duty of care, the damages, and the evidence.
Here is what actually changes, and why it matters from day one.
The DefendantA public agency with in-house counsel, or a private carrier with a commercial policy. Two very different fights
The Cap$500,000 on general damages against a public entity - but medical care and lost earnings are not capped
The ClockPublic entity claims can carry notice requirements well before the ordinary deadline
The VideoOnboard cameras are often the best evidence in the case - and the footage does not last
The DutyCommon carriers owe passengers a high degree of care. That standard cuts your way
The Defense“You should have been holding the handrail” - and under the 51% rule, that argument now has real teeth
Types of bus accident cases
Bus cases are not one thing. A passenger thrown down the aisle by a sudden stop, a pedestrian struck in a crosswalk by a turning bus, a driver T-boned by a bus running a light, a child hurt getting off at a school stop - these are four different cases, with four different defendants and four different sets of proof.
We handle all of them, and the first job in every one is the same: establish exactly whose bus it was, and what rules that brings with it.
RTA City Bus AccidentsSchool Bus AccidentsCharter & Tour Bus CrashesCasino & Shuttle BusesSudden Stops & StartsPassenger Falls in the AisleBoarding & Exiting InjuriesDoors Closing on PassengersBus vs. PedestrianBus vs. VehicleBus vs. CyclistBlind Spot & Wide-Turn CrashesDriver NegligencePoor Maintenance & Mechanical Failure
Common bus accident injuries
Most buses have no seatbelts, and a great many passengers are standing or seated sideways with nothing in front of them. When a bus stops hard, the passengers keep going - into a pole, into a seat back, into the floor, into each other.
That produces a distinctive injury pattern, and one that insurers love to minimize because it does not look dramatic in a photograph:
Whiplash & Neck InjuriesBack & Spinal InjuriesHerniated DiscsTraumatic Brain Injury & ConcussionBroken Wrists & ArmsShoulder InjuriesHip & Knee InjuriesFacial InjuriesCrush InjuriesInternal InjuriesInjuries to ChildrenWrongful Death
“It's just soft tissue.”
You will hear this, and it is designed to make you feel unreasonable for still being in pain three months later. There is no dramatic x-ray. There is no cast. There is just a person who cannot turn their head to check a blind spot, and who has not slept properly since it happened.
Soft tissue is not a synonym for minor. A herniated disc is a soft tissue injury. So is a torn rotator cuff, and so is the nerve impingement that ends a career in a trade. On a bus - where a standing passenger is thrown into a steel pole with nothing to brace against - these injuries are extremely common and routinely undervalued.
The answer is documentation. See a doctor immediately, describe every symptom, and go back when new ones appear. Ask about imaging if the pain persists. A gap in treatment gets argued as a gap in injury - and in a claim against an agency with counsel on staff, that argument will be made carefully and well.
Compensation in a bus case
Here is where people get told something wrong, so let us be precise. If your claim is against the RTA or another public entity, Louisiana caps general damages - pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life - at $500,000 per injured person.
That cap does not apply to your medical care and related benefits, and it does not apply to your lost earnings or lost future earning capacity. Those are recoverable on top of it. And if a private party shares fault - the driver who turned in front of the bus, a maintenance contractor, a parts manufacturer - claims against them are not capped at all. If the bus was a charter or tour operator, the cap never applied in the first place.
Economic damages
- Emergency room, hospital & surgery bills
- Future medical care & rehabilitation
- Physical therapy & ongoing treatment
- Lost wages and time off work
- Lost future earning capacity
- In-home care and assistance
- Property damage
- Out-of-pocket and transportation costs
Non-economic damages
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish & emotional distress
- Permanent scarring & disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Disability & loss of independence
- Loss of consortium
- (Capped at $500,000 only where a public entity is the defendant)
What actually changes when a lawyer steps in
In a bus case, the other side is already working before you have left the scene. They have procedures, investigators, and counsel. The day we send our letter of representation, you stop being the only person here without a professional in your corner.
The first thing we do is demand preservation of the onboard video, in writing, immediately. Bus cameras are frequently the single most valuable evidence in the case - they show the stop, the fall, the door, the crossing - and they do not have a story to protect. They also run on systems that overwrite. Footage that would have won a case outright is lost every year because nobody asked in time.
Then we go after everything else with a shelf life: the driver's file and training records, the maintenance and inspection logs for that bus, the incident report, prior complaints about the same route or the same driver, and the business cameras along the street. When the defendant is a public entity, the paper trail is enormous - and useful only to the person who knows to demand it.
And we identify every defendant, not just the obvious one. Because a driver who turned in front of the bus, the contractor who maintained it, and the company that built the part are not protected by the public entity cap - and finding them can be worth more than the cap itself.
Mistakes that can hurt your claim
Bus claims get damaged in the first two weeks, and rarely by anything dramatic. They get damaged by a polite conversation with a claims representative, a decision to wait and see whether the neck loosens up, and a video file quietly overwriting itself while nobody says a word.
None of the mistakes below are fatal on their own. But against a defendant with counsel on staff, every one of them will be noticed.
- Telling the driver or anyone at the scene that you are fine
- Leaving without the incident number, photographs, or a single witness name
- Waiting on the video - the footage that proves your case is already counting down
- Speaking with a claims department before you have a lawyer
- Assuming the “cap” means your case is worth nothing
- Not establishing whose bus it was - which changes the entire case
- Skipping treatment because it is “just” a sore neck and back
- Missing a public entity notice requirement you never knew existed
Recent results for injured clients
A few examples of what we've recovered for people seriously hurt by someone else's negligence.
$2,200,000
Auto Accident
$1,500,000
Catastrophic Injury
$975,000
Serious Injury
$750,000
Head Injury
$485,000
Pedestrian Accident
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own facts.
The Full Picture
Understanding a New Orleans bus accident claim
Almost everything about a bus case depends on a single fact you may not have thought to write down: whose bus it was. Get that right, and the rest follows. Get it wrong, and you can damage a strong claim before you ever file it.
Three buses, three completely different cases
An RTA bus is operated by a public entity. That means a claim governed by the rules for suing the state and its political subdivisions: a statutory cap on general damages, procedural and notice requirements that can arrive early, in-house counsel, and investigators who will be documenting the incident while you are still deciding whether your neck hurts.
A charter bus, a tour bus, or a casino shuttle is a private company. No cap. Often a substantial commercial liability policy, and potentially federal motor carrier safety regulations covering the driver's hours, qualification, and the vehicle's maintenance.
A school bus may involve a school board, a private contractor, or both, with its own procedural landscape and its own records.
Same injury. Same aisle. Same pain. Three fundamentally different legal roads - and the fork happens on the day it occurs, not the day you call a lawyer.
The onboard video, and the clock nobody tells you about
This is the most important paragraph on this page. Buses carry cameras. In case after case, that footage is the best evidence in the entire file - it shows the violence of the stop, the passenger going down, the door closing on an arm, the turn across the crosswalk. It has no memory to protect and no story to tell.
And it runs on a system that overwrites. Every year, cases that could have been proven outright get argued instead, or dropped, because nobody sent a written preservation demand and the footage was gone before anyone thought to ask.
If you take one thing from this page, take this: the video clock starts the moment the incident ends, and it runs much faster than the legal deadline. Call somebody. Even if it is not us.
“The legal deadline is two years. The video may be gone in weeks.”
The cap that everybody gets wrong
Somebody has probably told you that a case against the RTA is capped, and that therefore it is not worth much. That is half a fact, and half a fact is worse than none.
Louisiana does cap damages against public entities. But it caps general damages - pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life - at five hundred thousand dollars per injured person.
What the cap explicitly does not touch is your medical care and related benefits, and it does not touch your lost earnings or your lost future earning capacity. If a serious injury means surgery, years of treatment, and a career you cannot go back to, those numbers sit outside the cap entirely. And if a private party shares the blame - the driver who cut in front of the bus, a contractor who serviced the brakes, a manufacturer whose part failed - the cap does not apply to them at all.
So no, the cap does not make your case worthless. What it does is make it critically important that somebody proves every dollar of medical care and lost earning capacity, and finds every defendant who is not shielded by it.
The rule that works in your favor
Here is the part no transit agency and no charter company is going to volunteer. Under Louisiana law, a common carrier - an operator who takes the public aboard and carries them - owes its passengers a high degree of care. Higher than what an ordinary driver owes you on the road.
That matters more than it sounds like it does. The question in a passenger case is not simply whether the driver did what any reasonable person would do. It is whether a careful carrier, responsible for the safety of people standing in its aisle with nothing to hold but a strap, did what it should have done.
It is one of the few structural advantages an injured passenger has, and it should be used.
What we need from you
Get medical care immediately and keep going. A bus throws people around without leaving a mark, and neck and back injuries that seem manageable in week one are routinely still there in year two.
Save everything: the incident number, your fare receipt or transfer, photographs, and the names of anyone who saw it. If you can, photograph the bus itself - the livery, the number, any company name. That single photograph may determine which body of law governs your case.
Do not speak with a claims department until you have talked to a lawyer. And tell us everything, including whether you were holding the rail, whether you had been drinking, and whether you were looking at your phone. We can work with a bad fact we know about. We cannot work around one we learn about from opposing counsel in a deposition.
It costs nothing to find out where you stand
You do not owe us anything to have this conversation. The consultation is free, and if we take your case, you pay no attorney's fee unless we recover money for you. If we do not win, you owe us nothing.
Two generations of this family have spent nearly 50 years doing exactly this work for our neighbors in New Orleans. Call us at 504-483-3400, and let's talk about what your case is really worth.
Bus accident FAQ
Can I sue the RTA?
Yes. The Regional Transit Authority operates New Orleans' buses, and Louisiana law permits claims against public entities for injuries caused by their negligence. What changes is the procedure: public entity claims can carry additional notice requirements, they follow their own rules, and the RTA has in-house counsel and investigators. It is entirely possible to win. It just has to be done correctly from the beginning.
I heard damages against the RTA are capped. Is my case worthless?
No, and this is the most misunderstood thing about these cases. Louisiana caps general damages - pain and suffering - at $500,000 per injured person against public entities. But the cap does not apply to your medical care and related benefits, and it does not apply to lost earnings or lost future earning capacity. Those are recoverable on top of it. And if a private party shares fault, claims against them are not capped at all.
What if it was a charter bus or a tour bus?
Then the public entity cap does not apply at all. Private bus companies frequently carry substantial commercial liability policies, and depending on the operation they may also be subject to federal motor carrier safety regulations governing driver hours, qualification, and vehicle maintenance. This is often a stronger position than a claim against a public agency.
Is there really onboard video, and how do I get it?
Yes, buses carry cameras, and that footage is frequently the best evidence in the entire case. The problem is that it runs on systems that overwrite. A written legal preservation demand needs to go out quickly. This is one of the main reasons to call a lawyer within days rather than months, even if you are not certain you want to make a claim.
The bus stopped suddenly and I fell. Isn't that just what buses do?
Not necessarily. As a common carrier, a bus operator owes passengers a high degree of care - a heavier standard than an ordinary driver owes you. Passengers stand in the aisle with no seatbelt and nothing to brace against, and a carrier is supposed to operate with that in mind. Whether a stop was reasonable depends on why it happened and what the driver saw. Do not assume it was unavoidable because you were told it was.
My child was hurt on a school bus. What do we do?
Contact us. School bus cases may involve a school board, a private contractor, or both, and can carry their own procedural rules and deadlines. The duty owed to children is taken seriously, and so is the documentation - but the video and the records still have a shelf life. Move quickly.
I was hit by a bus while walking or driving. Is that the same kind of case?
The same first question applies: whose bus was it? If it was an RTA bus, you are in a public entity claim with all that entails. If it was a private carrier, you are not. Either way, the onboard video may show exactly what happened, and it needs to be preserved immediately.
How long do I have to file a bus claim?
For injuries on or after July 1, 2024, Louisiana generally allows two years. But do not rely on that: claims against public entities can carry earlier notice requirements, and the onboard video clock runs much faster than either. Call as soon as you can.
The Forstalls Take Care of It All
Hurt on or by a bus? Let's preserve that video today.
Tell us what happened. Your consultation is free, there's no obligation, and you pay nothing unless we win.