Greyhound Bus Accident Cases

Greyhound Bus Accident Cases - 10 Things You Must Know
To Win Your Case
Greyhound Bus Lines, Inc is one of the largest bus operators in the United States and has a
long history of accidents, poor training, lack of supervision, and questionable safety controls.
Vuk Vujasinovic & Brian Beckcom, the founding partners of the nationally renowned law firm
of VB Attorneys, have successfully taken on and beaten some of the largest corporations in
the world, including Greyhound. Vuk and Brian have handled cases against General Motors,
Ford Motor Company, Firestone, Cooper Tire, most of the major oil and gas companies, and
many of the countries’ largest bus and commercial motor vehicle operators.
Greyhound has a long history of hiring irresponsible drivers, and then asking those drivers
(many of whom should not be behind the wheel to begin with) to drive excessive hours,
sometimes in poor weather conditions when they should not be operating buses at all.
Greyhound’s primary headquarters are in Dallas, Texas, a short distance from VB Attorneys’
main offices in Houston, Texas. Greyhound’s location in Dallas often allows cases against
them to be presented in Dallas courts instead of a different location, such as the state where
the accident occurred or where the passengers or driver lived at the time of the bus crash.
The purpose of this white paper is to inform victims of Greyhound bus crashes (or other
major bus operators) of their rights so they can position their case for the best possible
outcome.
1.
Won’t Greyhound just pay a reasonable settlement?
No.
Many of our clients believe that if the crash was clearly the result of the other party, then the
company or insurance carrier will simply pay a fair settlement.
Nothing could be further from the truth and this almost never happens in real life. Study after
study has demonstrated that accident victims with attorneys almost always get significantly
larger settlements than accident victims without attorneys.
It would seem reasonable for Greyhound to simply settle claims without involving attorneys.
However, this approach doesn’t work for many reasons. One primary reason is that
Greyhound’s insurance carriers want to pay as little as possible—in fact, they have legal
responsibilities to Greyhound to minimize claims. One way the insurance companies
minimize claims is by leading people to believe that their claim will be paid timely and then
stringing them along as long as possible until it’s too late to get a great result.
You are almost always better off hiring an attorney to help you in any significant injury case
involving a large company like Greyhound.
2. You’ve been approached “out of the blue” by a lawyer who says he wants to
represent you — What should you do?
You should not hire that lawyer.
Soliciting injury victims is unethical and possibly illegal. Any lawyer who needs to break the
rules and risk his or her law license in order to try to get your case probably isn't going to be
very good, so you should avoid these individuals at all costs.
Why wouldn’t you just hire a real lawyer to begin with?
3. Should you give a recorded statement to Greyhound or its lawyers or insurance
adjusters?
No.
The only reason they want a recorded statement is to develop facts and information they can
use against you. The individuals hired by Greyhound to conduct investigations are
professionals. They have experience investigating accidents and minimizing claims. Don’t
make their job easier. Simply refuse to give a recorded statement.
4. Should you release your private information (like medical records and bills) to
Greyhound?
No.
Greyhound may request information from you of a private nature like medical bills or wage
statements. You should refuse. Greyhound is looking to make this a “one way street,”
where Greyhound gets information from you and gives you nothing but empty promises in
return. Again, don’t make their job easier.
5. How much is your case worth?
That depends on a lot of factors, such as the severity of your injuries and the accident facts,
along with the results of the investigation and the driver’s record, just to name a few.
At our law firm, we will give you an upfront estimate of the value of your case as soon as we
are in a position to do so. While we may not be able to give you an estimate of the value of
your case immediately, once we have the appropriate information collected and analyzed we
will tell you a range for a settlement of your case.
6. Should you hire a Board Certified Lawyer?
Absolutely.
Board Certification is a difficult process. So difficult, in fact, that only 2% of lawyers in Texas
are Board Certified in any aspect of the law. To become Board Certified in Personal Injury
Law in Texas, , you must have a minimum number of years of practice, you must have tried
cases for clients in Court a minimum number of times, you must pass a difficult test, and you
must get recommendations from lawyers and judges. You must continue to work on a
significant number of personal injury cases and you must take continuing legal education
classes every year in personal injury trial law.
Here are some other things to consider:
Review the lawyer’s AVVO ranking at AVVO.com. Anything less than a 9/10 should make you
think twice.
Has the lawyer worked on high profile cases? Taking on Greyhound or any other large
corporation in a serious personal injury case isn’t easy. You want a lawyer who has handled
complex and difficult cases.
Does the lawyer have a list of clients who are willing to talk you about their qualities and
credentials? Huge warning flag if the lawyer cannot point you to a single reference.
Does the lawyer have a “track record” of victories he or she is willing to share? What does it
tell you if the lawyer cannot point to significant victories?
Will the lawyer work on your case personally or pawn you off on some junior associate? You
want to know who will be in charge of your case.
Has the lawyer published any articles, books or reports? Generally, the more articles, books,
and reports the lawyer has published the better respected they will be.
These are all important things you should consider when deciding whether to hire a particular
lawyer.
7. How can you tell if your lawyer really is the best for your case?
First of all, if you are taking on a large corporation like Greyhound and its armies of insurance
adjusters and attorneys, you need to hire a law firm that can go toe-to-toe with these
companies. Most personal injury firms just don’t have the manpower, resources, and
reputation to take on and win high profile cases against large corporations.
You want a firm that has the respect—and even fear—of corporations and their lawyers. You
need to make sure you hire a “real” lawyer—not some lawyer who solicited you out of the
blue only to pawn you off on a real lawyer or who spends millions of dollars on TV advertising
but couldn’t even find the courthouse.
Second, you want a lawyer who is willing to let you talk to past clients, so you have proof
from other people that the lawyer knows what he or she is doing.
Third, you should considering limiting your selection to Board Certified lawyers as discussed
above.
Once you’ve ensured that the lawyer has a fundamental baseline competence, then after that
you want a lawyer that you can trust. A lawyer you feel a “connection” with. A lawyer you
think is honest with you and will be with you from the start of your case to the very end.
A lawyer you like.
You will be working closely with your lawyer and his or her team for many months. You need
to establish a good working relationship right at the beginning.
8. What’s the most important thing in winning your case?
Being honest.
If you aren’t totally upfront and honest with your attorney about everything regarding your
case and your background, then a small inconsistency will be exploited by Greyhound to
make you look like you are exaggerating your claims or shouldn’t be trusted. People with
legal claims who aren’t honest simply don’t receive the best settlements. Even if you have
something in your background that you don’t think is relevant to the case, or something that
seems like you should hide, you should tell your lawyer everything that comes to mind.
Making sure your lawyer knows everything will allow he/she to be prepared to minimize any
“bad” facts and not get blindsided by something you’ve tried to keep secret.
9. How much will it cost to hire VB Attorneys?
Nothing.
You don’t have to pay any money upfront. Your case expenses and attorney fees will be
paid if and only if your legal claims are successful. If you aren’t successful, you pay nothing.
10. You are interested in hiring VB Attorneys for your case - What’s the next step?
Simple.
Call us toll free, 877.724.7800. You will speak to a Board Certified Lawyer immediately. That
lawyer will answer every single question you have and maybe even answer questions you
didn’t know you needed to ask.
You will get a full, confidential case review as well, and if you want, that case review will be put
into writing. You will get to meet your lawyer in person if you want, and you will meet the
entire team that will be assigned to your case.
If you decide to hire us and we decide to accept your case, then you’ll sign a contract which
makes us your “official” lawyers for your case. We will let you review the contract and ask
any questions you have about the contract.
Once you’ve signed the contract, then we will begin working on your case immediately.
There won’t be any “delay” and you’ll get a full team assigned to prosecute your case that
same day.
About VB Attorneys
VB Attorneys is a nationally recognized law firm of trial lawyers based in Houston, Texas and
accepting cases nationwide.
Founded by Brian Beckcom and Vuk Vujasinovic, VB Attorneys has been recognized by the
legal community as rising stars in their field. They handle a wide variety of cases including
traffic accidents, work related accidents, wrongful death claims, railroad injuries, burn injuries
and dangerous product injuries. With over 45 years of combined experience in the
courtroom representing injury victims, the attorneys at VB Attorneys are dedicated to finding
justice for victims of accidents that were caused by the negligence of someone else, or when
the accident should have been prevented.
You can read more about their case results as well as view client testimonials on their
website, www.VBAttorneys.com.