The law allows just about anybody who was injured in a motor vehicle collision to access the courts right after an accident, but if you’ve been injured in an accident involving a Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) bus, you’ll have to jump through a hoop first. That involves serving a written notice of a claim for injury. Service of that notice is a condition precedent to filing a lawsuit against KAT.
The general rule
KAT is a government entity, and pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-20-201, government entities are immune from lawsuits that arise out of the negligence of a government employee, so long as that employee was acting in the course and scope of his or her employment. An exception to that rule is when a person is injured through the negligent operation of a motor vehicle by a government employee. The injured person can serve the injury claim notice at any time within the period of the statute of limitations. What comes to issue is that Tennessee is one of the few states in the country with a one year statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit. With that short of a limitations period, a person injured by a KAT bus should serve the claim injury notice as soon as possible.
No jury trials
Anybody injured by a KAT bus doesn’t have the right to a jury trial though. Tennessee Code Annotated Section 29-20-307 strips that right from the injured party. Not only does it take the right of a jury trial away from the victim, but damages for one person are capped at $300,000.
Negligence
Nearly every personal injury lawsuit brought against KAT is based on the law of negligence. To prove negligence, the injured person must show that:
The injured person is required to prove each one of those elements. A failure to prove any single one of them will result in an entire case failing. No two cases are the same. If the elements of negligence are proved, the injured person is entitled to an award of damages. Damages might consist of:
A damages cap of $300,000 seems fundamentally unfair for a person who suffered a serious traumatic brain or spinal cord injury. What’s terribly unfair is that if two or more people are seriously injured or killed, total damages awarded aren’t permitted to exceed $700,000.
Given the notice requirement and very short statute of limitations in Tennessee, time is of the essence in bringing any personal injury case against KAT. The interplay between the timing of the notice and the time to sue can become critical. Whether you were injured as a passenger on a KAT bus, a driver or occupant of another motor vehicle, a motorcyclist, bicyclist or a pedestrian, you have the right to sue KAT after serving it with your injury claim notice. Contact us after any KAT bus accident for a free consultation and case evaluation.
