Clovis Bus Accident Lawyer

Your Attorney — Sarwinder Dhanjan

Sarwinder Dhanjan is the founding attorney of Dhanjan Injury Lawyer. He handles every case personally — you work directly with him from the first call through final resolution. Attorney Dhanjan is admitted to the State Bar of California and is active in Fresno County Superior Court.

Languages: English | Spanish | Punjabi | Hindi

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The Six-Month Government Claim Deadline — Do Not Miss This

If the bus was operated by a government entity — Fresno Area Express (FAX), a city or county transit system, or a school district — your claim is subject to the California Government Claims Act. This requires a formal written claim with the responsible government agency within six months of the incident. Missing this deadline permanently bars the government liability claim regardless of how strong your underlying case is. Contact an attorney the same day you are injured on a public transit vehicle.

Evidence in Clovis Bus Accident Cases

Onboard camera systems on Fresno Area Express and other carriers record the approach, the collision, and the cabin during the event — on automatic 30-to-72-hour overwrite schedules. Event data recorders capture pre-impact speed and braking. Driver logs and dispatch records document the driver’s hours and route. Maintenance and inspection records document known mechanical issues. All of this evidence is routinely destroyed in the absence of an immediate litigation hold demand. We serve preservation demands within hours of being retained.

Common Carrier Duty of Care

Under California Civil Code section 2100, common carriers owe passengers the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage. This is a higher standard than ordinary negligence. Any departure from safe operation — inadequate driver training, failure to follow safety protocols, vehicle maintenance deficiencies — establishes liability more readily than in a standard negligence case. We document institutional failures as part of every bus accident investigation.

Compensation Available in Clovis Bus Accident Claims

Bus accident compensation in Clovis operates under the common carrier standard — a higher duty of care than ordinary negligence — which affects both the liability analysis and the damages recovery. Because the carrier is held to the utmost care for passenger safety, any departure from safe operation that produces injury establishes liability more readily than in a standard vehicle collision. Economic damages in bus accident cases include all past and future medical treatment costs, lost wages, and lost earning capacity when injuries are permanent. The secondary impact mechanism — passengers thrown against interior structures — frequently produces spinal and orthopedic injuries that require surgical intervention and extended rehabilitation, with future care costs that must be projected by a life care planner before any settlement demand is made.

Government transit claims against Fresno Area Express involve an additional layer of damages analysis: the Government Claims Act caps on damages that apply to government entities under California Government Code section 985. For serious injuries that exceed the government entity’s statutory cap on non-economic damages, the analysis must account for both the government cap and any available excess coverage through the entity’s insurance program. We evaluate the specific coverage structure of every government transit defendant in the early stages of every Clovis bus accident case.

What To Do After a Bus Accident in Clovis

1. Do not leave the bus until emergency services arrive. Moving after a bus accident before being evaluated by emergency medical personnel can worsen spinal injuries and complicate the medical record. Let EMTs assess you at the scene.
2. Note the bus number, route number, and driver name. Government transit vehicles and private carriers have identifiers on the exterior and interior that establish which entity operated the bus and which driver was at the wheel. Photograph these before you exit the vehicle.
3. Seek medical evaluation the same day. Secondary impact injuries in bus accidents — passengers thrown against seat frames, overhead bars, and the floor — produce spinal and neurological injuries that are frequently not fully symptomatic in the first hours. Same-day evaluation is critical to establishing the causal chain.
4. Identify and contact any witnesses. Other passengers on the bus are witnesses to the incident. Get their names and phone numbers before they disperse at the scene or at the next stop.
5. Call Dhanjan Injury Lawyer immediately. The six-month government claims deadline for FAX and other public transit accidents begins running from the date of the incident. There is no grace period. Onboard camera footage overwrites within 30-72 hours. Both deadlines require immediate action.

Six-Month Government Claims Deadline vs. Two-Year Statute — Knowing Which Applies

Two years from the date of injury under California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Government entity claims require six months under the Government Claims Act. For statewide context, see our California Bus Accident Lawyer page. For the Clovis overview, see our Clovis Personal Injury Lawyer hub. For Fresno, see our Fresno Personal Injury Lawyer hub. Contact us for a free consultation.

Fresno Area Express and Clovis Transit

Fresno Area Express (FAX) is operated by the City of Fresno under the authority of the Fresno Council of Governments and is a government entity for purposes of the Government Claims Act. Claims against FAX for bus accidents must comply with the six-month claim filing requirement — and the City of Fresno is the correct entity against which the claim must be filed. Clovis is also served by rural transit routes operated by Fresno County Rural Transit Agency — a separate government entity with its own claims process.

When an accident involves a county transit vehicle rather than a city FAX bus, the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency is the correct entity and the same six-month deadline applies. Identifying the correct government entity in the first days of a bus accident case is a critical step that affects the entire claims process. Naming the wrong entity in the government claim — or filing with one entity when another operated the bus — can result in the claim being barred even when it was filed timely.

Beyond government transit, Clovis and the Fresno area are served by private charter carriers, school transportation contractors, and ride-sharing shuttle services. Each category of carrier has its own liability framework, insurance requirements, and evidence preservation obligations. School bus accidents involving Clovis Unified School District transportation are subject to California Education Code requirements for student safety in addition to standard common carrier duties — creating additional institutional liability theories against the district beyond the individual driver.

How the Common Carrier Standard Affects Damages Recovery in Clovis Bus Cases

Every serious personal injury claim in Clovis involves two categories of damages that must be fully documented before any settlement is negotiated. Settling before this documentation is complete is the most common reason seriously injured people underrecover — once a release is signed, the claim is permanently closed regardless of how conditions develop.

Economic damages are the measurable financial losses the accident produced. Medical expenses from the date of the accident through the end of treatment are documented through medical billing records. Future medical expenses — for injuries that require ongoing care, additional surgeries, or lifetime management — must be projected by a treating physician and, in serious cases, by a certified life care planner whose projections are based on the specific treatment plan and the current market rates for those services in the Fresno area. Lost wages are documented through employer records and tax returns. Lost future earning capacity — when injuries permanently reduce the ability to work — requires vocational rehabilitation expert testimony on the specific functional limitations and their impact on the specific type of work the victim performed before the accident.

Non-economic damages are the human cost of the injury — the harm that does not appear on a medical bill. Physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, permanent disfigurement or scarring, loss of enjoyment of activities and relationships that the injury has disrupted, and loss of consortium where a spouse’s relationship has been affected. These damages are not speculative — they are real, recognized compensable harms under California law. Presenting them persuasively requires detailed testimony about the specific impact of this injury on this person’s specific life — not generic descriptions. We develop this testimony through client interviews and, where appropriate, through testimony from treating mental health providers and family members who can corroborate the daily impact.

Pre-Litigation Government Claims Process for Clovis Transit Accidents

Understanding how claims move from incident to resolution helps Clovis injury victims set realistic expectations and make informed decisions at each stage. The vast majority of claims settle before trial — but the settlement value is determined by the quality of the preparation that precedes it.

From the first call, we begin evidence preservation — litigation hold demands, scene documentation, witness identification. We then guide clients through the medical care process, ensuring consistent treatment and complete documentation. Once treatment is complete and the treating physician has established the long-term prognosis, we prepare a comprehensive demand package — the medical record, economic damages analysis, and non-economic damages narrative — and present it to the carrier. Most serious cases involve multiple rounds of negotiation. When carriers refuse to pay fair value, we file in Fresno County Superior Court at 1100 Van Ness Ave, Fresno, CA 93724 and pursue the case through trial. Our trial-ready preparation standard is what produces full settlement value before trial — and it is what produces full verdict value when trial is necessary.

Passenger Injury Mechanisms in Bus Accidents

Bus passengers frequently suffer injuries not from direct collision impact but from secondary impact within the vehicle — being thrown against interior structures, other passengers, or the floor when the bus stops suddenly, accelerates hard, or is struck. These secondary impact injuries are sometimes mischaracterized by carriers as minor because the bus itself may not have been traveling at high speed at the moment of the primary event. The injury mechanism — the force of the passenger being thrown against a seat frame, overhead bar, or the floor — is what determines injury severity, not the speed of the bus. We document the specific biomechanics of the passenger’s injury in relation to the bus’s movement to counter carrier arguments that low vehicle speed makes serious injury implausible.

The Clock Starts at the Accident — Why Immediate Contact Matters in Bus Cases

Every serious injury claim in Clovis begins the same way: a conversation with Attorney Sarwinder Dhanjan about what happened, what injuries resulted, and what the realistic path to recovery looks like. That conversation is free, confidential, and available in English, Spanish, Punjabi, and Hindi. There are no upfront costs, no commitment required, and no obligation to retain us after the consultation.

What we do in the first consultation: review the specific facts of the accident, identify every potentially liable party, assess the full insurance stack available for recovery, evaluate the strength of the evidence that currently exists and the evidence that needs to be preserved immediately, and give you an honest assessment of the realistic range of what a well-prepared claim may recover. We do not give optimistic numbers to encourage you to sign a fee agreement — we give honest assessments that allow you to make an informed decision about your case.

If you retain us, we begin work immediately. Litigation hold demands go out the same day. Evidence preservation begins before the automatic overwrite cycles that govern commercial cameras, vehicle data recorders, and electronic logging devices eliminate what currently exists. The window for that evidence is measured in hours — not days. For all Clovis injury matters, contact us at (559) 342-2000, available 24/7, or through the contact form at our contact page. Our office at 2170 N. Winery Ave, Fresno, CA 93703 is 6 miles and 15 minutes from Clovis — the same court, the same county, and the same commitment to full-value recovery that we bring to every Fresno case.

Why Clovis Bus Accident Victims Choose Dhanjan Injury Lawyer

Bus accident claims involving government transit — Fresno Area Express, school districts, county transit — require navigating the Government Claims Act deadline, identifying the correct government entity, obtaining onboard camera footage before it overwrites, and building an institutional liability case against a public agency defendant. Most personal injury attorneys handle very few government transit claims in any given year. Attorney Dhanjan is familiar with the specific procedures applicable to transit agency claims in Fresno County and handles these cases with the same trial-ready preparation that defines our approach to every serious injury matter.

Private carrier bus claims — charter buses, shuttle services, transportation network companies — involve the common carrier duty of care, commercial insurance policy analysis, and a liability framework that differs from both standard automobile claims and government transit claims. We evaluate the specific carrier type, duty of care framework, and available coverage in the earliest stage of every Clovis bus accident case.

How Clovis Bus Accident Claims Resolve

Government transit bus accident claims in Clovis follow a mandatory pre-litigation track through the Government Claims Act before a lawsuit can be filed. The formal government claim must be submitted within six months, the government entity has 45 days to respond or reject, and only after rejection can a lawsuit be filed in Fresno County Superior Court. This pre-litigation phase is not simply procedural — it is an opportunity to present the claim to the government entity’s risk management department with full supporting documentation and create a record for subsequent litigation. We use this phase strategically, presenting comprehensive demand packages that force the entity to evaluate the full exposure early.

Private carrier bus accident claims follow the same general litigation timeline as car accident claims — demand package after maximum medical improvement, negotiation, mediation if needed, and Fresno County Superior Court if the carrier refuses fair value. The common carrier liability standard generally produces more favorable settlement positions than standard negligence claims because carriers know courts apply a higher standard to their conduct.