Yellow city bus parked by a sidewalk, rear view with doors open and tail lights visible

CTA Accident Lawyer for Chicago Bus and Train Injuries

We handle Chicago Transit Authority injury claims, and we build every one of them around the one-year suit deadline most riders never hear about until it has already run. Our three largest published recoveries, $11 million, $8 million and $5 million, are all CTA cases.

Your Deadline to Sue the CTA Is One Year, Not Two

Section 41 of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, 70 ILCS 3605/41, bars a personal injury action against the Chicago Transit Authority unless it is commenced within one year from the date the cause of action accrued. An ordinary Illinois injury claim against a private driver gets two years. Same broken hip, same medical bills, half the time to act.


Here is how the clocks compare, because almost nobody riding the bus knows they are different:


  • One year from the date of injury to file suit against the CTA, under 70 ILCS 3605/41.
  • Two years for an ordinary Illinois personal injury claim, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.
  • One year for a claim against most other local public entities, under 745 ILCS 10/8-101.
  • File after the deadline and the case is dismissed as time-barred, no matter how badly you were hurt or how clearly the operator was at fault.


A year sounds generous when you are three weeks into physical therapy. It is not, because the investigation, the medical record and the video all have to be gathered inside it.


Call (312) 492-7700 or email info@lsblaw.net today and we will tell you the date your deadline falls on before you hang up.

Why a CTA Passenger Case Is Stronger Than a Routine Car Crash

In Illinois a common carrier owes its passengers the highest degree of care consistent with the practical operation of the vehicle. An ordinary driver owes ordinary care. The CTA is held to more than that every time it opens a door and takes a fare.


That duty has a limit worth knowing before you call us. The jolt, sway and normal stop that happen on every bus and train ride are not enough on their own. The movement has to be unusual or extraordinary, the kind of stop or lurch that a bus in that traffic had no business making. Which kind it was is usually settled by the onboard footage, and that is the single reason the first week matters more than the eleventh month.

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CTA Bus Accident Claims We Handle Across Chicago

People come to us as a CTA bus accident lawyer in Chicago from inside the bus and from outside it, and the claim is built differently depending on where you were standing. These are the situations that produce the cases we see:


  • A passenger thrown down or into a stanchion when the bus braked, accelerated or turned abnormally
  • A passenger hurt while boarding or stepping off, including a door closing on a person, an arm or a bag
  • A rider injured when the bus struck another vehicle, a pole or a fixed object
  • A pedestrian struck in a crosswalk, at a bus stop or while crossing at an intersection
  • A cyclist struck by a bus in a shared lane, a bike lane or a right turn across one
  • A driver whose own car was struck or sideswiped by a bus pulling out of a stop
  • A wheelchair user injured by a lift failure or an unsecured securement


If a relative did not survive a CTA collision, the claim belongs to the estate and is handled as a wrongful death case rather than an injury case.

CTA Train and 'L' Accidents Take a Different Kind of Proof

A rail claim reaches us as often as a bus claim, and the evidence sits in different places. As a CTA train accident attorney we work platform footage, station camera coverage, door and gap conditions and rail car maintenance records rather than a street-level crash reconstruction. The claims we handle on the 'L' come off the Red, Blue, Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple and Yellow lines and look like this:


  • A fall from a platform edge, or onto the tracks
  • Doors closing on a passenger, a hand or a bag as the train pulls out
  • A fall on station stairs, an escalator or a wet or broken platform surface
  • A derailment, or a collision between trains
  • A person struck at street level along the Yellow, Purple or Brown line right-of-way
  • An injury during boarding or exiting caused by a gap or an uneven platform height


Rail claims run under the same Section 41 one-year deadline as bus claims. Riders who assume a train case is somehow slower to develop lose the same year.

Two people talking across a desk in an office, with folders and a laptop nearby.
People boarding a white bus, carrying backpacks, in a parking lot

Three CTA Recoveries, With the Facts Attached

$11 million

For a passenger struck by a CTA bus who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Settled during trial.

$8 million

Verdict for a woman struck by a CTA bus with orthopedic and traumatic brain injuries.

$5 million

For a University of Chicago student struck by a CTA bus while riding a bicycle, with foot, leg and pelvis injuries. Settled during trial.

Two of the three settled during trial, which is the practical meaning of preparing every case as though it will be tried. A defendant that expects the case to fold does not pay in the middle of testimony. The rest of our case results are published in full.

The CTA Records That Decide Your Case, and How Fast They Move

Bus and rail cameras record onto an automatic overwrite cycle. The cycle is short, and nothing about it waits for you to finish treatment or decide whether to call a lawyer. A written preservation demand has to reach the CTA early, and it has to name the specific records worth having.


  • Onboard camera footage from the bus or the rail car
  • Platform and station camera footage
  • The operator's run and schedule data for that trip
  • The incident report the operator filed after the collision
  • Maintenance and inspection records for that vehicle
  • The operator's training file and prior incident history
  • The CTA's own investigation file on your accident


Those records are what turn "the bus stopped hard" into a documented account of what the operator did and what the vehicle was doing at the time.

What to Do in the First Week After a CTA Accident

Step 1: Write down what identifies the vehicle

The route number, the bus or car number, the direction of travel and the time. On rail, the station and the line. These are how the CTA locates the trip and the footage attached to it.


Step 2: Report the injury and get the incident number

Ask the operator or station personnel to document it. If you left by ambulance, the report may already exist under a number we can request.


Step 3: Get medically evaluated even if you walked away

Head injuries and internal orthopedic damage often present the next day. The record dated closest to the accident is the one that carries weight later.


Step 4: Get a preservation demand out before the footage cycles

This is the step that cannot be made up later. Once video is overwritten, no amount of good lawyering brings it back.


Step 5: Do not give a recorded statement until you have talked to a lawyer

A CTA claims representative may call within days. You are allowed to say that your attorney will return the call.

You Do Not Have to Have Been on the Bus

Our own record is built largely on people who were nowhere near a fare box when a CTA vehicle hit them. If you were outside the bus, this page is still your page:


  • Struck on foot at a crosswalk, a bus stop or an intersection
  • Struck on a bicycle in traffic, in a bike lane or in a shared bus lane
  • Hit while driving your own car, including a sideswipe as a bus pulled away from the curb


The pedestrian and bicycle claims carry their own proof problems, and we handle both. Whichever one describes you, the CTA's one-year deadline is the deadline that applies.

Pace, Metra and the CTA Are Three Different Defendants

Riders use the words interchangeably. The law does not. Pace and Metra are separate public entities with their own claims departments, and a claim against a local public entity generally runs one year under 745 ILCS 10/8-101. Charter, tour coach, intercity carrier, school bus and private shuttle claims sit outside the transit rules entirely and are handled on our bus accident page.


Whichever system was involved, the clock is shorter than the two years people expect. That is the whole reason the first call matters here more than it would after a collision between two private cars.

Thirty Years of Chicago Courtrooms Behind Your Claim

Two people boarding a colorful train at a station platform

Leonard S. Becker opened this practice in 1993 and has spent more than three decades trying injury cases in Chicago. The CTA results on this page were not bought with a demand letter. They were built by people who know how transit litigation actually unfolds.


  • Admitted in the Illinois state courts, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Member of the Illinois Bar Association, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the Federal Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois
  • Work covered by the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
  • Office at 311 N. Aberdeen, Suite 200D, reachable on the CTA Blue and Green lines
  • Home and hospital consultations when an injury keeps you from traveling to us

What It Costs to Have Us Look at Your CTA Claim

The case evaluation is free, and we take CTA cases on a one-third contingency fee, which means no fee unless we recover compensation for you. The fee is calculated on the gross recovery, case expenses are reimbursed after it, and medical bills and liens are paid before the balance goes to you.

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Questions Riders Ask After a CTA Accident

  • How long do I have to sue the CTA after a bus accident?

    One year from the date the cause of action accrued, under Section 41 of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, 70 ILCS 3605/41. That is half of the two-year window that applies to an ordinary Illinois injury claim under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. Filing even a day past the one-year mark ends the claim.

  • Do I have to file a notice before suing the Chicago Transit Authority?

    Section 41 today sets one deadline, and it is the one-year deadline to commence suit. The step that genuinely cannot wait is a written demand that the CTA preserve the video and records from your trip, because that footage runs on an overwrite cycle that answers to nobody's case.

  • I was standing when the bus stopped hard and I fell. Do I have a case?

    Possibly, and it turns on whether the movement was unusual or extraordinary rather than the normal motion of a bus in traffic. Illinois holds a common carrier to the highest degree of care consistent with the practical operation of the vehicle, so an abnormal stop or lurch can support a claim. The onboard footage usually shows which kind of stop it was, which is why we request it immediately.

  • Can I sue the CTA if I got hurt on the L or hit by a bus while walking or biking?

    Yes. You do not have to have been a paying passenger to bring a claim against the Chicago Transit Authority. Our $11 million and $8 million recoveries both involve people struck by a CTA bus, and the $5 million recovery involves a student on a bicycle. The same one-year deadline applies to all of them.

  • A CTA claims representative called me. Should I give a statement?

    Talk to a lawyer before you do. The representative works for the entity you would be making a claim against, and a recorded statement given while you are medicated or still learning the extent of your injuries becomes evidence in the case. You are not required to give one, and it is entirely proper to say your attorney will call back.

  • Who pays my medical bills after a CTA bus hit me?

    In the near term, your health insurance, any medical payments coverage on your own auto policy, or a provider who treats you and asserts a lien against the eventual recovery. Money from the CTA comes at the end of the case, not during treatment. We negotiate the liens before funds are distributed so more of the recovery reaches you.

  • What do I do if a CTA bus driver caused my accident?

    Record the route, vehicle number, direction and time, report the injury and get an incident number, and get evaluated medically the same day if you can. Then call us so a preservation demand goes out while the footage still exists. Those four things, done in the first week, decide how strong the case is in the twelfth month.

  • What if a family member was killed in a CTA accident?

    The claim belongs to the estate and is brought by the personal representative under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. Deadlines run short when the defendant is a transit authority, so the estate's claim should be reviewed within weeks rather than months. We can walk a family through what is recoverable and who is entitled to it.

One Year Is Less Time Than It Sounds Like

If a CTA bus or train hurt you, the deadline is already running and the video is already cycling. We have taken the Chicago Transit Authority to trial and been paid during it, and we will tell you honestly on the first call whether we think you have a claim. Call (312) 492-7700 or email info@lsblaw.net.