Personal Injury Attorneys
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Personal Accidents & Injuries
Workplace Injuries
Abuse and Assault Injuries
Areas of Oregon Law where Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Leads
Car accident personal injury cases are common in Oregon. If you are involved in a car accident that occurred due to another’s negligence, you will be able to claim damages for personal injury. However, you should know that Oregon is a modified comparative negligence state.
Comparative Negligence
This means, if you share a part of the blame for the accident that resulted in your injuries, you are still eligible to recover damages, but your award will be proportionately reduced according to your share of fault. The condition here is that your share of fault should not be more than that of the other party.
Mandatory Reporting
According to the Oregon DMV, if you have been involved in a car accident where the damage to a vehicle or property is at least $2,500, or a vehicle has been towed from the scene, or a bodily injury or death has occurred, you are required to file an Oregon Traffic Accident & Insurance Report within 72 hours.
Statute of Limitations
In most cases of car accident injury in Oregon, the statute of limitations that will apply says that you can file an injury claim within two years from the date of the accident.
If someone has died in the accident, a wrongful death lawsuit can be filed by the family members within three years of the final injury. If you are only seeking compensation for vehicle damage, the deadline for filing a lawsuit is six years.
A large commercial truck in Oregon can weigh about 80,000 pounds or more when fully loaded. A collision with a commercial truck could often result in serious injuries or even death. Truck accident personal injury cases in Oregon are usually more complex than other car accident cases because:
- Multiple parties may be potential liable for personal injury
- Federal regulations are involved
- Evidence may be harder to obtain
- Commercial truck drivers have different rules of accountability and operate with a special license
- Special rules of evidence are involved in commercial truck accident personal injury lawsuits
- The trucking company must be legally notified to preserve any black box evidence, the driver’s log books, and their own operational records
- The laws governing inter-state tractor-trailers may be different from the ones that apply to garbage trucks, cement trucks, or other heavy trucks
Other parties could be held liable for your injuries if the trucker had a poor driving record, the truck’s load was not securely properly or the truck was overloaded, the truck was not correctly maintained, or if the trucking company pressured the driver to make compromises to safety in order to deliver the cargo on time.
Considering these legal intricacies, it helps to have a qualified Oregon personal injury attorney by your side who is experienced in handling truck accident injury cases.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has imposed new requirements on motorcycle riders to complete training courses in order to ride safely. Secondly, Oregon is one of the few states that require motorcycle riders of all ages to wear a helmet while riding.
Despite these safety measures, motorcycle accidents in Oregon are more frequent because other vehicle drivers may fail to notice the motorcycle on the road. Motorcycle riders are also vulnerable to more serious injuries because the bikes by design cannot offer the kind of protection that a car can provide.
If you have sustained injuries in an Oregon bike accident, the insurance claim procedures would largely be similar to those when you are involved in a car accident. If your accident occurred due to another’s negligence, the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier may cover your damages.
To file a personal injury claim for damages, make sure you are represented by a judicious Oregon motorcycle accident attorney who can successfully negotiate and maximize your recovery.
In Oregon, property ownership does not automatically make an individual or business liable for every injury that may occur on their premises. In order to establish premises liability, you have to prove some negligence on part of the owner.
Oregon statutes have established various duties of the property owner depending on different factors. To determine the property owner’s duty, it must be determined whether you were present on the property as an invitee, licensee or a trespasser.
If you were an invitee or license, were you present on the property within the scope of your purpose? What was the cause of the injury? Was the owner aware of the hazard or danger and did nothing to forewarn you? If the owner was unaware of the danger, should they have known?
The principle of comparative negligence will apply in case of Oregon premises liability claims. Therefore, even if you are partly at fault, you can still be proportionately compensated for your injuries from the at-fault property owner or another at-fault party, provided your own share of the fault is no more than 50 percent.
Loose floorboards, uneven sidewalks, wet pavements, debris on the pathway, potholes, broken elevators, slick floors, and oil or lubricant spills can cause you to trip or slip and fall, resulting in injuries.
A seemingly minor slip and fall injury could turn out to be far more serious, such as a fracture, concussion, TBI (traumatic brain injury), spinal injury, or hip injury.
If you suffer injuries in a slip and fall accident on another’s property in Oregon (whether commercial or residential), it is important to evaluate your legal options to receive compensation for your losses. If the property owner’s negligence contributed to your accident, you could have a strong claim for recovery.
An Oregon slip and fall attorney can help you identify the hazardous conditions that resulted in your accident and collect critical evidence to support your claim. Evidence is often destroyed or witnesses simply disappear if you make a delay in reaching out to an attorney for legal assistance.
Sometimes the ownership of the property may be clear, and it requires professional research to determine the right owner. Multiple parties may be responsible in some cases for having created the hazard that led to your slip and fall injury.
For instance, in a department store, the maintenance or janitorial service provider may be held responsible for your injuries. All negligent parties must be identified and included from the outset in your Oregon personal injury claim to achieve your rightful compensation.
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or RSD Injuries
RSD, also known as CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) is complex and progressive disorder that causes debilitating pain affecting the nervous system. RSD could occur because of injuries suffered in an automobile accident or a slip and fall.
If you have been involved in an accident and diagnosed with RSD, you should get in touch with a knowledgeable Oregon RSD attorney to protect your legal rights. Millions of Americans today suffer from RSD, which develops after a trauma or injury to the body. RSD symptoms could worse over time and could be disabling.
Diagnosis of RSD following an injury is difficult, and unless you are receiving the right medical and legal guidance, you might ignore the possibility of RSD, which could have occurred due to the negligence of another.
Oregon has no specific statute governing dog bite personal injury liability. The owner can be held liable for an injury caused by their dog (or another pet) if you can prove that the owner “should have been aware” that the animal was dangerous.
In Oregon, this is known as the “one bite rule” where the owner can be held liable for the dog’s first bite. If you have suffered a dog bite injury, you will have to show that the owner knew the particular breed was dangerous, or the particular dog posed a risk of biting because of any recent events or its general aggressive behavior.
The law will also look at whether the owner had taken the necessary preventive steps, if they were aware of their dog’s potentially dangerous behavior.
Some of the circumstantial evidence that your dog bite personal injury lawyer in Oregon may rely on will include: what is the breed of the dog, how the owner trained the pet, for what purpose the owner was using the pet (such as for protection), how effectively the owner usually restrained the dog, and whether neighbors or other people had risky experiences with the dog in the past or had received warnings from the dog owner.
In Oregon, sexual assaults such as stranger rape, acquaintance rape, date rape and marital rape are all prohibited, and could be prosecuted under the same laws. The law typically addresses unwanted or non-consensual sexual contact. An exception is when the law considers a victim to be too young to meaningfully consent to a sexual act.
Under Oregon law, sexual offenses are classified as follows:
Rape or Sodomy in the Third Degree
In this case, the victim is below the age of 16, and the assaulter is at least three years older than the victim. Consent of the victim is not a consideration in this crime. It is treated as a Class C felony.
Rape, Sodomy, or Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the Second Degree
In this case, the victim is below the age of 14, and the assaulter is at least three years older than the victim. It is treated as a Class B felony.
Rape, Sodomy, or Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the First Degree
In this case, the victim is compelled forcibly; or the victim is below the age of 12’ or the victim is below the age of 16 and is related to the offender as a sibling of whole or half blood or is the offender’s child or stepchild; or the victim is not capable of consent due to physical helplessness or mental defect or incapacity. It is treated as a Class A felony.
In Oregon, a victim of sexual assault is allowed to initiate prosecution many years after the crime occurred. However, the prosecution is likely to be more successful when a victim immediate reports sexual assault and hires a profound Oregon sexual assault attorney to preserve and present the evidence effectively.