Portland Personal Injury & Accident Law FAQs

I handle all personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. That means that you do not owe me any legal fee unless I recover money for you. Once I have successfully completed your case, I will take a percentage of the fee recovered.

When you deal directly with an insurance company or any defendant, you are dealing with an adversary. The party on the other end of the telephone is trained at minimizing your claim. Right away they will ask you to sign a medical release and give a taped statement just in case you get an attorney later. They will sound sympathetic to your plight, but in the end, they will do what they can to settle your case as quickly and cheaply as possible. By representing yourself, you are giving up your only leverage, your right to sue. Why would an insurance company fear being sued if you do not even have an attorney? They will not take your claim seriously unless you are represented.

You should hire an attorney as soon as possible. An attorney can help with any investigation.

There are many different insurance coverage issues that are involved in automobile collisions. If you or any family members in your household have an auto insurance policy, more likely then not, you will be covered under Personal Injury Protection benefits. Another source for coverage is your own health insurance.

In Oregon all personal auto insurance policies have Personal Injury Protection (PIP). PIP will pay for reasonably related treatment up to a year or $15,000.00 in medical payments, whichever comes first. You can increase the amount by paying for more than the minimum of $15,000.00, which I recommend.

In Washington, you can elect to not purchase PIP. If you do not have PIP as part of your policy and you have no health insurance, you are probably going to have to find a provider that will allow you to make payments until the case resolves.

If you are in a crash, you should contact your own insurance company and open up a PIP claim even though the crash is the other driver’s fault. Your insurance company will give you a PIP claim number. For all of your treatment you should give the medical provider your PIP claim number as the primary source for billing.

If you miss more than 2 weeks of work due to crash related injuries, your PIP will pay you 70% of your wage loss or up to $3,000.00 a month, whichever is less. The wage loss benefit will not exceed $15,000.00 or more than 52 weeks. If you have missed less than 2 weeks, then you will have to wait until your case is resolved to be reimbursed.If you do not have auto insurance, but someone in your household does, then their auto insurance policy may be responsible for your lost wages.

In Oregon, there is a two year statute of limitations to file a lawsuit. If the liable party is a governmental entity, then the injured party must file a tort claims notice within six months. Resolving a case properly, depends upon the injuries suffered and the treatment course required. Once a case gets filed, it can take over a year for a trial date. That means it could take three years before a case is resolved. Most cases resolve within 18 months, depending on the injuries. Smaller claims can be resolved within a few days of acquiring all of the medical records. Remember, it is in the client’s best interest to wait until they are medically stationary before resolving a claim.

When the time is right, I meet with all of my clients to discuss the possibility of filing a lawsuit. Unless we are up against the statute of limitations, I never file without the consent of my clients.

Keep in mind that your leverage against an insurance company is your right to take your case to a jury. Sometimes it is necessary to exercise that leverage in order to get the insurance companies to take your claim seriously.

Yes, you can recover if you have uninsured/under-insured motorist coverage. All insurance policies come with Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage, unless you specifically sign an election to not have this coverage. UM is on your policy and protects you when you are hit by someone driving without insurance. You will need to open a UM claim through your own insurance company. I strongly recommend retaining an injury lawyer to do this for you because now your own insurance company is your adversary. They will revert back to their desire to pay as little as possible. I also encourage you to review the amount of your UM coverage. Most people do not carry enough to protect their families from a serious injury crash. I see a lot of families that are driving around with 100/300 UM coverage. If a family of 4 is in a substantial crash and there is hospitalization involved, the policy will only pay up to $100K for any individual, but if there are 4 people involved with injuries, the policy will not pay more than $300K for the entire family. With both past and future medical bills, lost wages, lost enjoyment of life, tutors, any vocational rehabilitation, this $300K very quickly becomes grossly inadequate.

Do not give another party’s insurance company a statement. They are only interested in protecting themselves and will try and find ways to deny or minimize your case. They will also send you a release and other paperwork hoping you will sign off your right to privacy. Do not sign anything from another party’s insurance company without an attorney looking it over.

If you are injured your insurance company will require you to fill out a PIP Application and sign a medical release. They may also require you to give a taped statement. Part of your contract with your insurance company requires you to cooperate with them. If you want PIP benefits, you will need to cooperate and fill out the application and give the taped statement. I typically like to listen in on my client’s taped statement via a conference call. I also review all of my client’s PIP applications prior to submitting them.

A good injury attorney is going to review the case carefully and make sure that anyone else at fault will be held accountable. Assuming there are no other parties involved, we need to look at your Under Insured Motorist (UIM) coverage on your policy. In Oregon, if the at fault driver has the minimum $25K in coverage and you have $100K on your UIM, you can only get $75K from your own policy because of a horrifically bad law that lets insurance companies off the hook for paying the $100K you paid for. This is another reason to review your policy and make sure you have adequate UIM limits to protect yourself and your family from drivers that have minimal policies.