Being involved in a serious accident in Portland can turn your life upside down in an instant. Between emergency rooms, mounting medical bills, missed work, and calls from insurance adjusters, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do next. The decisions you make in the days and weeks following an accident can have a lasting impact on your ability to recover fair compensation. Understanding your legal rights under Oregon law is essential.
Call DeShaw Law for your free consultation today.
Prioritize Your Health and Get Immediate Medical Attention
Your health should always come first. Even if you feel relatively okay after an accident, you should seek medical attention right away. Many serious conditions, including traumatic brain injuries, internal bleeding, herniated discs, and soft tissue damage, may not present noticeable symptoms for hours or even days after a collision. Adrenaline and shock can mask pain and make you feel better than you actually are.
Getting prompt medical care serves two purposes. First, it ensures that hidden injuries are identified and treated before they worsen. Second, it creates a contemporaneous medical record that links your injuries directly to the accident. Insurance companies routinely argue that gaps between the accident date and the first medical visit mean the injuries were not caused by the crash. A prompt evaluation eliminates that argument.
Document the Scene and Preserve Evidence
If you are physically able, begin documenting the accident scene immediately. Take photographs and video of every vehicle involved, the surrounding road conditions, traffic signals, weather conditions, skid marks, debris, and any visible injuries you have sustained. Collect the names, phone numbers, and addresses of any witnesses. Write down everything you remember about the moments leading up to the crash while your memory is fresh.
Under Oregon's Vehicle Code, specifically ORS 811.705, every driver involved in an accident is required to stop at the scene or as close to the scene as possible, reasonably investigate what their vehicle struck, exchange insurance and identification information, and render reasonable assistance to any injured person. This includes arranging for medical transportation if needed. Failing to perform these duties is a Class B felony if someone suffers serious physical injury or death.
Report the Accident and Be Cautious With Insurance Companies
File a police report as soon as possible. This official record becomes an important piece of evidence if you later pursue a personal injury claim. Oregon law requires accident reporting when there is property damage, personal injury, or death. The police report will contain the officer's observations, witness statements, and sometimes a preliminary determination of fault.
When the at-fault driver's insurance company contacts you, and they almost certainly will within the first few days, exercise extreme caution. Insurance adjusters are professionally trained to minimize the amount their company pays on claims. They may ask for a recorded statement, request that you sign broad medical authorization forms, or offer a quick settlement that seems generous but falls far short of what your claim is actually worth. You are not legally required to provide a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer. Politely decline, tell them you will be consulting with an attorney, and avoid discussing the details of the accident or your injuries.
Understand Oregon's Critical Deadlines
Oregon imposes strict time limits on personal injury claims. Under ORS 12.110, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If the accident resulted in someone's death, the wrongful death action must be commenced within three years after the injury causing the death.
These deadlines are not flexible. Missing them will almost certainly result in the permanent loss of your right to seek compensation, no matter how strong your case may be. If the accident involved a government entity such as a city vehicle, a state highway department truck, or a public transit bus, additional notice requirements under the Oregon Tort Claims Act may apply, often with much shorter deadlines.
Talk to a Portland car accident lawyer as soon as you’re able. Call us at (503) 227-1233 for your free consultation.
Know What Compensation Oregon Law Allows
Oregon law permits injured accident victims to pursue both economic and noneconomic damages. Economic damages include medical bills both past and future, lost wages, diminished future earning capacity, property damage, rental car costs, and incidental out-of-pocket expenses like mileage to medical appointments and prescription costs. Noneconomic damages compensate for intangible losses such as physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium.
In cases where the at-fault driver's conduct was particularly egregious, such as driving while intoxicated or engaging in reckless behavior, you may also be entitled to punitive damages. Under ORS 31.730, punitive damages require proof by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice or showed reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm while acting with conscious indifference to the health, safety, and welfare of others.
Why an Experienced Portland Personal Injury Lawyer Matters
An experienced Portland personal injury lawyer understands the complex interplay between Oregon's common-law negligence standards and its extensive statutory obligations. Oregon follows a modified comparative fault system under ORS 31.600, which means your recovery will be reduced by your percentage of fault and barred entirely if your fault exceeds the combined fault of all defendants. A skilled attorney can conduct a thorough investigation, preserve critical evidence before it disappears, accurately calculate the full value of your claim, negotiate effectively with insurance companies, and take your case to trial if the insurer refuses to offer fair compensation.
Schedule Your Free Consultation Today
At Dr. Aaron DeShaw, Esq., P.C., we take a different approach. Rather than focusing on money first, we focus on helping our clients recover and rebuild, and then we turn to obtaining full compensation for their losses. Our firm has individually and with other firms obtained more than one billion dollars in settlements and trial verdicts, including the largest personal injury verdict in Oregon history.
A knowledgeable personal injury attorney can handle communications with the insurance company, protect you from tactics designed to devalue your claim, investigate liability, and build the strongest possible demand for the compensation you deserve. Dr. DeShaw's decades of study into insurance company claims software mean that our demand letters are prepared specifically to address the way insurers actually evaluate a Portland car accident claim.
If you or someone you love was hurt in a crash anywhere in Oregon or Washington, we invite you to call our office at (503) 227-1233 for a free, no-risk consultation. The initial call and consultation with a lawyer are available to you at no cost and with no obligation to hire us.