News

Insurance Policy Limits Oregon

Every insurance policy has limits. This is the maximum amount that the insurance company will have to pay. Automobile insurance limits are typically quoted as two numbers with a slash between them. For example, as of this writing, ORS 806.070 requires that an automobile policy issued in Oregon must have liability limits of at least… read more

Liability Insurance and Policy Limits

Every driver in Oregon is required to have liability insurance. Liability insurance is meant to protect you if you are legally responsible for an automobile accident. It is also a possible source of compensation in a Portland wrongful death case resulting from a car crash because the deceased person’s family can bring a claim against… read more

Choosing the Venue

“Venue” means where a lawsuit is filed. The options are Federal Court or State Court, and then within the State Court system, a particular county must be chosen. This is a complicated decision that depends upon the specific details of your case, but here’s an overview of why “where” is very important. In general, State… read more

Possible Beneficiaries In An Oregon Wrongful Death Case

When we wrote our first legal book, Seven Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case, we were very careful to write it simply, with a minimum of technical “legal speak.” The idea was to write a book that would help non-lawyers settle their own cases, or decide if a lawyer was warranted. This… read more

Determining the Value of a Wrongful Death Case

What is a life worth? What is the value, in dollars, of the loss of a father, a wife, a grandparent, or a child? There is of course no answer to this question. The value of a life is not measured in dollars. But even though this is true – and obviously true at that… read more

The McDonald’s Coffee Case—A Myth Explained

There seems to be more and more criticism of personal injury lawsuits. People have tried to claim compensation for some very frivolous injuries. We hate frivolous lawsuits more than anyone. We make our living pursuing justice in the courts, and frivolous lawsuits give the courts and justice a bad name. Most personal injury suits are… read more

Limits on Non-economic Damages.

In personal injury cases, there are two basic forms of “damages” a client may recover: economic and non-economic damages. Some lawyers will refer to them as “general” and “special” damages, but the correct terms are economic and non-economic damages. Most wrongful death damages are determined by law using the criteria defined earlier (see the ORS 30.020 damages described… read more

Damages – Economic, Non-economic, and Punitive

You will hear a lot of people talking about “damages” during a wrongful death case. “Damages” can refer to the amount of money you have lost and the suffering you have undergone as a result of the loss of your loved one, but “damages” also refers to the amount of money a jury decides is… read more

Alcohol – more time limits

If alcohol was involved in a death, and if the server of the alcohol was partly responsible for the death because they served an already visibly intoxicated person, or served a minor, or failed to perform their server duties correctly in other ways (which are defined by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission), you may be… read more

More Time Limits – When Government or Alcohol is Involved

If the death was caused by a public entity, or someone working for a public entity, then a “Tort Claim Notice” has to be received by the proper person or department within one year of the incident that caused the death (If it’s an injury that does not cause death, the time limit is only… read more