Category: Personal Injury Process

5 Myths About Personal Injury Debunked

Did you ever hear the one about the really decent, honest Portland injury attorney? Stop laughing! A lot of myths have developed over the years about personal injury lawyers, and we’d like to cut through some of them, so please read on. As personal injury lawyers, we know a lot of people are afraid or… read more

10 Tips for Determining Pain and Suffering Damages

Accidents are expensive. The cost in terms of damage to vehicles, medical treatment, lost wages and other monetary expenses runs into the billions of dollars every year in this country. The numbers can be quoted with a great degree of accuracy. The cost of those accidents in terms of the pain and suffering caused to… read more

What to Do When Your Insurance Claim is Denied

A bad situation just got worse. You were driving your car home from work and were involved in an accident in downtown Portland. You had to go to the doctor a day or two later, because you were injured. It meant you missed a couple of days off work; you weren’t paid, and your boss… read more

Smaller Case Blues: Justice for 20.080 and PIP Claims

I just had lunch with a 30-year-old lawyer. He does great work. He’s got three or four years of experience, and he’s smart, eager, and a good lawyer. At first I was shocked when he told me that he’s never heard of a 20.080 case or a PIP case. But the more I thought about it,… read more

For Insurance Companies, YOUR Time is THEIR Money

Insurance companies are happy to use delay as a tactic when they are trying to avoid paying a claim. They do this in many cases, but it can get particularly egregious in Portland wrongful death cases, such as the case against Bold Earth Teen Adventures for the death of Tyler Madoff. Tyler was 15 years… read more

Lobbyists Hard At Work Helping Insurance Companies Rob You Blind

I am so sick of insurance companies getting away with screwing consumers! It’s happening again, right now. House Bill 3160 passed the Oregon House, but is being held up in the Oregon Senate by the forty-seven(!!!) lobbyists that are bending your Senators’ ears. (ORS 646.605 – 646.656) makes it illegal for businesses to use “unconscionable… read more

It Pays to Dig Deeper: Investigating Single-Car Crashes

I bet that 90% of lawyers would have made a $9 million mistake on this case. Before I explain, let me walk you through the scenario. Imagine that you’re a personal injury lawyer, and someone calls you up and tells you this story: “I live in California, but I was on a car trip in… read more

Bringing Such a Small Case to Trial Would Be Silly

I teach a class to paralegal students one evening per week. On last week’s midterm exam, I asked them to write an essay outlining possible tort claims that could be brought on behalf of a fictional woman who sprained her ankle slipping on water in Fred Meyer. In her answer, one of the students wrote… read more

Do Gaps in Treatment Lead to More Injury Trials?

One of the duties of a personal injury lawyer in Portland is to tell people the truth, even when it hurts. To tell people that their actions, however well-intentioned and justifiable, may have certain unfair consequences. No lawyer enjoys it, but it is part of our job. So don’t shoot the messenger. Let me give… read more

What Would You Do If…

Fantastic article in the New York Times about one woman living with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) her husband received on the job. As a lawyer, you’d think the legal aspects of the article would grab me, but in fact I barely noticed them, focused as I was on the emotional story she was telling…. read more