5 Things to Know: Oregon Civil Suit for Injury

09/28/12

In an Oregon civil suit for injury, the primary goal of the lawsuit is to seek some type of financial stability for those individuals who were injured in an incident or accident that was in fact caused by another individual or entity. In these cases, accidents have been caused by a variety of incidents, including but not limited to:

Workplace Accidents,
Traffic Accidents,
Accidents Related to Product Defects or Malfunctions, and
Medical Accidents.

If you are someone who has suffered an injury due to any of one of these accidents and are in the process of, or are planning to file an Oregon civil suit for injury, then you will need to consider several important things before moving forward. What follows are the top five major things for you to think about before deciding to go ahead with your civil suit.

As is the case with any lawsuit, there are certain time frames that a civil suit must be filed in order to remain a valid claim. When you meet with an attorney for your case analysis, they will be able to assist you in determining what that time frame is, or to notify you if you have missed your window of opportunity. If you have missed this window, you will not be eligible to file an Oregon civil suit for injury.
Having experience on your side will be key to the success of your civil suit. When you search for an attorney to represent you, you will want to make sure that the individual you retain to represent you not only has your best interests at heart, but that also has extensive experience in civil suits in the State of Oregon.
Know that the costs of a civil suit to you are real. While some attorneys will work for you for a percentage of any damages rewarded by the court, there may be instances where you and your attorney will come to an agreement on an hourly rate. In the latter case, this means that you will be paying an attorney to represent you on an hourly basis.
As soon as you file your complaint with the county clerk, this marks the official beginning of the case. Once this is done, you will be opening yourself up to a wide array of criticism and there will be people looking into your background. It is a common tactic of the opposition to try and discover incriminating information or secrets regarding plaintiffs in an Oregon civil suit for injury in order to attack their character during trial. If you are not prepared for this and are not 100% honest with your attorney regarding your background, you may find yourself in a difficult situation during the suit.
Be prepared for a long haul. An Oregon civil suit for injury may take up to three years to complete. If you make the choice to go through with it, this will take up a great deal of your time and energy during this time.