NW Injury Law Center
Oregon Personal Injury Lawyer
Trial attorneys representing injured people across Oregon, from the Portland metro to the coast range and the Columbia River communities.
NW Injury Law Center represents people injured across Oregon. We handle car and truck collisions, motorcycle and bicycle crashes, pedestrian injuries, injuries on unsafe property and wrongful death claims, from Portland and the surrounding metro out to the Columbia County and coast range communities. The consultation is free and we work on a contingency fee, so there is no fee unless we recover for you.
Oregon injury claims run on different rules from Washington ones, and the difference is not cosmetic. The filing deadline is a full year shorter, the fault rule can end a claim rather than just reduce it, and every Oregon auto policy carries medical coverage that pays regardless of who caused the crash. If you were hurt on the Oregon side of the river, those are the rules that govern your case, and the first few of them start running from the day of the injury.
Oregon injury cases we handle
The firm has tried injury cases in Oregon and Washington courts for more than forty-five years. On the Oregon side we most often handle:
- Car and auto collisions, including crashes on I-5, I-84, I-205 and I-405
- Truck and commercial vehicle crashes, where federal carrier rules and multiple corporate defendants change how the claim is built
- Motorcycle collisions
- Bicycle crashes and pedestrian injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries
- Injuries on unsafe property and construction site injuries
- Dog bites and animal attacks
- Wrongful death claims
Our full list of practice areas covers both states.
How long do you have to file an injury claim in Oregon?
Two years from the date of injury for most Oregon personal injury claims, under ORS 12.110. That is a year shorter than Washington’s three-year deadline, which catches people out constantly in this region: someone hurt in Portland who assumes they are working to the Washington clock can lose the claim entirely.
Several situations run on their own timetable:
- Wrongful death must be filed within three years of the date the fatal injury was discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered (ORS 30.020).
- Claims against a public body, meaning the state, a city, a county, a transit agency or a school district, require formal written notice long before any lawsuit. Notice is due within 180 days of the injury, or one year in a wrongful death case, and the lawsuit itself must be filed within two years (ORS 30.275). Miss the notice deadline and the claim is gone regardless of how strong it was. If a public road, a public vehicle or a government employee was involved, this is the deadline that matters.
- Children and people under an incapacity get the clock suspended for a period while the disability lasts (ORS 12.160), though the rules are narrower than most people expect and the public body notice requirement is treated differently again.
These are outside limits, not targets. Evidence gets harder to gather every month, and in claims involving a commercial vehicle some records are lawfully destroyed within six months of the crash.
How Oregon comparative fault affects your recovery
Oregon applies modified comparative fault under ORS 31.600. If you were partly to blame for what happened, your compensation is reduced by your share. A claim worth $100,000 where you carry twenty percent of the fault returns $80,000.
The important difference from Washington is that Oregon has a cutoff. You recover only if your share of the fault is not greater than the combined fault of everyone else involved, which in practice means you are barred once you pass the halfway point. Washington has no such cutoff, so an injured person who is seventy percent at fault still recovers thirty percent there and nothing here.
This is why an insurance adjuster’s early assessment of fault matters so much more in Oregon. Pushing an injured person up to fifty-one percent is not a negotiating position, it ends the claim. Those early assessments are frequently wrong because they are made before anyone has reviewed the physical evidence, the vehicle data or the witness accounts.
Oregon auto insurance and how it fits your injury claim
Two features of Oregon auto policies shape most crash claims here.
Personal Injury Protection. Every Oregon auto policy includes PIP, which pays your medical treatment regardless of who caused the crash. The statutory minimum is $15,000 in medical, hospital, dental, surgical, ambulance and prosthetic expenses incurred within two years of the injury (ORS 742.524), and PIP can also cover lost income and the cost of essential services you can no longer perform. It starts paying without waiting for anyone to accept blame, which is why it matters in the first weeks.
PIP is not the whole claim. It pays treatment, not the harm itself. Pain, permanent limitation, lost earning capacity and the disruption to your life are recovered from the at-fault driver, and your PIP insurer is generally entitled to be repaid out of that recovery.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Oregon requires every auto liability policy to carry UM coverage, and by statute it must match your own bodily injury liability limits unless you signed a written election for less (ORS 742.502). Many people carry far more of this coverage than they realise. It is what responds when the driver who hurt you had no insurance, fled the scene, or carried a minimum policy that does not begin to cover a serious injury. Checking it is one of the first things we do on any Oregon crash file.
Where an Oregon injury case is filed
Oregon injury lawsuits are filed in the circuit court for the county where the crash happened or where the defendant is based. For most of our Oregon caseload that means Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Washington County in Hillsboro for claims arising in Beaverton, Tigard or Hillsboro, Clackamas County in Oregon City for the southern metro, and Columbia County in St. Helens for the US-30 communities.
Cross-border claims are routine here and they are not a problem. People live in Vancouver and are hurt in Portland, or the reverse, every day. Which state’s law applies generally follows where the injury happened and where the parties do business, and it can change the deadline, the fault rule and the insurance that responds. We handle claims on both sides of the Columbia, so the answer gets sorted out at the start rather than after a deadline has passed.
Oregon communities we serve
Our attorneys take cases from across the state. These are the Oregon communities we work in most often:
- Portland: Our main Oregon focus, covering Multnomah County and the central city.
- Gresham: East county, along the I-84 and Powell Boulevard corridors.
- Beaverton: Washington County, including the Highway 217 and Canyon Road corridors.
- Hillsboro: The Sunset Highway corridor and the Silicon Forest employment centres.
- Tigard: Where I-5, Highway 217 and Pacific Highway converge.
- Lake Oswego: Clackamas County, along Highway 43 and the I-5 corridor south of Portland.
- Oregon City: The Clackamas County seat, where county injury cases are filed.
- Scappoose: Columbia County, on the two-lane stretch of US-30 north of Portland.
- St. Helens: The Columbia County seat, with the county courthouse on Strand Street.
See our full list of areas we serve, or read about our Portland office. We also represent injured people throughout Washington state.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to hire an Oregon personal injury lawyer?
Nothing up front. The consultation is free and we work on a contingency fee, meaning our fee is a share of what we recover and there is no fee at all if we recover nothing. We also advance the costs of building the case, including accident reconstruction, medical records and expert testimony, rather than asking an injured client to fund it.
What should I do first after a crash in Oregon?
Get treatment and report the collision. Then open your PIP claim with your own insurer, because it pays your medical care regardless of fault and there is no reason to delay it. Photograph the vehicles and the scene if you are able, and get the names of any witnesses. Before giving the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, talk to a lawyer. That call is not neutral, and in Oregon the fault assessment it feeds into can end a claim rather than just shrink it.
Will my case have to go to trial?
Most do not. The great majority of injury claims resolve by negotiation or mediation. What changes the outcome is whether the insurer believes the firm across from it is willing and able to try the case, which is why we prepare files as though they are going to a jury even when we expect them to settle. Our case results and client reviews give a sense of how that has gone.
I live in Washington but was hurt in Oregon. Which state’s rules apply?
Usually Oregon’s, because that is where the injury happened, but it depends on the facts and it affects things that matter: a two-year deadline instead of three, a fault rule with a cutoff, and a different insurance framework. This is one of the most common situations in the Portland and Vancouver area and it is worth getting a clear answer early rather than assuming.
How long does an Oregon injury claim take?
It depends most on your medical treatment. Settling before your doctors understand your long-term condition means guessing at what the injury is worth, and that guess is almost never in your favour. Straightforward claims can resolve in a matter of months once treatment stabilises; claims involving serious or permanent injury, disputed fault, or a commercial defendant take longer.
Do you handle claims outside the Portland metro?
Yes. The communities listed above are where our Oregon caseload concentrates, but we take injury cases from across the state. The same attorneys and the same fee structure apply wherever the crash happened.