GOOGLE SCREENED
You Call Us or Text US Right NOW!
503-367-0829
When someone’s carelessness causes you serious harm, it can change your life. You might need to stop working and then have to deal with big medical bills. Your injuries could lead to long-lasting problems that make your life very different. If this happens because of someone else’s actions, you can ask them to pay for your losses. A Portland car accident lawyer can help you understand your rights and get the money you might need.
At Herron Law Firm, our lawyers work on a “no win, no fee” basis. This means we start helping you without asking for money first.
We only get paid if you get money for your injuries. Call us at (503) 367-0928 to find out more about how we can help you.
It’s important to stay at the scene of a car accident to avoid being labeled a hit-and-run driver. Leaving the scene most likely would result in arrest and criminal charges with severe consequences, particularly if someone is injured or killed in the accident. Never leave the accident scene.
If you are physically able, check on your passengers as well as the other individuals involved in the accident. Call 911, especially if medical assistance is needed. Avoid moving anyone who expresses back or neck pain unless their safety is at risk.
Take photos and videos of the accident scene and people and vehicles involved. Exchange basic information with other parties, such as your name, driver’s license number, insurance information, and license plate number, but avoid admitting fault or apologizing, as this could implicate you legally.
File an accident report with DMV within 72 hours of the crash. Contact the police to obtain a copy of the police report, which you will need when filing an insurance claim.
If possible, talk to witnesses and collect their contact information so that your lawyer can use their accounts to support your case for compensation.
Call your insurance company and give them accurate details about the incident, and cooperate with them. You may also want to consult with a personal injury lawyer, particularly if you were injured in the accident. Many law firms offer free initial consultations.
If you’re unsure of your legal rights, consult a personal injury lawyer, Bart Herron 503-367-0829, for advice.
Here is a basic list of questions a liability insurance adjuster will want to ask you when interviewing and recording your statement:
If you’re unsure of your legal rights, consult a personal injury lawyer, Bart Herron 503-367-0829, for advice.
A decision to assign a fault in a car accident can be influenced by many of factors. Nevertheless, the below listed elements can make it easier to determine who is responsible.
Were Any Traffic Laws Violated
Breaking traffic laws can be an indicator of fault in a car accident. Lawyers will analyze the circumstances that led to the accident and determine which party violated traffic laws. Some traffic laws are consistent across different jurisdictions, such as running a stop sign or red light, speeding, or driving while under influence.
Were Any Citations Issued
The investigating police officer will document any traffic violations that occurred before the accident, as well as their opinion on what caused the crash. Insurance company adjuster will always take police reports into account when assessing fault. If the police don’t show up at the scene, you can call the nearest police station to request assistance. It’s important to review the report for any errors.
Type of Collision
While it’s not always the case, the driver who crashes into the back of another car is usually considered at fault in a rear-end collision. Most laws require drivers to keep a safe distance between themselves and the car in front of them to avoid sudden stops. However, if the front driver’s brake lights were malfunctioning, leading to no warning of a stop or brake, the front driver could be partially at fault.
Accident Reconstruction Report
An accident reconstruction expert is a professional who uses scientific and engineering principles to investigate the cause and circumstances of an accident. Their primary goal is to determine the events that led up to the accident, the factors that contributed to it, and the degree of fault of each party involved. Accident reconstruction experts typically work in the fields of civil and criminal law, insurance, and public safety.
Analyzing Physical Evidence
Police investigators, as well as personal injury lawyers may examine physical evidence, such as tire marks, vehicle damage, and debris, to help reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to the accident. These experts may visit the accident site to assess road conditions, traffic patterns, and other environmental factors that may have contributed to the accident.
Interviewing Witnesses
A car accident attorney may interview witnesses to get a better understanding of what they saw and heard leading up to the accident.
If you’re unsure of your legal rights, consult a personal injury lawyer, Bart Herron 503-367-0829, for advice.
If you are responsible for a car accident in Oregon, your chance to collect compensation for the damage may depend on the state you live in. In Oregon, the injured at-fault party looks for compensation from their own insurance provider through the PIP portion of their insurance coverage, regardless of their fault in the accident. The PIP coverage aims to cover the medical costs and select economic losses.
However, as an at-fault party in a car accident, other parties involved in the collision might file a third-party claim against your car liability insurance policy. The other party involved in a car accident may demand that your insurer pays for damages that exceed their PIP coverage limit.
It is important to mention comparative negligence rules that might affect the amount you can recover if you share some fault in a car accident. In many states, “pure comparative negligence” can reduce your compensation by the percentage of responsibility you bear for the collision; “modified comparative negligence” allows you to receive any compensation if you are deemed to be 50 percent or more at fault for the crash;”contributory negligence” rules in some states can bar you from any recovery.
If you’re unsure of your legal rights, consult a personal injury lawyer, Bart Herron 503-367-0829, for advice.
Know this before you settle with any car insurance company: many injuries from car accidents will affect you for the rest of your life. Therefore, before accepting that car accident settlement offer, always ask the insurance company adjuster the following:
Ask yourself this question: why have you been paying high car insurance premiums all these years? Is it because you purchased that car insurance to protect yourself and your family in case of an accident? So, make your car insurance company take care of you.
But, when dealing with the insurance company, exercise caution. These days, insurance companies are in business to protect the interests of the insurance company shareholders and paying out as little as possible to you.
Read “How to maximize your car wreck insurance company settlement offer”
Contact Us Now For Confidential Free Consultation
How Can We Help?
You should not just turn to any general practice attorney to help you. Look for an experienced car crash personal injury attorney who has experience handling your type of car accident injury claim.
But how do you find that type of car accident lawyer? There are several methods to get referrals for good plaintiff’s personal injury attorneys. Once you get some referrals, you should compare them carefully. Get the names of several car accident attorneys and meet, call, text or Zoom with everyone to discuss the car accident claim before you decide to hire.
*You should also be prepared to be rejected often; good car accident lawyers are often busy, so you may need to have several choices in reserve.
Need To Visit Our Office?
Call or Text To Make Appointment at 503-367-0829
Other Serious Injury Cases We Handle
There are several types of damages to which you are entitled after a car accident caused by another party. Two main categories are Economic damages & Non-Economic damages should be included in the settlement.
Economic Damages:
Medical expenses (past and future): physical therapy, doctors’ visits, ambulance fees, in-home services, permanent disability – past, current, and future.
Lost wages (past and future): a car accident can cause you to lose the ability to earn a living. This may include your inability to work due to doctors’ appointments, time spent in the hospital, problems with physically doing your job and more. You are often entitled to lost wages both in the past and future, which need to be calculated precisely, usually by a personal injury attorney.
Non-Economic Damages:
Pain and suffering: This is for the mental and physical distress of your injuries. This is usually calculated with a multiplier by the insurance company, which will multiply your actual economic damages by a factor of anywhere from 1.5 to 4, depending upon the circumstances.
Loss of affection or companionship: Your injuries could affect your ability to show affection or be a companion to your partner. This is also referred to as loss of consortium. These types of losses are claimed by the uninjured partner. These types of damages are common when the car accident victim dies and the surviving partner files a wrongful death lawsuit.
There Are Other Damages Personal To Your Case
Which of these damages you are entitled to depend upon the exact circumstances of the accident. We recommend that you at least speak to a car accident personal injury attorney at no cost after a serious accident. This is especially true if you have suffered substantial physical injuries.
7 Steps to Take Right Away After Car Wreck:
If you have not done the following steps, today is the good day to start:
1. File the Police or DMV accident report. This should be filed with the DMV within 72 hours of the accident. If the police respond to the scene, they will complete the police report. You should get a copy of this document; if the accident was due to the other driver’s negligence, this will be strong evidence on your side.
2. Take Photos & Videos. If you are physically able to do so, you should take photographs with your cell phone of everything related to the accident: damages, injuries, positions of the vehicles involved, etc.
4. Talk to Witnesses. Collect the contact information and statements of all accident witnesses. Don’t count on the police. Memories fade with time, get a statement from the witnesses as soon as you can. Write down everything they tell you.
5. Keep Diary. Keep a diary after the crash of all expenses, traveling, the pain and suffering you experience, as well as lost work time and loss of enjoyment of life activities.
6. Request all Medical Records & Bills. Organize all medical records, bills, reports, handouts, business card in the separate injury case folder. There will be hundreds of pages of loose documents, but you must keep them all. Keep all empty medication bottles.
7. Keep all Correspondence from ANY Insurance Company. Delete nothing. Print each and every email, letter, record, mail from both insurance companies and place them in your injury folder.
Do you need Herron Law team to take over your car accident case?
Contact Us 24/7 by calling or texting 503-367-0829
Any car crash, especially a serious one, is a life-changing event.
If you don’t have an experienced, aggressive car accident lawyer to guide you, here is a glimpse of 10 issues you will have to face next:
Oregon Law required accident victims that may have serious future medical costs to be compensated fully. Most injured people are unaware of this fact. If you settle too soon and for too little, you could be saddled with huge medical costs down the road.
There are debates going on in our government about preexisting conditions almost on a regular basis. Think of the law changes what it might do to you as you will be a person with a preexisting condition from now on. In addition, you could also have injuries that prevent you from working for many months in the future or even retiring much too early and therefore losing a lot of money you would have otherwise made.
Remember to get your case reviewed by a personal attorney, you could be under-compensated for your future earnings losses. *Once you sign the settlement papers, the case cannot be reopened.
Economic damages in a personal injury case are easy to quantify. They include medical expenses, lost wages, and out of pocket costs after the accident, etc. Oregon Law states that injured people must recover non-economic damages if economic damages are awarded. In determining the amount of non-economic damages, if any, consider each of the following: pain, mental suffering, emotional distress, or humiliation that you have sustained from the time you were injured until the present and that you probably will sustain in the future as the result of your injuries; Any inconvenience and interference with your normal and usual activities apart from activities in a gainful occupation that you find have been sustained from the time you were injured until the present and that you probably will sustain in the future as the result of your injuries; etc. *It takes an experienced personal injury attorney to understand what the potential is for your non-economic damages.