Automobile Accidents

• Accidents Involving Drunk Drivers

  Staff Writer | January 05, 2006 4:42 PM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  New Years Eve was a few days ago. Drunk drivers were involved in collisions in Oregon and the Portland area. That has consequences for the drivers in terms of legal liability and may have consequences for the people serving them as well.For the drunk drivers, impairment is a form of recklessness. It is also referred to in the caselaw with a number of colorful terms like wantonness and gross...

• Liability and The Rear End Auto Accident Collision

  Staff Writer | December 27, 2005 5:36 PM | 1 CommentPortland, OR

  Most people have heard that rear-end collision type auto accidents are the fault of the driver who hits the person in front of them. In almost every case that is true. But why?The general rule of the common law forbids creating unreasonable risks of harm to others, which is Oregon's formulation of negligence law. In most automobile collision cases, the specifications of negligence include...

• Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims Basics

  Staff Writer | December 20, 2005 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  Part of Oregon's mandatory insurance coverage is Uninsured Motorist (UM) and Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage. Basically what that coverage says is that your insurer will pay for compensatory damages which the uninsured or underinsured motorist is legally obligated to pay. That general grant of coverage is riddled with exceptions and qualifications. And the insured must comply with the...

• Oregon Auto Insurance Policies

  Staff Writer | December 16, 2005 10:45 AM | 1 CommentPortland, OR

  Oregon's Financial Responsibility Law requires that all automobile insurance policies have certain provisions. They fall into three parts: (1) liability, (2) uninsured/ underinsured motorist, and (3) personal injury protection.Liability policies pay for the consequences of the insured's negligence. Basic driving errors like failures of lookout, speed, and control, and failure to obey traffic...

• Delay and Compromise: the Insurer's Tools

  Staff Writer | November 16, 2005 12:12 PM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  So the insurance company tried to ignore your claim as long as they could? Wouldn't return voicemails? When they did reply, the offer was way too small. And the adjuster acts like you're asking the world for a trivial injury. And that cases like yours settle for their lowball amount every day. Sound familiar?The insurer is using their two most common and potent tools to save money: delay...

• Medical Expenses in Bicycle and Pedestrian Cases

  Staff Writer | November 10, 2005 3:59 PM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  In Oregon, your medical expenses from a car accident are ordinarily covered under your own personal injury protection (PIP) policy and paid as you go rather than at the end of the claim. So what happens when you do not have a PIP policy but get hit by a motor vehicle? The Oregon PIP statutes require PIP to cover pedestrians who are struck by a motor vehicle, and define bicycles as pedestrians...

• Pedestrian Accidents - An In-Depth Look

  Staff Writer | November 04, 2005 10:09 AM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  In May The Honolulu Advisor published a special report on pedestrian accidents:Every day on average, one or two people get hit by a car as they're walking on a street somewhere on O'ahu. Most of the accidents occur in a six-mile long area between Kapahulu and Kalihi. Pedestrians use the crosswalk at King Street and Fort Street Mall in downtown Honolulu, an area prone to pedestrian accidents....

• Motorcycle Accidents Increase

  Staff Writer | November 04, 2005 10:03 AM | 0 CommentsPortland, OR

  A middle-aged Canadian man died on Labor Day when his motorcycle struck a car near the Oregon coast. In Central Oregon, a middle-aged couple from Aloha suffered injuries when their Harley Davidson collided with a Jeep.The incidents were the latest in what has become a sharp, if little-noticed, rise in the number of motorcycle accidents in Oregon.More than 550 motorcyclists were killed or injured...