When you are injured in an Oregon car accident your insurance and the other driver's auto insurance should cover your medical bills, lost wages, and compensation for pain, suffering, and any impairment.
If you have been injured in a car accident, talk to a top rated Portland car accident lawyer for a free consultation as soon as you are able. Making a case and gathering evidence will require the skill and experience of a qualified attorney who will build your case and construct the evidence you will need to win the maximum compensation you deserve. At your free consultation, I will gather facts about your car accident as best as you are able, so that I can get to work for you.
Recently I had Mike Colbach represent my wife in an auto accident.He came highly recommended and didn't let us down.
Because of the accident my wife was in the ICU at OHSU and wasn't able to talk so I worked with him.
Right away Mike took control and told me to concentrate on taking care of my wife and he would handle all the insurance issues, court filings, hospital bills etc.Also,
Mike was not one bit intimidated by one of the largest auto insurance companies in the country and in fact looked forward to the challenge of meeting them in court.......I guess they didn't like the odds and settled out of court for the full amount he demanded. -->More
Arnie Mulick
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Personal Injury Law Is ALL I Do.
I am exclusively dedicated and focused on personal injury law and giving my clients the best legal representation possible. If I take your case I believe in it. I am willing to invest as much time, energy, and money as it takes to make sure my client has a good result. I willrecommend the best course of action I think for your case and what you can expect.
No fee unless we win.
After a serious car accident, dealing with an insurance claim can be difficult, stressful, and time consuming.
Once I take your case, you can stop worrying about dealing with the insurance companies and focus on recovering from your accident injuries. I take care of all of the paperwork, phone calls, and negotiations, so you can get on with your life.
How Much Is Your Auto Accident Claim Worth?
When you have been injured in a car accident it can be difficult for you to determine what is a fair settlement amount for your claim. There are a number of factors that are used to determine the value of your claim. Auto insurance companies do not get to determine the value of your Oregon car accident injury claim. It is up to you or a jury to determine the value of your Oregon car accident case.
In my experience, insurance companies often substantially increase their settlement offers once a lawsuit has been filed. In some instances I have had insurance companies settle cases quickly for twice their original offer once I filed a lawsuit.
After A Car Accident
After a car accident, you will have to inform your own insurance about your accident, as well as file an Oregon Accident Report with the DMV within 72 hours when: Damage to any vehicle is over $2,500 (even if your vehicle was the only one in the crash);
Damages to any vehicle is over $2,500 and any vehicle is towed from the scene;
Injury or death resulted from this accident; or
Damages to anyone's property other than a vehicle involved in this accident is more than $2,500. Make sure to retain copies of the the accident report for your own records.
If the police arrived to your car accident, then they likely summarized the accident and crash scene in a crash report. Often, people aren't aware of the police crash report and may not have seen their own car accident report, but it can contain important information regarding your incident. Of course, your own lawyer that you retain will be able to get an official copy of your accident report and share that with you.
Even if Oregon Law Enforcement filed their own crash scene report, you still need to file your own Accident Report with the DMV. You do have the right to receive any police report submitted about your own car accident. Contact the law enforcement department that responded to your car accident. In Portland, you can get a copy of your accident report usually by contacting the Portland Police Bureau's Records Division at 503-823-0043 or the Police Report Request and Help Line at 503-823-0041. Otherwise it varies by jurisdiction, but the DMV office near you will be able to offer some helpful information and point you in the direction.
Car accidents can cause serious injuries and can be quite expensive with damages, medical bills and time lost from work.
Contact me as soon as you are able so that I can handle the insurance companies and paperwork, and you can focus on recovering.
Car Accident Injuries and Fatalities Can Happen To Anyone.
Pedestrians killed by cars has again skyrocketed with 2021 looking to be up 17% for the USA as an average but up 19.35% for Oregon. It's still early and we won't see all of 2021 data for a while. Given that in this same period we were still under massive changes due to the ongoing Pandemic which resulted in people driving less, working from home, and even schools going virtual; i.e. people were driving less in this time period.
Pedestrian deaths have been rising consistently; in 2011, there were 4,457 pedestrian deaths. By 2020, there were 6,516 — a 46-percent increase, and now in 2023 we are seeing a high for over 40 years. "Walking is the most basic form of transportation, but there is a pedestrian safety crisis due to drivers speeding, being impaired or distracted, or engaging in other dangerous behaviors," GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins said in a statement. "We need to leverage everything that works — infrastructure improvements, changes to road design, equitable enforcement of traffic safety laws and community outreach — to reverse this deadly trend and make our roadways safe for people walking, biking and rolling."
There were 6,205 pedestrians and 843 bicyclists killed in 2019 and approximately 76,000 pedestrians and 49,000 bicyclists injured in motor vehicle crashes on public roadways in the United States. Pedestrians comprised about 17 percent of crash deaths, and bicyclists made up an additional 2 percent.
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76,000 pedestrians and 49,000 pedalcyclists were injured in traffic crashes in 2019. On average, a pedestrian was killed every 84 minutes and injured every 7 minutes.
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6 percent of all pedalcyclists killed were under the age of 15 years old.
According to the CDC, "In 2019, more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. That is more than 100 people killed in crashes every day; over 2.5 million people were treated in emergency departments for injuries from motor vehicle crashes; and fatal crashes resulted in $56 billion in medical and work loss costs."
Motor Vehicle Crashes Impact All Of Our Daily Lives
The Portland Rose Quarter stretch of Interstate-5 is the most dangerous stretch of the interstate in all of Oregon.
According to the state, the section of I-5 between the I-405 Bridge and the I-84 interchanges is the most accident-prone stretch of road in the state. "We see three times more crashes here than at the Terwilliger Curves," said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesperson Don Hamilton. "We would not put interchanges that close together today." [2]
The exact costs are to us individually and as a nation from motor vehicle injuries and death are difficult to compute and consider. According to the CDC in 2017:
The economic impact is also notable: for crashes that occurred in 2017, the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with occupant injuries and deaths from motor vehicle traffic crashes exceeded $75 billion.[1]
Car accident injuries can too frequently result in life long injury. Life long injury can often be spinal injury like herniated disc injury, traumatic brain injury, paralysis, blindness, cognitive impairment, can no longer bend or lift, incontinence, impotence, nerve injury, or loss of limbs. While it is hard to study the exact numbers we can get an idea of the numbers of people affected by serious car accident injury through the NHTSA research reports. According to the NHTSA:
Approximately 105,000 persons injured in motor vehicle crashes experience some loss of function at one year post injury; nearly half of these persons were affected in only one dimension. More than 10% experienced decrements in cognitive functioning. Among the 20 most frequently occurring injuries that result in functional limitations, 95% are injuries to the extremities. These injuries accounted for 78% of all LLI [LLI: life long injury]. [3]
1. CDC Motor vehicle Crashes 2017
2. $400 million plan to cap Interstate 5, connect Rose Quarter and Lloyd District moves forward Published: Thursday, June 07, 2012 Cornelius Swart, The Oregonian By Cornelius Swart (updated 2019)
3. NHTSA NRD - The Economic Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes
*note this exact quote is from a 2000 report; the most recent Economic Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes report from the NHTSA is 2010. Slides from this same 2010 Economic Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes report done as information graphics are easier to scan and see the major takeaways. For instance, 2000 had more fatalities due to motor vehicle accidents, but the dollar cost is of course higher in 2010; societal harm from motor vehicle crashes is estimated as a cost in US Dollars in 2010 but is not available for 2000.
