Portland Personal Injury Attorney

When individuals sustain injuries caused by the careless or negligent actions of others, they should be able to recover compensation for their losses. Unfortunately, recovering compensation can be challenging, particularly when working with aggressive insurance carriers. At Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC, we are here to help if you need a skilled personal injury lawyer by your side. Our team has extensive experience handling complex injury claims throughout Oregon, and we know what it takes to help clients recover the compensation they are entitled to. Do not hesitate to contact our team immediately so we can get to work.

Portland Personal Injury Resources

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Why Choose Our Portland Personal Injury Attorney for Your Case?

After sustaining serious harm in the Portland area, you need to trust a legal team with the experience necessary to handle every aspect of your personal injury case.

Portland Personal Injury Attorney

Our Commitment to Assisting Injury Victims

Litigation for a personal injury claim can be incredibly complex, and we recommend anyone in your situation work with an attorney. We are not saying that just because we want your business – to us, it is more than that. We understand that injury victims are going through an incredibly difficult time, and they need assistance. No one should have to do this alone, particularly when fighting against at-fault parties who refused to pay fair compensation.

Benefits of Hiring a Portland Personal Injury Attorney

Our team has built this firm as a way to ensure injury victims are treated fairly. We understand local, state, and federal law surrounding personal injury claims, and we know what it takes to prove the negligence of the other party. 

From the moment we get involved in a case, we handle all communication with other parties involved. Your role, as the injury victim, is to focus on recovering from your injuries so you can get back to living a normal life. Our team will ensure that you are evaluated by trusted medical professionals who will not only help ensure your well-being but will also help us calculate total expected losses.

We will use our resources to fully investigate your claim and provide meticulous legal representation because we know that proving fault involves gathering as much evidence as possible. We will vigorously negotiate with insurance companies, legal teams, and at-fault parties to attempt to secure a fair settlement on your behalf. In the event the other party refuses to offer a fair settlement, our team has no problem fully preparing the case for trial. We will absolutely try your case in front of a jury if we think that is the best solution to securing a fair financial recovery on your behalf.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Address

At Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC, our team has extensive experience handling a range of complex injury cases in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon. We do not shy away from handling complex cases, but we also have no problem helping clients who have sustained even relatively minor injuries. The goal is to help ensure that at-fault parties are held accountable for their actions. 

Some of the most common types of injury claims that we help clients with are listed below, but this is not an all-inclusive list. If you have any questions about whether or not your case could move forward toward a major settlement or jury verdict, we encourage you to reach out to a member of our team for a free consultation today.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of injuries and fatalities throughout the state of Oregon each year. When we examine information available from the Oregon Department of Transportation, we can see that there were more than 50,000 total vehicle accidents reported during the most recent complete year of data available. Unfortunately, these incidents led to more than 39,000 injuries and 494 fatalities during that same reporting year.

Motor vehicle accidents encompass much more than just incidents involving traditional passenger vehicles. These also encompass accidents involving large commercial trucks, buses, and motorcycles, as well as incidents involving bicyclists and pedestrians. A car accident lawyer in Portland can explain your legal options and fight to secure fair compensation for your injuries or damages sustained. 

Bus Accidents

Accidents involving commercial passenger buses and school buses often result in major injuries for those inside the bus as well as those affected in other vehicles. Bus passengers are typically not restrained, so any type of incident has the potential to result in significant injuries for passengers inside. For those and other vehicles, it is essential to recognize that buses are much larger than traditional passenger cars, so a collision can cause major injuries and extensive property damage. Claims against bus carriers can be challenging, and a Portland bus accident attorney will conduct an extensive investigation into each incident.

Medical Malpractice

We should be able to depend on our medical professionals to uphold the highest standards of care when we become a patient. The doctor-patient relationship is held to a high standard of professionalism, but there are times when medical experts make mistakes due to their negligent actions. When a medical error occurs, patients harmed may be able to recover compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit in Portland. Medical mistakes can occur in a wide variety of ways, including errors with medication, failure to conduct a patient history analysis, a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, and more. This can also include anesthesia and surgical errors as well as birth injuries.

Injuries in the Workplace

Individuals who sustain workplace injuries should be able to recover complete compensation for their medical bills and a major portion of their lost wages. Unfortunately, there are times when workers’ compensation claims become challenging, and insurers or employers may push back. It is imperative to have an attorney by your side after sustaining a work injury so that you have an advocate who can fully investigate the claim, stand up to the insurance carrier or employer, and help recover the compensation you need to get back on your feet.

Wrongful Death

Unfortunately, there are times when individuals lose their lives due to the negligent actions of others. When these tragic incidents occur, family members and the estates of the deceased need legal assistance. Our team helps families and estates with Portland wrongful death claims regularly. We understand what it takes to fully investigate the incidents surrounding the untimely death, and we make sure that families are regularly updated on the status of the case. We know that no amount of compensation will bring a loved one back, but we also know that these claims can help bring closure to survivors.

Proving Negligence in an Injury Claim

The word “negligence” is one that everyone knows, but they may not quite understand how it applies to a personal injury claim in Oregon. In order for a person to successfully recover compensation through a civil personal injury lawsuit against another party, they have to show that the other party was negligent in some way. There is a precise legal meaning to the word negligence when it comes to these cases. Essentially, our team will be looking to establish four individual elements of negligence in order to ensure a case’s success:

  1. Duty. The first step towards a successful personal injury claim is showing that the injury victim (the plaintiff) was owed a duty of care by the alleged negligent party (the defendant). Depending on the type of situation at hand, a duty of care will look different. For example, we will not be looking at the same elements for a car accident claim that we would for a premises liability case. The duty of care that drivers owe others on the roadway revolves around the safe operation of a vehicle and following traffic laws. Property owners have a different duty of care. Namely, they must ensure the safety of their premises for anyone who has a right to be there. Looking further, the duty of care owed by a doctor to their patient is vastly different and involves upholding the accepted standard of medical care for a given situation.
  2. Breach. After establishing that there was a duty of care between the plaintiff and the defendant, it must then be shown that the defendant breached their duty somehow. The breach of duty, again, will look different depending on the type of claim. A driver on the roadway could breach their duty of care if they fail to use their turn signal or if they operate their vehicle while distracted by a phone or something else. A healthcare professional could breach their duty of care in a variety of ways, including failing to perform a patient assessment, giving the patient the wrong dosage of a medication, or making a surgical mistake.
  3. Causation. After establishing that a breach of duty did occur, it must be shown that the breach somehow caused injury to the plaintiff. There may be times when a breach of duty does not cause the injury, but that is rare. Drawing a line from the breach of the defendant’s duty to the plaintiff’s injuries is often not too difficult.
  4. Damages. The final element of establishing negligence is showing that the plaintiff sustained some sort of loss as a result of their injuries. This can include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering damages, and other monetary losses associated with the injury and the recovery process. 

Actually proving these elements of negligence can be challenging and heavily relies on obtaining evidence. Depending on the situation at hand, the evidence may look different, but it often includes:

Our team will work diligently to investigate every claim, and we will enlist assistance from accident reconstruction experts if necessary to help prove negligence. These individuals can help fill in the blanks if there are any gaps that the evidence leaves behind. Accident reconstruction experts can thoroughly examine the scene of the incident along with any evidence already gathered and help put together computer 3D models to show an insurance carrier or a jury what likely occurred.

What is the Statute of Limitations for Portland Personal Injury Lawsuits?

Personal injury victims in Portland and throughout Oregon need to be aware that they have a limited amount of time to file their claims in civil court. The personal injury statute of limitations in this state explicitly says that all claims must be filed within two years from the date an injury occurs (Oregon Revised Statutes section 12.110). 

In the event an individual fails to file a lawsuit within this two-year timeframe in Oregon, they will be unable to recover any compensation for their losses. We strongly encourage Portland personal injury victims to work with an attorney who can assess their claim and make sure that it gets filed on time and appropriately.

We also want to point out that there is almost certainly going to be an insurance carrier or two involved in a personal injury claim. Insurance companies all have their own reporting deadlines, often within a day or two after the incident occurs. If you know there is an insurance carrier involved in your claim, we encourage you to report the incident to them as soon as possible. Do not go into much detail when you make your initial report with an insurance carrier. Simply let them know the incident occurred and refer any further questions to your Portland personal injury lawyer.

Potential Damages in a Portland Personal Injury Lawsuit

At Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC, our team works diligently to recover various types of compensation on behalf of every client that we assist. Our goal is to recover the compensation needed to make our clients as whole as possible after a major incident. This typically includes recovering both economic and noneconomic damages for every client:

There is no set amount of compensation paid to personal injury victims in the Portland area. However, there are several factors that will influence total compensation amounts, whether that compensation comes through an insurance settlement or as a result of a personal injury jury verdict. 

At a larger scale, the injury severity and how long it takes a person to recover play a major role in total compensation amounts. However, whether or not an individual can work and carry out day-to-day activities will also play a role in the compensation they receive. Allegations of shared fault could result in a person recovering less compensation depending on their percentage of fault for the incident.

How Much Does it Cost to Hire an Experienced Injury Lawyer?

Our attorneys understand how these cases can put clients into strenuous financial circumstances. That is why we handle Portland personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis. This means that clients will never have to worry about paying upfront or out-of-pocket costs while their case is ongoing. We pay for every aspect of the case so clients only have to focus on recovering. We will collect no legal fees until after we successfully recover compensation for the case.

In the event our law firm does not win the claim, our clients will pay nothing. If we do recover compensation, then the total legal fees will be an agreed-upon percentage of the final settlement or jury verdict. 

Portland Personal Injury Lawyer

Steps to Follow After Suffering an Injury in Portland

There are various steps that you can follow in the aftermath of sustaining an injury to help ensure a better chance of recovering compensation for your losses. We understand that the aftermath of an injury can be a confusing and chaotic time, and you may not be able to take every one of these steps in this exact order. However, the advice given below can help:

Call a Portland Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you or a loved one have been injured due to the negligent actions of another entity or individual in the Portland area, reach out to the team at Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC for help today. We have extensive experience handling complicated injury claims throughout this state, and we know what it takes to help clients manage an aggressive insurance company and at-fault parties. Our goal is to make sure clients recover the compensation necessary to make them whole. When you need a Portland personal injury lawyer, you can contact us for a free consultation of your claim by filling out our contact form or calling (503) 226-6361.