Car Accidents

After a car accident, it is common to feel overwhelmed and even afraid of what is to come. You may not be sure what legal options you have to recoup the losses you have suffered. You may be unsure of your ability to get back to work, to keep making your monthly mortgage payment, or even how you will ever enjoy life with the pain you are in. If you suffered injury and loss, let our Portland car accident lawyer help you.

At Kline Law Offices, P.C., we work with clients facing a wide range of complications after these types of losses. Our motor vehicle accident attorney in Portland, Oregon, is committed to supporting you through every stage of this recovery process. Do not wait to call us to request a free consultation.

Know the Risks on Portland Roads

The Portland Bureau of Transportation makes it clear that crashes happen every day on the city’s roadways, and some of them have a much higher risk than others. Each year, the agency reports, there are between 10,000 and 12,000 reported car accidents in the city, and those are just the ones that get reported. These happen throughout the city, including along I-5, Banfield Freeway and I-405. They occur in small residential areas, near schools, and in commercial sectors.

If you are in an accident on any Portland road, you should seek legal support from an auto accident lawyer who can provide you with comprehensive, transparent and compassionate representation. Let us work to recover your losses.

Why Trust Kline Law Offices, P.C. as Your Auto Accident Lawyer in Portland?

When you are involved in a car accident, there is a lot on the line. The goal of a personal injury claim is to make a person “whole” again after such an accident. To do that, you need full and fair compensation for all the losses you have suffered. When you work with our legal team at Kline Law Offices, P.C., you have an experienced attorney by your side who is committed to listening, guiding and supporting you throughout this process. There are several big reasons why you will want to work with us:

• Experience: With more than 25 years of experience serving the Portland, Oregon, community, you can expect our car accident attorney to be able to help you navigate even the most challenging of obstacles. Our experience allows us to achieve the best possible outcome in your case.
• Results: The years of experience gives us the ability to provide our clients with results. Throughout our history, we have helped our clients recover millions of dollars in compensation.
• Aggressive support: We believe in providing comprehensive and aggressive support to our clients. We know what you are facing and will work diligently and with a clear determination to ensure you get the maximum compensation owed to you.

Most importantly, we want you to feel comfortable and in good hands when you reach out to us. That is why we always provide our clients with a free initial consultation. There is nothing to pay for, but you will gain access to answers to many of the questions you have. Contact us at any time for a free case evaluation.

Common Causes of Car Accidents in Portland

Why do car accidents happen? There are many reasons why you may be involved in a car accident. The following are some common causes: 

Distracted Driving

This is a very common reason that people suffer devastating injuries in a car accident. A person may be looking at their phone, texting or otherwise not paying attention to the road. This makes it hard for them to pay attention to traffic conditions, look out for hazards and take evasive measures to avoid a crash.

Intoxication

Intoxicated drivers, whether from alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs, are another common cause of car accidents. A person who is impaired is not able to respond to changing road conditions as they should, and that puts everyone else on the road with them at risk for serious consequences.

Inexperience

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers age 16 to 19 are four times more likely than an adult to be involved in a crash. The reason is teenagers’ lack of experience, tendency to engage in high-risk behavior and distractibility. 

Reckless Driving

Speeding, changing lanes without signaling, or other types of aggressive and reckless driving cause many of the car crashes on our roadways. These accidents can be some of the most tragic when a high-speed accident causes the loss of life.

Weather Conditions

Foggy weather, rain, and freezing temperatures can create very dangerous conditions for drivers on Portland roads. This can make it hard to see or difficult to control a vehicle. Keep in mind that drivers are required to adjust to existing road conditions, including reducing their speed. Posted speed limits are for optimal conditions and under the basic speed rule, a motorist must drive at a speed that is reasonable and prudent at all times considering other traffic, road and weather conditions, and any other hazards. That means a driver can be at fault and responsible for a crash even if they are driving under the posted speed limit. 

What You Should Do After a Car Accident

If you are in a car accident, take the most important initial steps:

• Move to safety
• Call 911
• Gather witness names and contact information if you are able to do so safely
• Obtain the other driver’s insurance information
• Get medical care
• File a police report

You may know those steps, but once you get to the hospital and your care is established, what do you do then? There are a few very specific things to do to protect your right to compensation in the coming months.

• Follow up with all of your medical care. That includes diagnostic procedures, physical, occupational and other types of therapy, and seeing any specialists to whom you are referred. Failure to consistently obtain medical care as ordered by your doctors can negatively impact your case. 
• Avoid placing anything about your accident on social media. The best approach is not to post anything at all on social media because your participation in any activity, no matter how innocuous it seems, could be used against you in an effort to minimize your injuries and the impact on your life.
• Don’t sign anything or talk with the insurance companies until you have an opportunity to speak to a car accident attorney in Portland about your claims and the best plan forward.

Hiring an attorney is a critical step in larger or more severe car accidents for multiple reasons. These cases often present complex medical, factual and legal issues. Insurance companies weaponize these issues to pay you as little compensation as they can get away with. They also look for any way to blame you, and they fight even harder to avoid full and fair compensation because there is more at stake.

How Your Auto Accident Lawyer in Portland, OR Will Help You

When you contact our law firm, we will first provide you with a free consultation and case evaluation, which is a way to learn as much as we can about you and about your accident. Our goal is always to provide you with transparent information. During this consultation, we will gather the details of your case from you, discuss the various types of compensation available, and offer insight into what you can expect moving forward. If you agree to work with our legal team, you can count on a few very specific things occurring:

Gather Evidence in Your Case

Our primary first step is to understand all of the details in your case, including who caused it and why it happened. Our initial investigation often includes:

• Locating and obtaining statements from eyewitnesses
• Obtaining video footage from cameras in the surrounding area 
• Getting photographs of the vehicles and the crash location from witnesses and the insurance companies
• Obtaining vehicle repair estimates, invoices and photographs
• Downloading data from airbag control modules, event data recorders and other devices on the vehicles
• Sending letters to vehicle owners, especially those involving commercial vehicles, commanding the preservation of data, records and other evidence
• Obtaining 911 calls and police reports including photographs and crash reconstruction analysis and data
• Getting information from the prosecutor in cases involving DUII and other vehicle-related crimes
• Engaging crash reconstruction engineers who have a mastery of physics and vehicle dynamics

The more information we have, the better. Our car accident attorney in Portland will work to uncover all available information and data.

Determine Who is at Fault

In some situations, the other driver is the only party responsible for the crash. Other times, a faulty car repair or defective automobile design could be to blame. Sometimes, there is a company that is responsible for the driver because the driver is on the job or the company has negligent hiring, training and supervision policies and practices. In other cases, road conditions can cause or contribute to the accident due to defective design or poor maintenance by the city, county or state. We want to identify all potentially responsible parties.

Evaluate What Your Case is Worth

One of the most common questions our clients have is this one: How much is my case worth? To determine this, our auto accident attorney in Portland will gather information about what happened to you and the harms and losses you have suffered. These can include:

• Bills for medical care you have had to date
• The projected cost for medical care you will need in the future 
• A life care plan if future medical needs are extensive and complex
• Lost wages to date
• Other vocational losses including impaired future earning capacity
• Damage to your vehicle and personal property such as mobile phones and clothing
• In wrongful death cases, the savings that would have been accumulated over the decedent’s lifetime, and the value of monetary support the decedent would have provided to their family.

These are called economic damages and the value of these damages to date usually is relatively easy to calculate. However, future medical needs, and the cost of them, and future vocational losses can be more complex and require input from medical doctors, nurses with expertise in the cost of future care, economists and vocational experts. 

Our legal team will also help to calculate the non-economic damages to which you are entitled, more commonly known as “pain and suffering.” Economic losses are intended to restore the injured person to the position they were in prior to the accident. Noneconomic damages are extremely important because they are designed to make up for the human losses suffered by the injured person. Noneconomic damages do not follow a formula and therefore are more susceptible to disagreements with insurance companies.

Examples include:

• Pain
• Mental suffering and emotional distress
• Humiliation
• Inconvenience and interference with normal and usual activities
• Loss of quality of life
• Loss of consortium
• In wrongful death cases, the loss of society and companionship suffered by the surviving family members
• Other subjective nonmonetary losses

There are some situations where you may be entitled to recover punitive damages. Punitive damages are designed to punish the at-fault driver for wrongful conduct that is malicious, intentional or reckless. Cases involving road rage or DUII can fall into this category.

Submitting Your Claim To the Insurance Company

After we fully understand the full scope of your losses and what your future looks like after the accident, we submit a detailed settlement demand package to the responsible party’s insurance company. Because the burden of proof is on our shoulders, we have to provide compelling evidence of what is owed, why it is owed and why it should be paid at this level. 

The demand package starts with breaking down what happened in the accident, and why the other driver was engaged in dangerous behavior and not following the rules of the road that everyone is expected to obey. Next is a detailed summary of the arc of your medical care with supporting records and billings. We frequently include xrays, MRIs and photographs of your injuries where appropriate. In some cases we utilize medical illustrations that help reveal internal injuries and explain complex surgical procedures. Next we provide a narrative description of the human losses you have suffered as a result of your injuries including photographs of you before and after the accident. Our attorney is highly skilled at negotiating with insurance companies. We provide powerful evidence that is hard to refute and designed to maximize the compensation you receive.

Filing a Lawsuit Against the At-Fault Party

We try to settle your case whenever possible. Settling can save you time, avoid the expenses of litigation, and enable you to move on with your life sooner. Unfortunately, in their zeal to pay you the least amount of money as possible, insurance companies can engage in unfair and abusive tactics. When that happens, we will not hesitate to go to court to fight for the compensation owed to you. This is a part of the services we provide to our clients.

Let Us Fight for Justice in Your Case

Our auto accident attorney in Portland is available to discuss your case with you during a free, no-obligation consultation. We talk with you openly while protecting your privacy, gathering all of the information we can about what occurred to you and what can be done to support you throughout this process.

If we do not think you have a case, we will be open and honest with you about this. You are never at risk of being abused by insurance companies or taken advantage of when you work with our trusted, experienced legal team. There is no reason to put your future on the line when you have a compassionate attorney by your side.

Set Up a Free Consultation with Our Law Firm Now

Our Portland car accident lawyer is ready and willing to speak with you about your case. If you were in a car accident of any type in which you were injured, we encourage you to reach out to an attorney who is willing to stand by your side and fight for the compensation you deserve.

Call Kline Law Offices P.C. now to set up a free consultation to discuss your case. Let’s get started in determining how our Portland car accident lawyer can help you maximize your recovery. Call (503) 974-3909 today.