A woman gets hit crossing SE Powell. The driver is at fault, the police report says so, and she calls the number she has seen on daytime television for years. A friendly intake person takes her information and tells her someone will follow up. Four months later she learns the vehicle that hit her was a city-owned truck, and the deadline to put the City of Portland on notice was 180 days from the crash, not the two years everyone told her about.
That case did not fail because the lawyers were bad. It failed because nobody in the building had ever handled an Oregon claim against a public body. A Portland accident lawyer would have flagged it in the first ten minutes.
Oregon’s injury rules are genuinely different from the ones in most states, and Portland’s courthouses have habits of their own. Here is what that actually means for your case.
Also Read
- Car Accident Lawyer Near Me
- When to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney
- Finding a Personal Injury Attorney in Oregon
The Gist
Local matters in Portland for four concrete reasons: claims against public bodies like TriMet or the city die at 180 days instead of two years and carry their own damage caps, Oregon’s PIP system pays your medical bills first and creates reimbursement issues later, ordinary injury claims here are no longer subject to the old $500,000 noneconomic damages cap, and the county you file in changes how your case is scheduled, valued, and tried. None of that shows up on a national intake script.
The Deadline That Is Not Two Years
Most Oregon injury claims run on a two-year clock. ORS 12.110 gives you two years to file an action “for any injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract.”
Public bodies are the exception, and in Portland they are everywhere. TriMet buses and MAX trains, city street maintenance, county vehicles, school district drivers, state highway crews. Under the Oregon Tort Claims Act, you must give formal notice within 180 days of the loss for a personal injury claim, and within one year for wrongful death. Miss it and the two-year statute of limitations never gets a chance to matter, because the claim is already gone.
The plaintiff carries the burden of proving proper notice was given. This is not a technicality that gets forgiven.
A local firm asks “who owned the vehicle” and “whose sidewalk was that” in the first conversation, because in this city the answer is often a government entity.
Four Oregon Rules a National Call Center Will Not Know
PIP pays first, and it runs out. Every Oregon auto policy carries personal injury protection. Under ORS 742.524, that means up to $15,000 in medical expenses incurred within two years of the injury, 70 percent of lost income up to $3,000 per month for as long as 52 weeks, $30 per day for essential services, and $5,000 in funeral expenses. It pays regardless of fault, which is a real advantage. It also creates reimbursement rights that have to be handled correctly when the liability claim settles, the same way a medical lien does.
Oregon’s minimum limits are low. ORS 806.070 sets the floor at $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $20,000 in property damage. A single ambulance ride and two days in the hospital can exhaust that. Which is why the first question in a serious Portland crash is usually not “was he at fault” but “what else is there to collect from,” and that means underinsured motorist coverage, umbrella policies, and sometimes an employer.
The damages cap question has a different answer depending on who hurt you. In 2020 the Oregon Supreme Court decided Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, holding the $500,000 statutory cap unconstitutional as applied in that personal injury case. Lawyers who practice in capped states often still value ordinary Oregon injury cases as if the cap applied, which leaves money on the table.
But the cap was not erased across the board. ORS 31.710 remains on the books and still limits noneconomic damages in wrongful death cases. And claims against public bodies run under the Oregon Tort Claims Act’s own hard limits, which the Oregon Supreme Court upheld in Horton v. OHSU. Those limits are adjusted annually. For July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the Oregon Judicial Department lists $902,700 for a single claimant against a local public body and $1,805,300 for multiple claimants, rising to $2,708,100 and $5,416,200 against state public bodies.
Which brings us back to the woman hit by the city truck. Her case had a 180-day notice deadline and a ceiling on what she could recover. Both facts should have shaped strategy from week one.
Comparative fault has an unusual line. Under ORS 31.600, you are barred only if your share of fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone else at issue. In a multi-vehicle pileup, that combined figure gives an injured person more room than the simple “51 percent” rule people assume.
Where You File Changes What the Case Is Worth
Portland spills across three counties, and the crash location decides which courthouse hears the case. Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas draw different jury pools, run different motion practice, and set trial dates on different timelines.
Multnomah County publishes its own supplementary local rules covering everything from the stipulated trial setting order system under SLR 7.015 to the documentation required before a judgment can be entered for a minor’s settlement under SLR 9.055. A firm that files there monthly knows which judge wants what and how long the docket really runs. A firm filing its first Multnomah case learns it the expensive way, on your case.
Insurance adjusters know all of this too. They keep records on which local firms actually try cases and which ones always settle on the courthouse steps. That reputation is priced into every offer you receive, before anyone reads your medical records.
What Local Actually Buys You
Your situation | What a Portland lawyer catches | What happens if it is missed |
|---|---|---|
Hit by a TriMet bus or city vehicle | The 180-day tort claim notice deadline and the Tort Claims Act damage caps | Claim barred before the two-year statute even applies |
Crash on the Washington County side of the line | Correct venue and the right filing strategy | Refiling, delay, sometimes a worse jury pool |
Serious injury, minimum-limits driver | UM/UIM stacking, umbrella policies, employer liability | Settlement capped at $25,000 when far more was available |
Injured while working | A workers’ comp claim and a third-party case | One recovery instead of two |
Treatment paid by PIP | Reimbursement handled at settlement | Surprise deduction from your check months later |
That fourth row deserves emphasis. Oregon injuries frequently trigger both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate injury claim against whoever caused the harm. A firm that handles only one side of that will not spot the other. Aldrich & Brunot handle both, which is why work-related auto crashes get looked at from both angles here.
Five Signs You Picked the Wrong Firm
- You have never spoken to the attorney. Case managers are normal. Never once reaching the lawyer whose name is on the agreement is not.
- Nobody asked where the crash happened, precisely. Venue, road ownership, and public body involvement all turn on that.
- They are already talking settlement before you finish treating. No one can value an injury that is still changing.
- Your questions get answered in generic terms. “Most cases like yours settle for X” without reference to Oregon law is a script, not advice.
- They cannot tell you the last time they tried a case in your county. You do not need a firm that tries everything. You need one the other side believes might.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Fee Agreement
Who will actually handle my file, and can I speak with them today? Get a name. Portland is a small enough legal community that the answer should be immediate.
Have you handled claims against TriMet or the City of Portland? If your crash involves any public entity, this is the whole ballgame.
What is the contingency percentage, and does it change if we file suit? Many agreements step up after filing. That is common and reasonable, but you should know it before you sign, not after.
Who pays case costs if we lose? Expert witnesses and depositions are expensive. Ask how costs are treated separately from the fee.
Is there a workers’ compensation angle here? If you were on the clock, running an errand for your employer, or driving a company vehicle, the answer may be yes, and it changes the strategy.
Can I switch firms if this is not working? You can. Oregon clients are allowed to change attorneys, and a firm that gets defensive about the question is telling you something.
The Portland Context
Portland is safer on the road than it was three years ago, and still dangerous. The city reported 39 traffic deaths in 2025, a second straight annual decline and 38 percent below the average of the prior four years, down from a record 69 in 2023. Pedestrians made up 51 percent of those deaths, and adults 65 and older made up a third.
Behind every fatality figure are hundreds of injury crashes that never make the news. Those are the cases that get resolved by adjusters, deadlines, and paperwork, and they are the ones where knowing Oregon’s rules pays for itself.
Aldrich & Brunot is at 22 NW 23rd Place in Portland, and the firm has recovered more than $10 million from insurance companies for clients across Oregon. You can read more about how the firm handles injury claims on its Portland personal injury attorney page.
This article is general information about Oregon law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines vary with the facts of each case, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Not sure whether a deadline is already running on your case? That question is worth asking now rather than in four months. Contact Aldrich & Brunot for a free consultation with a Portland accident lawyer, or call (503) 536-1737.
