oregon statute of limitations

Let me tell you a story about a car accident. Yes, it’s meant to teach you a lesson.

It’s been several months since your car was sitting at the traffic light on a rainy Portland afternoon, and you were hit from behind by a pickup truck. The pickup’s driver admitted liability, and his insurance company paid for the damage to your car. Now, however, you’re thinking of getting in touch with a Portland personal injury attorney, as you’ve been suffering some bad side effects you’re pretty certain were caused by the accident. But have you left it too late?

What if you were injured in a bicycle accident, and you and your Portland personal injury attorney think the city has a case to answer for creating a dangerous bike intersection on a busy road? How long do you have before deciding to make a claim? Let’s take an extreme case, and say your spouse/partner was walking across the street and was knocked down by a hit and run driver and left in a coma. If the worse comes to pass, how long do you have before you or your Portland personal injury attorney must file a claim?

Statutes of limitations in Oregon can be exceptionally tricky. A competent Portland personal injury attorney will advise you on the time constraints established under Oregon law that you will need to be aware of and abide by.

Every state sets its own personal injury statute of limitations. Apart from Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, all of which have a one-year limit on filing personal injury claims, Oregon ranks tied for the second shortest time limit to file, at two years. This compares with three years in neighboring Washington State, four years in Utah and Wyoming, five years in Missouri and no less than six years in Maine and North Dakota.

Terms and conditions apply!

“Discovery of harm” is a term which lends itself to stretching the statute of limitations, but only in very rare cases, and almost never in claims for injuries sustained in car, bike or pedestrian accidents. However, a competent Portland personal injury attorney could argue that if symptoms didn’t begin to flare up until months after the accident, the statute of limitations should only begin from the moment the injured person knew, or should have been reasonably expected to know of the harm caused and the nature and source of that harm. Insurance companies would argue strongly, however, that anyone injured in a car accident should have known from the day of the accident, or certainly within a few days, of the nature of their injuries. Keep reading for specific types of cases.

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Date: December 15, 2010
Location: Portland, OR
Names: Jessica Heffler, Benjamin Allen Sprague

Benjamin Allen Sprague, age 23, of Happy Valley is scheduled to appear in court on December 29 facing charges of recklessly endangering another person and third degree assault after he shot his girlfriend in the abdomen.

According to reports published in The Sky Valley Chronicle, Sprague told authorities that he mistook a loaded .45 caliber handgun for a BB gun after he’d been drinking with friends on December 13. He reportedly said that he pulled the trigger of what he thought was the BB gun in the direction of his girlfriend Jessica Heffler, age 17, who was standing nearby.

The .45 caliber bullet struck Heffler in the abdomen. She was badly wounded and required reconstructive surgery for bowel damage.

Sprague’s friend who owned the gun and in whose home the shooting occurred, told police he had been cleaning the gun and had left the room for a few minutes and did not know that Sprague had picked up the gun and was playing with it.

We are sorry that a prank like this could cause so much harm, and send our wishes for a full recovery to Jessica.

Jessica was a minor at the time of the shooting. When children are injured, the law can get complicated fast. For example, while the standard Oregon injury case must be filed within 2 years of the accident, the statute of limitations for children, on the other hand, is not so straightforward. ORS 12.160 steps you through the process for figuring out the statute of limitations. First, the regular statute of limitations applies. Second, it doesn’t start running until the child turns 18 years old. But, third, the statute cannot be extended more than five years. And fourth, it cannot be extended beyond the child’s 19th birthday. In addition to the statute of limitations, there’s also the issue of money. Money recovered belongs to the injured child, not to his or her parents. In certain cases, a judge will need to oversee the situation to make sure this happens.

Date: July 19, 2010
Location: Highway 42 & Brockway Road near Winston, Oregon
Names: Kaila L. Boyer, Dudley L. Lenhart, Jesse W. James

A 22-year-old woman died, and two people were seriously injured, after a driver ran a stop sign, and the pickup truck he was driving was hit by a dump truck, according to an OSP press release.

On July 19, 2010, around 10:30 AM, a pickup truck driven by Jesse W. James, 23, of Riddle, Oregon, was traveling north on Brockway Road just west of Winston. When the truck came to the intersection with Highway 42, witnesses said, it failed to stop for the stop sign. A dump truck driven by Dudley L. Lenhart, 58, of Tenmile, struck the passenger side of the pickup. The impact caused the dump truck to veer off the road. It struck an ODOT message board before overturning in a pasture by the side of the highway.

Kaila L. Boyer, 22, of Riddle, who was riding in the pickup truck, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The pickup driver, James, was airlifted to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland with critical injuries.

The dump truck driver, Lenhart, was seriously injured. He was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.

OSP troopers from the Roseburg Area Command office are continuing to investigate, assisted by a crash reconstructionist.

We send prayers to everyone involved in this crash, including Lenhart and James, with special prayers going to Kaila Boyer’s family and friends.

A funeral service for Kaila was held on July 26 at Coos Bay Chapel. In an obituary from NR Today, Kaila is remembered as a strong, beautiful and independent young woman with kindness and humor. She loved fishing and being in the outdoors. She had many friends and a loving family, including her mother, Roberta Wright; stepfather, Michael Wright; and father, Martin Akins.

We hope you will never need this information, but if the worst happens and a loved one dies in a car crash, here are a few things to know:

Wrongful death claims are allowed by law. ORS 30.010-30.100.

The statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim is tricky. It is “three years after the injury causing the death . . . is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. . . .” In other words, it’s not three years from the date of death; it’s three years from the date of the original injury that ultimately caused the death. If a person goes into a coma from a car crash, and dies eight months later, the case will have to be brought within three years from the date of the car crash, not from the date of the death.

If a city, state, county, or other public body is being sued, a Tort Claim Notice must be received by the entity being sued within 180 days of the injury.

Compensation available includes charges for medical expenses; memorial and burial services; compensation for the person’s pain, suffering, disability, and loss of income from the time of the injury through the time of death; financial losses to the person’s family or other heirs; compensation for the loss of companionship and services to the person’s spouse, children, stepchildren, stepparents and parents; and punitive damages may sometimes be available as well.

The law caps the amount of noneconomic damages at $500,000. This does not apply to economic damages, which are not capped.

For more information on what to do in the case of an Oregon accident, contact our office or read our free book, 7 Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case.

Date: July 1, 2010
Location: Highway 140E near Lakeview, Oregon
Names: Dawna Leigh Rhoades Anderson, Brian James Crawford

A 47-year-old Iowa woman died in a July 1, 2010 commercial truck crash on Highway 140E near Lakeview, Oregon, around 12:55 PM, and the truck driver was seriously injured, according to an OSP news release.

The crash occurred as a Kenworth truck pulling a flatbed trailer, operated by Brian James Crawford, 49, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was traveling downhill westbound on the highway. For an unknown reason, the truck lost control. The truck and trailer skidded into a ditch along the north side of the road, and rolled onto the passenger side. The vehicles came to rest blocking the highway.

The passenger in the truck, Dawna Leigh Rhoades Anderson, 47, also of Cedar Rapids, died on the way to the hospital. She was the driver’s friend and was not employed by the trucking company.

The driver, Crawford, was seriously injured. He was transported by ambulance to Lake District Hospital. As of July 2, hospital staff listed him in stable condition.

An investigation by Oregon State Police is ongoing.

We send our heartfelt wishes to Anderson, her family and friends. We also offer our best wishes
for a full recovery to Crawford.

The little-known secret about single-car crashes is that they are not always the driver’s fault. Surprised? While many people will assume that the driver fell asleep at the wheel, or stopped paying attention for some other reason – and perhaps that is exactly what happened – there are many other possibilities as well.

Poor road conditions may have caused this wreck – for all we know, there may have been a large pothole that has already caused three accidents, or maybe there’s a blind curve with a missing warning sign. If that is the case, you may have a potential lawsuit against the state of Oregon. Such a lawsuit would allow the injured person to receive compensation and hopefully prevent future accidents on that stretch of road.

Maybe the car was recently brought in for a tune-up, and the mechanic replaced the steering mechanism carelessly, and the car lost steering. These things happen, and when someone is seriously injured, a competent Oregon truck injury attorney can investigate and find out what happened. Usually, at no cost. For more information on what to do in the case of an Oregon accident, contact our office or read 7 Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case.

Date: March 26, 2010
Location: Highway 7 near Sumpter, Oregon
Names: Kayla Petty, Kasey Knaus, Jeffery Givens, Katirah Huff

A 17-year-old girl was killed and three other Baker High School students were seriously injured in a single-vehicle crash when their car rolled over as they drove back from an overnight camping trip, according to an Oregon State Police press release.

The tragic end to the spring break trip came around 1:20 PM, on Highway 7 near Sumpter, Oregon. Kasey Knaus, 16, attempted to turn, and the car he was driving drifted into the loose gravel on the side of the road. Knaus tried to steer the car back onto the highway, but lost control. The car rolled before it came to rest on the opposite side of the guardrail, ejecting Knaus and two of the three passengers.

Middle rear passenger Kayla Petty, 17, was ejected; she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Left rear passenger Jeffery Givens, 18, was also ejected and suffered serious injuries. He was first taken to a Baker City hospital, then airlifted to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.

Passenger Katirah Huff, 15, was not ejected, but was seriously injured. She was transported by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City.

Knaus, the driver, who was ejected, had non-life-threatening injuries and was also taken to St. Elizabeth.

All four teens are from Baker City.

Comments on OregonLive.com and other sites were full of grief and anguish for Kayla’s young life, along with many prayers for those who were injured: “I am so sorry for the family and friends of Kayla Petty, as well as those who were injured in this crash,” wrote one commenter. Another wrote, “Kayla I love you and I miss you with all my heart. You didn’t deserve this, none of you did.”

We, too, would like to offer our prayers to Kayla’s family and friends. It is so hard to lose a beloved daughter, a caring friend, a dear family member. It is much, much harder when the victim is someone so young, with so much ahead of her. We also want to send special thoughts to Kasey, Jeffery, and Katirah, and we hope their hospital stay is a short one and their recovery complete.

Many people tend to think a single-car accident is always the driver’s fault. However, this is not always the case, and the law looks at many things. An investigation might turn up a number of factors. Perhaps poor road conditions caused the Oregon car crash. For all we know, there may have been a large pothole that has already caused three accidents, or maybe there’s a blind curve and the warning sign is missing. If that is the case, there may be a lawsuit against the city, county, or state. Such a lawsuit would allow the injured person to receive compensation and, we hope, prevent future accidents.

But a claim against the city, county, or state can mean shorter deadlines and less time to file a claim. If a city, state, county, or other public body is being sued, a Tort Claim Notice must be received by the entity being sued within 180 days of the injury.

When children are injured, the law can get complicated fast. For example, while the standard Oregon injury case must be filed within 2 years of the accident, the statute of limitations for children, on the other hand, is not so straightforward. ORS 12.160 steps you through the process for figuring out the statute of limitations. First, the regular statute of limitations applies. Second, it doesn’t start running until the child turns 18 years old. But, third, the statute cannot be extended more than five years. And fourth, it cannot be extended beyond the child’s 19th birthday. In addition to the statute of limitations, there’s also the issue of money. Money recovered belongs to the injured child, not to his or her parents. In certain cases, a judge will need to oversee the situation to make sure this happens.

Wrongful death claims are allowed by law. ORS 30.010-30.100. The statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim is tricky. It is “three years after the injury causing the death . . . is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. . . .” In other words, it’s not three years from the date of death; it’s three years from the date of the original injury that ultimately caused the death. If a person goes into a coma from a car crash, and dies eight months later, the case will have to be brought within three years from the date of the car crash, not from the date of the death.

There’s also a question about the vehicle. Some vehicles are sold with a propensity to rollover that is entirely unnecessary and could be easily changed by the maker. Other vehicles are made in an unsafe manner in other ways. For example, a few years ago a Texas jury found Ford Motor Company liable for the deaths of two occupants of a Ford Explorer and delivered a verdict of $28 million. It was proven to the jury in that case that Ford’s use of the wrong sort of glass in its side windows made it far more likely that passengers would be ejected from the vehicle in a rollover.

If there is ever a possibility of a lawsuit against the manufacturer of a vehicle, it is crucial that the vehicle itself be preserved just as it is in a safe place. This usually means hiring an attorney at least for the purpose of safeguarding the vehicle. The best Portland injury attorneys will provide this service for free, store the vehicle until the family is in a state to make decisions, and only then discuss lawsuit possibilities.

After an accident, you may want to contact a good Portland personal injury attorney, who can investigate and find out what happened. We can answer many questions at no cost. For more information on what to do in the case of an Oregon accident, contact our office or read our free book, 7 Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case.