How to get a lawyer for a small case: ORS 20.080
Portland Personal Injury Lawyers
You can get a lawyer for almost any case you want - that is, if you are willing to pay $250 or more per hour. But if you want a lawyer to work on a contingency basis, meaning that the lawyer does not take payment up front, but gets paid only if he wins your case, it can be very hard to find a lawyer for a small case.
For a while, insurance companies were refusing to pay more than a few hundred dollars on smaller cases, since they knew that injured people could never get lawyers for them-that is, until the Oregon Legislature realized insurance companies weren't paying fair, and enacted Oregon Revised Statue 20.080.
ORS 20.080 makes it possible to settle these cases for a fair value, and here's the good part:
- You can usually settle your case yourself, without a lawyer. That means you get to keep every dollar you get. No attorney fees!
- If that's not possible, ORS 20.080 has a way that you can often force the insurance company to pay your attorney fees. That is not a misprint. The insurance company that is haggling with you, forcing you to get an attorney by lowballing you, will have to pay your attorney.
For more info on how to settle your Oregon accident case, click here.