The first week after a wreck near Nob Hill is usually a scramble of clinics, tow yards and phone calls. Three tasks should sit at the front of that pile. Get medical care. Get the crash reported. Open a claim with your own insurer for personal injury protection. The legal clocks start whether or not those tasks feel urgent.
Oregon’s usual injury lawsuit has to be commenced within two years under section 12.110. If a City of Portland vehicle, a State of Oregon vehicle or another public body may have a role in the wreck, a written notice of claim is generally due in 180 days, or one year in a death case, under section 30.275. Those periods do not wait for a copy of the police report to arrive in the mail.
Medical care comes before the argument about the light
A later claim is built on what the doctors found and when they found it. If anyone is badly hurt, call 911. If the injuries seem smaller, urgent care or a regular clinic still matters. Oregon PIP medical benefits under section 742.524 cover reasonable and necessary medical, hospital, dental, surgical, ambulance and prosthetic expenses incurred within two years after the injury, up to $15,000 for that person. The benefit is easier to use when treatment starts promptly and the bills are saved.
Keep discharge papers, imaging discs and a simple list of every visit. If you start to feel worse a day later, go back. Delayed pain is common after a collision, and a gap in care is something an adjuster will notice. Do not rely on an emergency-room visit alone if symptoms continue.
How a Portland crash gets reported
A regular motor vehicle crash in Portland is not something you can file through the City’s online reporting tool. The Portland Police online submission page says a motor vehicle crash cannot be reported that way, with one exception. A hit-and-run can be submitted online. For any other crash, call the non-emergency line at 503-823-3333, or call 911 if it is an emergency. The Police Bureau’s main site is portland.gov/police.
If officers already responded, write down the incident number if you were given one, plus the names of the other drivers and any badge information you were shown. Photograph the vehicles, the roadway and any visible injuries before cars are moved, when you can do that safely. Get names and numbers for witnesses who stopped. Our report guide walks through how to request a copy later. Ask the City for the current fee. Do not wait on that copy before you open a PIP claim or, if a public body may be involved, before you start the notice work.
Tell your own insurer, then slow down with the other side
Open the PIP claim with the auto policy that is most likely to apply. That is often your own household policy, or the host vehicle’s policy if you were a passenger. Pedestrians struck by an insured private passenger vehicle are also among the people section 742.520 covers. Ask the carrier to put the claim number in writing. Keep every bill you send in under that number. Income-loss benefits, if disability continues at least 14 days, pay 70 percent of the loss of income, up to $3,000 a month for as long as 52 weeks, under 742.524.
The other driver’s insurer may want a spoken statement right away. You are not required to give one on the spot in order to receive urgent care. A careful statement, given after you have the facts straight, is usually more useful than a rushed one from the roadside or from a hospital bed. Filing a claim with an insurer is also not the same as commencing a lawsuit. Section 12.020 treats an action as begun when the complaint is filed and the summons is served, with a narrow additional rule in that section.
Watch for a public vehicle and for an early check
A city truck, a state car or another public body’s vehicle changes the first week’s work. The 180-day notice in 30.275 is a written document with three required pieces, and it has to be delivered in the way that section describes. Our notice guide walks through that duty. Do not assume a police report, a PIP claim or a phone call to a city desk satisfies it.
If an insurer sends an early check and calls it an advance payment, keep the check, the envelope and any form that arrived with it. Section 12.155 requires a written notice, within 30 days of the first of those payments and in the form the Department of Consumer and Business Services prescribes, about when the limitation period expires. If that notice is missing, the time between the first payment and the date a notice is actually given is not counted as part of the period. Our deadline guide covers the rule in more detail.
Then decide whether you want a lawyer this week
Not every fender-bender needs counsel. A fracture, a fight about the light, a driver with no insurance, a motorcycle or bicycle wreck, or a public vehicle is a sound reason to get counsel sooner rather than later. Ask what percentage they would charge, whether costs come out before or after that fee, and how Oregon’s comparative-fault rule in section 31.600 might affect the claim. Get the fee terms in a signed writing. Before you hire anyone, look up whether their Oregon license is still active.
If money is tight and the problem is not a crash claim, Legal Aid Services of Oregon’s Portland Regional Office is at 621 SW Morrison St., Suite 900. The phone is (503) 224-4086, or 1-800-228-6958. Intake is by phone only, and the office does not take walk-ins. Staff pick up on weekdays from 9 in the morning until noon, then again from 1 until 5. That office describes help with family, housing, public benefits and related work for eligible people. It does not describe a crash-claim service. For an injury case, a private lawyer who holds a current Oregon license is the usual route.