Representing Truckers Against Negligent Trucking Companies
We recently settled a trucking collision case in which our client suffered serious injuries to his right leg. The survivor was a passenger in a trucking rig that was involved in a three truck collision on icy roads in eastern Oregon. All three trucking companies were negligent, two in driving too fast for conditions without traction chains, and the third in not yielding to other vehicles on the highway.
However, our client faced an interesting legal problem. Some trial and appellate courts in Oregon have upheld arguments by trucking companies and their insurers that they should not be held liable for injuries caused to a passenger in the truck. Indeed, as one trucking company defense counsel in our case pointed out to the trial court, an Oregon Supreme Court case from the 1920s appeared to agree that a trucking company could avoid liability in these circumstances. With that case law behind them, one of the trucking companies long refused any talk of settlement, thinking that it would be immune from liability, no matter how negligent the company and its driver.
We recognized the challenge, but decided that we would not accept a rule that would give trucking companies immunity when its 80,000 pound truck lost control on the public highway and hurt others. We spent hundreds of hours researching and writing on the issue, reading thousands of pages of court opinions and legal treatises, and took numerous depositions. In the end, we were successful in seeking summary judgment on this issue, arguing that this rule of trucking company immunity does not apply. With nowhere left for the trucking companies to turn, the case was settled for $766,000.
February 2012 Tort Tips
Oregon Law Helps in Smaller Cases
ORS 20.080 is intended to help someone who has suffered more modest injury or property losses by encouraging wrongdoers and their insurers to fairly and quickly settle their claims, or suffer attorney fee consequences. The 2011 Legislature raised the amount subject to ORS 20.080 to $10,000. Under that statute:
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The injured person (or their attorney) writes a demand, with supporting documentation, for an amount of $10,000 or less to the responsible party, and if known, their insurer;
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The responsible party has 30 days to tender an amount;
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If the responsible party tenders less than the damages later awarded to the plaintiff, the defendant is liable for the plaintiff’s reasonable attorney fees.
ORS 20.080 has two benefits to the injured person. First, because the responsible party may have to pay the attorney fees in February 2012
Recent Case
Insurance Company’s Unfair Offer Rejected by Arbitrator
Our client was injured in a crash that resulted in neck surgery and permanent injuries affecting her past and future income as a doctor. The bad driver’s insurer settled for $100,000. The Farmers Insurance company had offered our client only $50,000 in additional money on her underinsured motorist policy. The facts were simple and the insurance company had very weak evidence to counter the overwhelming evidence that our client indeed suffered serious medical, physical, and financial losses. The arbitrator fairly evaluated the claim at $380,000.
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