Beaverton Workplace Accident Lawyer
About Johnston Law Firm
Beaverton Accident Lawyer
Nobody goes to work and expects to suffer a serious injury in an accident. However, workplace accidents in Beaverton and across Oregon occur more often than you might think. Serious and deadly workplace accidents in Oregon declined slightly between 2019 and 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), yet the overall rate of severe and fatal injuries remained high. According to the BLS statistics, Oregon workers experience injuries at a higher rate in certain types of jobs than workers in other parts of the country, including in transportation accidents and in struck-by accidents. Warehousing and transportation injuries are most dangerous for Oregon workers, but jobs in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting also have a high rate of occupational injuries and deaths.
When an injury happens on the job in Oregon, the first path toward obtaining compensation is usually to file a workers’ compensation claim. For most injured workers in the Beaverton area, as long as the injury arose out of the worker’s employment, the injured employee can be eligible to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. An experienced Beaverton workplace accident lawyer at our firm can tell you more about workers’ compensation in Oregon and can assist you with your claim.
Common Causes of Beaverton Workplace Accidents
What are some of the most common causes of workplace accidents in the Beaverton area? Whether you work in an industrial workplace or in a retail environment, or in the construction industry or in a white collar job, you can be at risk of sustaining an injury on the job. The BLS cites the following as the most common causes of serious and fatal injuries that happen at work:
- Motor vehicle collisions and other transportation accidents;
- Struck-by accidents in which a worker is struck by a falling object;
- Slip, trip, and fall injuries;
- Falls from heights, or falls from higher levels to lower levels;
- Falls into trenches or other excavation sites;
- Injuries caused by product defects, including defective machinery and defective tools;
- Explosion injuries that result in severe thermal or electrical burns;
- Exposure injuries caused by exposure to dangerous or toxic substances, such as chemical burns and cancer; and
- Electrical injuries, including electrocutions.
What You Should Know About Workers’ Compensation in Beaverton
Most workers who are injured on the job can be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, which include coverage for medical bills and expenses, as well as a portion of the worker’s lost wages. What is workers’ compensation in Oregon? It is a type of no-fault insurance that provides coverage for employees who sustain work-related injuries or are diagnosed with work-related illnesses. Most employers in Oregon are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance, which means that most injured workers can be eligible to seek benefits when an injury happens on the job.
Since workers’ compensation is a type of no-fault insurance, it is also an exclusive remedy in most cases. What this means is that, while the injured worker is not required to prove negligence in order to obtain benefits (and can even obtain benefits if their own negligence caused or contributed to the workplace accident), the injured worker cannot file a lawsuit against their employer. Rather, workers’ compensation coverage is the sole or exclusive remedy.
Filing a Third Party Lawsuit Following a Personal Injury In The Workplace
There are some exceptions to workers’ compensation being an exclusive remedy, and in certain cases it may be possible to file a lawsuit against one or more negligent third parties. When can an injured worker file a third-party lawsuit? In short, a party other than the employer or a co-worker will need to be liable for the accident. Some common examples of workplace injury cases where the injured worker can file a third-party lawsuit include the following:
- Product defect injury at work, such as an accident that results from the defective design or manufacture of a machine or tool; or
- Motor vehicle accidents caused by a negligent driver at a work site, such as a motorist who crashes into a road construction work area and causes a worker’s injuries.
To determine whether you could be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent third party, you should seek advice from a lawyer who can assess your case.
Appealing a Workers’ Compensation Decision in Beaverton
Under Oregon workers’ compensation law, insurers are required to either accept or deny a workers’ compensation claim within 60 days. If your claim is denied, you have options for appealing the decision. You will receive a letter that explains why your claim was denied, and it will also provide you with details about how you can appeal to the Hearing Division of the Workers’ Compensation. You will only have a limited amount of time to appeal a denied claim, so it is critical to get in touch with a workplace injury lawyer in Beaverton as soon as possible.
Statute of Limitations for a Workplace Accident Lawsuit
If you are eligible to file a third-party lawsuit, Oregon law says that you will likely need to file a lawsuit within two years from the date of the workplace accident. If your workplace accident lawsuit is not filed within that two-year time window, your claim will become time-barred.
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