FAQ's:
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Medical Bills, Wage Loss, Insurance / Personal Injury Protection (PIP),
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Uninsured, Underinsured, or Hit and Run, Bicycle Insurance,
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Accident Report: Requesting your Police Accident Report, filing Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report with Oregon DMV
Your own Oregon auto insurance policy provides you Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage while you are on your bicycle or a pedestrian.
Oregon personal injury protection (PIP) provides a minimum of $15,000 in medical coverage for up to two years after the injury, as well as up to 52 weeks of wage loss.
This personal injury protection is no-fault medical coverage which means that it covers you regardless of whether the accident was determined to be your fault or the car driver's.
You'll need to contact your own insurance company and file a claim for your personal injury protection benefits. You will need to do this as soon as possible in order for your benefits to start kicking in and in order for them to pay your medical bills.
If your Oregon personal injury protection coverage limits are reached, the other driver's personal injury protection may also cover you.
If you do not have healthcare insurance, you will be billed personally for any amounts in excess of your personal injury protection coverage.
Oftentimes I can work with providers to get them to wait for payment until the case is resolved.
Will my Personal Injury Protection pay for doctors outside of my healthcare plan?
Yes. Your Personal Injury Protection insurance is not tied to your preferred providers list that you may have. You Personal Injury Protection insurance should cover all of your medical expenses (up to $15,000) that are reasonable and related to the accident.
Do I have to pay my insurance company back for my personal injury protection benefits?
Whether or not you have to pay the benefits back out of any settlement or award depends largely on what your attorney does early on in your case.
Most of the time I can force the insurance companies to elect to pay me a fee to recover the medical expenses or waive recovery out of my client's settlement or award.
Insurance companies do not want to pay me a fee, so the vast majority of the time the insurance companies do not require any repayment by my clients.
What happens if my medical expenses exceed my personal injury protection coverage?
If you have healthcare insurance, your healthcare insurance will usually pay any additional amounts. If you do not have healthcare insurance, you will be billed personally for any amounts in excess of your PIP coverage.
Oftentimes I can work with providers to get them to wait for payment until the case is resolved.
How do I make a claim against the other driver's insurance?
If you are hurt in an accident and it is not your fault, the other driver's insurance company owes you for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Your Personal Injury Protection insurance will cover some or all of your medical bills and lost wages, but they will not pay you for your pain and suffering.
You need to make a claim against the other driver's insurance for pain and suffering and any other losses not covered by your Personal Injury Protection. You make this claim by sending them documentation for your medical bills, lost wages, as well as copies of your medical records that show your injuries.
Wage Loss
Wage Loss is provided under Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Auto Insurance.
If you have to miss work because of your injuries, you will also need your wage loss protections.
If you know you will be unable to work past the 14 day period, start the process to invoke your wage loss as soon as you are able because the procedure does take a little bit of time to document and process.
Wage Loss ORS 742.524 (b)
If the injured person is usually engaged in a remunerative occupation and if disability continues for at least 14 days, 70 percent of the loss of income from work during the period of the injured person's disability until the date the person is able to return to the person's usual occupation. This benefit is subject to a maximum payment of $3,000 per month and a maximum payment period in the aggregate of 52 weeks. As used in this paragraph, "income" includes but is not limited to salary, wages, tips, commissions, professional fees and profits from an individually owned business or farm.
Your auto insurance policy protects you even when a driver is uninsured, underinsured, or you were involved in a hit and run accident.
Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Motorist (UM /UIM) ORS 742.502
Oregon insurance law requires minimums for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $25,000.
Unlike many Portland bicycle accident lawyers, I know how expensive bicycles can be.
I work hard to make sure you are fully compensated for your bicycle damages. I know what it is like to spend thousands of dollars on a bicycle only to have it damaged by someone else.
I work closely with local bicycle shops to try and get you full replacement value for your damaged bicycle and bicycle gear.
My Advice:
I strongly suggest increasing your PIP coverage from the Oregon default minimum of $15,000.
If you have health insurance you may not need as much but PIP can still help with high deductible health care plans.
Increase your UM/UIM coverage from the Oregon minimum $25,000.
I tell every client to buy as much uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance (UM, UIM) as they can afford as every year, I deal with clients with permanent, disabling injuries caused by drivers with little or no insurance.
It is fairly inexpensive to boost this coverage and it will give you added protection and help.
I recommend discussing an umbrella policy with your insurance agent because an umbrella can provide extra uninsured and underinsured (UI/UIM) coverage.
Make sure your umbrella policy has UI/UIM coverage.
Umbrella policies can give you an extra $1 million in coverage. Adding an Umbrella policy won't cost you significantly more per month for the added peace of mind of being protected from uninsured, hit and run or just underinsured motorists with the minimum insurance coverage.
We are fortunate to have Bicycle Insurance designed for cyclists right here in Portland.
It's helpful to discuss the type of insurance coverage that will help you while riding your bicycle with a cyclist who understands insurance coverages available for your bike(s) like crash, theft, etc. It's a huge help to talk to a person who understands the bicycle transportation and your finest race bicycles, as well as the insurance puzzle that can help you protect yourself and your bicycle. Talking to an insurance agent who gets bicycles can help you rest assured when your bicycle is damaged in a crash, stolen, etc.
Unlike many Portland bicycle accident lawyers, I know how expensive bicycles can be.
I work hard to make sure you are fully compensated for your bicycle damages. I know what it is like to spend thousands of dollars on a bicycle only to have it damaged by someone else.
I work closely with local bicycle shops to try and get you full replacement value for your damaged bicycle and bicycle gear.
Oregon Bicycle Commuters Using Auto Insurance
If you do not own a car, some bicycle commuters get signed on as an additional driver to an auto insurance policy so that they have the extra coverage of personal injury protection (PIP) insurance (which includes the important wage loss coverage, care giver provisions and more extras) as well as the Uninsured Motorist and UnderInsured Motorist insurance that can help in the event of a hit and run accident.
Insurance companies, are in business to make money for their shareholders.
It often takes the threat of a lawsuit and a known trial attorney to make them to pay.
In Seattle, this bike lawyer had issues getting her own auto insurance policy, where she was named as an additional driver on a shared vehicle, while she mostly road her bicycle for transportation, to pay for her medical bills after she was struck by an uninsured driver from behind on her bicycle commute home. She did ultimately win, but it was an unnecessary delay and then an unnecessary legal battle to get her Uninsured Motorist claim covered.
Last year, I was hit by an uninsured driver on my ride home from work and utilized the Insurance Fair Conduct Act (RCW §48.30.015) when my insurer claimed that I was not insured when riding my bike. The Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) was approved by voters and signed into law in 2007. IFCA provides remedies for people whose claims are unreasonably denied by their insurance companies or if their insurance companies fail to comply with particular regulations governing unfair claims settlement practices. [...]
The insurer then proceeded to variously accept and deny coverage, ultimately determining that I was not a "named insured." Although I was named on the policy, the insurer had unilaterally chosen to list me as a "friend" on the policy rather than as a "named insured" as my partner had requested. Apparently, being added as a "friend" translates into "no uninsured motorist coverage." This listing was ambiguous enough to confuse the adjuster, but evidently not so ambiguous that the insurer would agree that I was covered. [...]
The insurance company quickly deposed me and my partner. After we served it with extensive discovery requests in state court, the insurer removed the case to federal court and sent us a copy of a Western District Court order dismissing another bicyclist's UIM claim on summary judgment for not being a "named insured" on the policy. Undeterred, we moved forward with initial discovery disclosures. Interestingly, we received an offer of judgment that was close to 10 times the amount of my medical bills, but that expired before the insurer's discovery was due.
Read the whole story. It is a very good explanation of why you sometimes need an experienced attorney to fight for you. It is also very illustrative of how insurance companies will delay, deny, obfuscate matters.
After a Bike Accident
At the scene:
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Get the driver's contact information as well as insurance information.
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It is important to also get the names and contact information of any witnesses.
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Pictures at the accident scene can also be very useful in conveying the truth of what happened later on.
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If you are too injured to get the above info, try to ask anyone at the scene for help.
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Seek medical attention.
Oregon Accident Report
If you are involved in an auto accident in Oregon, you must file an Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report with Oregon DMV within 72 hours when:
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Damage to any vehicle is over $2,500 (even if your vehicle was the only one in the crash)
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Any vehicle is towed from the scene
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When injury and or death resulted in the auto accident
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Damages to anyone's property other than a vehicle involved in this accident is more than $2,500.
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If you were in an accident and the damages were less than $2,500, you can report to DMV if the other party doesn't have insurance. Be sure to clearly note on the accident report that it doesn't meet mandatory reporting criteria.
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If the Police or Law Enforcement responds and writes an Accident Report, you still need to file the DMV Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report as outlined in ORS 811.720 and 811.725.
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You do have the right to recover any police report submitted as a result of your bicycle accident. Contact the police department that responded to your bicycle accident. The procedure for recovering the police report will vary depending on the jurisdiction that responded. In Portland, you can get a copy of your accident report usually by contacting the Portland Police Bureau's Records Division at 503-823-0043 or the Portland Police Report Request and Help Line at 503-823-0041. Another way is by filling out a request on the official website of the City of Portland. If your bicycle accident happened outside of Portland, then call DMV Customer Assistance at 503-945-5000 and request DMV send (snail mail/fax/email) you the accident report. You can also pick up a paper form from a DMV field office or your local law enforcement department. Of course, if you retain a lawyer, your own lawyer can help you get a copy of your accident report.
Oregon DMV Accident Reporting and Responsibilities
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I handle cases on a contingency fee basis. This means: You don't owe me a legal fee unless I recover money for you.
