Oregon Bicycle Accident Lawyer

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 other 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.

I also 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.

Wage Loss is provided under Personal Injury Protection (PIP) 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 the driver is uninsured, or you were involved in a hit and run incident.

Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Motorist (UM /UIM) ORS 742.502

Oregon insurance law requires minimums for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $25,000. 

Oregon insurance law also allows for insurance "stacking," which allows injured motorists to add their uninsured motorist coverage on top of the at-fault driver's liability coverage so injured you can get your total insurance coverage defined as the total amount of all coverage available because you will be able to "stack" your UM/UIM coverage on top of the at-fault party's bodily injury liability (BI) coverage.

Increase your UM/UIM coverage from the Oregon minimum $25,000.

I tell every client to buy as much uninsured and under-insured 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.

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) as well as the Uninsured Motorist and UnderInsured Motorist insurance.

I recommend discussing an umbrella policy with your insurance agent because an umbrella can provide extra 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 and also what is like to ride a bicycle for fun and transportation.

Bicycle insurance special coverage may be of interest to some.

Some bicyclists get extra insurance for their fine bicycles (it is in addition to renters insurance or home owner insurance but they will understand your fine bicycle).

They cover crash damage and they say that your bicycle value does not depreciate so if a full on total wreck ever occurs even from you crashing solo, you can get a bicycle replacement. Note that this is a different type of bicycle insurance altogether from the auto insurance which does cover some things with your bicycle.

This bicycle insurance company has many different options depending on the cyclist's needs and type of riding which can perhaps give you more piece of mind about bike theft and having the types of coverages you would need in a worse case scenario.

Whatever insurance you do or don't have in place, I work closely with local bicycle shops to try and get you full replacement value for your damaged bicycle and bicycle gear.

Insurance When You Need It

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, 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.