"I got into an accident and was nervous about finding a personal injury attorney after hearing so many awful stories, but from the start, I felt confident with my choice in Kaplan Law, LLC." Read More - Ben
"Matt and Gillian took great care of me during a stressful time of my life. Very caring and knowledgeable group. I would definitely recommend Kaplan Law!" Read More - Kayleigh
"Incredible service and results! Matthew Kaplan and his paralegal Gillian did an amazing job for me. Not only did they resolve my case beyond my satisfaction, they also were very caring and supportive thru my recovery. I couldn't ask for a better attorney." Read More - Jamal
Matthew D. Kaplan

by

At a Portland City Hall rally earlier this month, a group of bicyclists sought not to accomplish a solely bicycle-oriented policy goal. Instead, the bicyclists focused on a larger objective: reducing the high number of traffic deaths in the city and making Portland’s roads safer for everyone, including drivers, passengers, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists. The bicycle accident lawyers at Kaplan Law LLC understand the incalculable human toll that traffic fatalities represent, and support policies that will make our area’s streets and highways safer for all.

According to KGW8’s coverage, the rally included signs honoring the lives of each person killed in vehicle incidents in Portland this year. As of the date of the rally, Portland had already logged 46 fatalities, a pace that could allow the city to surpass last year’s total of 63 deaths.

The protest was organized by BikeLoud PDX. A member of that group told KGW8 that the changes they desired were reasonable and modest goals. Those objectives included enhanced enforcement of speed limits, an increase in the number of traffic cameras (particularly on “high-crash corridors,”) additional infrastructure investment, and campaigns against impaired driving targeted at “bars, restaurants, [and] liquor stores.”

Continue reading

by

The last few months have brought a rash of deadly bicycle crashes here in Oregon, including at least two this month (one in Clackamas County and one in Polk County.) The tragic stream of fatalities is a reminder of the extreme dangers bicyclists face when they’re on the road — be it here in Portland or a rural area. Discovering the truth about the bicycle crash that took the life of your loved one can sometimes be a complex, challenging process. An experienced Oregon bicycle accident lawyer can help you both with amassing the factual evidence you need, and utilizing that proof in an appropriate legal action.

Sometimes, the facts regarding a crash can be fairly straightforward. In the recent Clackamas County accident, the mountain manager of the Mount Hood Skibowl died in a two-vehicle collision just east of Government Camp. According to the Oregon State Police, the 48-year-old bicyclist was headed southbound on Highway 173 when the 71-year-old driver of a Hyundai SUV, who sought to turn left from Highway 173 onto West Leg Road, failed to yield the right of way and turned into the bicyclist’s path.

The impact was so powerful that it launched the bicyclist from his bike and into the roadway. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Continue reading

by

Two different reports of two recent jail deaths (from two different publications) reveal a pair of incidents with some striking things in common. These deaths, and the timelines laid out in the accompanying news reports, show how often inmates receive questionable medical care. These reports are a stark reminder that substandard medical care remains a serious (and sometimes lethal) problem in Oregon’s correctional facilities. If you’ve lost a loved one in circumstances like this, the legal system allows you to pursue a constitutional claim. These cases are often complex and challenging, so getting advice and answers from an experienced Oregon jail medical neglect lawyer is well worth your while.

This kind of neglect can take many forms. Sometimes, it can include things as simple as a failure to do proper inmate wellness checks on a sufficiently frequent basis.

A jail death to our south recently received coverage from the Corvallis Gazette-Times, which laid out a detailed timeline of the inmate’s symptoms, and the actions (or lack thereof) undertaken by those responsible for her wellbeing.

Continue reading

by

Pedestrian accidents are unique in certain ways. Unlike vehicle-versus-vehicle accidents, many vehicle-versus-pedestrian accidents leave little or no physical evidence at the scene. There may be a complete absence of skid marks or broken glass. In fact, the vehicle may endure no significant damage of any kind. That is one reason why retaining the right Oregon pedestrian accident lawyer to handle your case is so important. Once you’ve retained counsel, if that kind of proof isn’t available, your attorney can immediately get started pursuing other forms of evidence to make your case, like security camera footage, cell phone recordings, or other video/photographic evidence of the crash.

Recent news reports show that pedestrians are facing greater risks on Portland roads than ever before. City records revealed that 16 pedestrians died in 2019 and 18 in 2020. Last year, though, that number shot up to 28.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, another vehicle accident claimed the life of a pedestrian here in Portland. The incident represented the 44th traffic death in Portland this year. Of those 44, 14 have been pedestrians, according to OregonLive.com.

Continue reading

by

As a parent, ensuring your small child is safe whenever you hit the road is often a primary concern. To accomplish that goal, it is important to make sure that the car seat you’re using is completely safe and appropriate for your child’s size. Sometimes, though, the safety hazard comes not from your car seat but from your vehicle itself. If your child has been seriously injured (or worse) in a vehicle crash, it’s possible that an improper restraint was part of the problem. If that’s the case, then your situation may entitle you to seek justice through legal action. An experienced Portland child injury lawyer can provide you with crucial answers to your questions and advise you about possible next steps.

Currently, the industry standard for attaching car seats to vehicles is the LATCH (a/k/a Lower, Anchors & Tethers for Children) system. The system involves connecting the car seat to a set of metal anchors (built into the vehicle’s seats and seat backs) using tethers and clips attached to the car seat.

LATCH has now been in existence for more than two decades (dating back to the latter half of 2002,) yet issues with LATCH car seats remain. In late May, a product recall targeted some of Baby Trend’s hybrid child seats. According to the recall, the LATCH “assembly webbing that secures the child restraint system to the lower anchorages may fray, which can reduce the strength of the webbing and fail to properly restrain a child in a crash.” Due to that lack of strength, the seats failed to meet the requirements of two Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards: “Child Restraint Systems” (number 213) and “Seat Belt Assemblies” (number 209).

Continue reading

by

Incarcerated people ingesting contraband (such as drugs) or other dangerous items is a legitimate problem. Like every other problem that correction workers face, there’s a right way and a wrong way to address it. Sometimes, the use of a so-called “dry cell” represents the wrong way, and the misuse of this type of confinement can be damaging or even lethal. If a loved one has died while incarcerated in a “dry cell,” then you should contact an Oregon civil rights lawyer to learn more about your legal situation and options.

“Dry cells” are cells where the inmate lacks any plumbing facilities. There is no shower, no sink, and the toilet has no water. The idea is that the contraband or dangerous item will eventually pass through the inmate’s body and prison officials can recover it after it does so.

Properly used, these cells can potentially serve some benefit. Improperly used, these cells can cause lasting physical damage… including death. That is what, according to one deceased inmate’s family, may have happened recently at Two Rivers Correctional Institute.

Continue reading

by

People whose sole (or primary) source of information about the civil justice system is courtroom drama TV shows likely presume that cases are 100% won or lost at trial. In reality, what leads to success in your major injury case often happens well before the trial even begins. That’s because developing the strongest possible case involves many facets, including proper pretrial procedural steps, and that’s why the odds of getting justice are enhanced by retaining a knowledgeable Oregon injury lawyer.

A recent injury case from the federal District Court in Eugene is a good example. The huge “win” the injured plaintiff received was not regarding some factual or legal issue, but rather the use of expert witnesses.

Expert witnesses can be a major element of a successful case. Say, for example, you suffered a catastrophic injury with permanent paralysis at work due to the negligence of a third party (i.e., not your employer.) Your injuries mean a lifetime of medical treatment, rehab, pain, anguish, mental distress, and never being able to work again.

Continue reading

by

When workplaces lack appropriate worker safety protections, serious and sometimes life-changing (or even fatal) accidents are too often the result. Sometimes, you, as an injured worker, may be entitled to restorative relief through an industrial accident lawsuit. These cases can be highly complex, making representation from a knowledgeable Oregon industrial accident lawyer especially valuable.

One factor that can help workers to receive safer workplaces is the threat of OSHA fines from the state. The fines the State of Oregon hands out to employers operating unsafe workplaces have historically been among the lowest in the country, even when the safety violations were obvious and substantial. For example, one construction worker in West Linn died in an accident caused by a heavy-duty loader with no working brakes or horn. Despite finding that the safety violations carried a “high probability of death and that ‘with reasonable diligence, (the) employer could have known that the loader’s brakes and horn were not operating properly’,” Oregon OSHA fined the excavation company only $5,400.

Those fines will be increasing going forward. Earlier this month, the Oregon legislature passed a bill that forces Oregon OSHA to lift its minimum fine amounts to mirror the minimum fines federal OSHA requires. According to The Oregonian, that means raising minimum fines by more than 1,000% in some circumstances.

Continue reading

by

A commercial truck can weigh anywhere from 17.5-40 tons (35,000-80,000 pounds.) When you compare that to passenger vehicles, which weigh only about 1-3 tons (2,000-6,000 pounds,) it is easy to see how an accident involving a big rig can do massive — and often fatal — damage. If you’re hurt — or a loved one killed — in a commercial truck accident, there may be multiple parties with potential liability, ranging from truck drivers to trucking companies to a host of insurance companies. Complex civil cases like these often are ones where a skilled Oregon truck accident lawyer can be especially helpful.

A Willamette Valley crash was one of the most recent examples of just how devastating the results can be when a trucker operates his vehicle unsafely. Due to the complexities and amount (and severity) of the injuries involved, this case will likely take years to conclude and for families to get closure.

The trucker was traveling on Interstate 5 between Albany and Salem and, according to prosecutors, “had been weaving on and off the road” as he headed northbound. As he approached the Santiam River Rest Area, he allegedly veered onto the east shoulder of the highway and slammed into a Ford Econoline passenger van, crushing it between the trucker’s rig and a parked semi. The Oregonian reported that seven van passengers died. In addition, four more van passengers were transported to a hospital via ambulance.

Continue reading

by

Even as legislative bodies strengthen laws and police ramp up enforcement, people behind the wheel dividing their attention between driving and text messages, phone calls, email, social media, and so forth remain a very real problem in Oregon and across the country. Too often, the results are serious injuries or deaths. When you or your family is harmed by someone driving while insufficiently attentive, you owe it to yourself to contact an experienced Oregon distracted driving lawyer to discuss your circumstances.

Sometimes, no one is hurt as a result of drivers’ inattention and the stories can seem a bit ridiculous — like the Washington County driver who was sufficiently distracted by a cell phone last fall that they left the road, crashed their pickup truck into a silo, and pushed that silo into a nearby barn, or the driver spotted by the Oregon State Police on Interstate 84 with not one but two hands on their cell phone while they drove.

Too many times, though, the outcome is tragic rather than absurd. Distracted driving crashes resulted in 3,500+ deaths nationwide in 2021. Here in Oregon, the state logged more than 15,500 crashes with more than 24,000 injuries from 2016-2020, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Continue reading

50 SW Pine St 3rd Floor Portland, OR 97204 Telephone: (503) 226-3844 Fax: (503) 943-6670 Email: matthew@mdkaplanlaw.com
map image