Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

November 18, 2015

Oregon Considers Changes to Foster Care System

An article this week in The Oregonian described an unexpected appearance by the governor at a State Senate committee hearing considering ways to prevent injuries to children by overhauling Oregon’s foster care system. As the newspaper explained, the hearing, which it described as “tense”, was prompted “by accusations that officials did little as a Portland provider neglected vulnerable children.”

The governor made “a surprise appearance before the Senate’s human services committee, (and) offered details on a promise this month to order an independent review of the Department of Human Services. The assessment… will focus on abuse investigations, licensing practices and how the far-flung agency can better share warning signs, among other topics.”

The hearing was prompted by the discovery that state officials continued to place children with a Portland facility even after they were aware of abuse allegations there, according to the paper. The investigation was set in motion by the state’s justice department but raises broader legal questions. If a child were to die at such a facility both state officials and the people directly responsible for caring for the children could be the subjects of an Oregon wrongful death action. Injuries to children are especially serious, which is why the law needs to allow for swift and tough action in both criminal and civil courts.

November 10, 2015

Arbitration Requirements Close off Court Access

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A groundbreaking three-part series published last week by the New York Times has drawn much-needed attention to a problem threatening almost everyone in America despite the fact that many people are not even aware that it impacts them directly.

As the paper reports in part one of the series: “Over the past few years it has becomes increasingly difficult to apply for a credit card, use a cellphone, get cable or Internet service, or shop online without agreeing to private arbitration. The same applies to getting a job, renting a car or placing a relative in a nursing home.” As the series goes on to detail, while arbitration may originally have been conceived as a way for businesses to resolve disputes among themselves more quickly and cheaply than by using our courts it has become a more-or-less routine way for corporations to tilt the field in their favor in any dispute with their customers. The newspaper quotes a federal judge in Boston who aptly describes this development as “among the most profound shifts in our legal history… Ominously, business has a good chance of opting out of the legal system altogether and misbehaving without reproach.”

What makes the new realities outlined in the Times so scary is how widespread they have become in the years since 2011 when a Supreme Court ruling opened the way for wider use of arbitration clauses and made filing class action lawsuits more difficult. The system is particularly lopsided because the growing class of professional arbitrators who administer it generally rely on large corporations to bring them repeat business (an arbitrator must be approved by both sides to a dispute, but large companies have far more knowledge of who they are agreeing to, and can make it clear they will not pick a given individual again if he or she rules against the company) – a conflict of interest that the Times examines at length and which strips away even the thin façade of impartiality that surrounds the arbitration process.

October 31, 2015

Take Extra Care for Halloween this Year

by Matthew D. Kaplan

As an article in today’s Oregonian warns, Halloween has long been a night when pedestrians and drivers alike need to exercise particular caution. This year, however, the fact that October 31 is also the evening when we move from daylight saving time back to standard time makes tonight especially dangerous.

Halloween has always been a night when everyone should be especially aware of the possibility of injuries to children. In the twilight and early evening hours small children – many wearing dark costumes – are running around residential neighborhoods all over the country. The danger of a car accident rises significantly even for the most careful of drivers. The Oregonian reports that Halloween is traditionally the third-worst day of the year for pedestrian fatalities, surpassed only by New Year’s Day and December 23.

In recent decades, however, Halloween has also emerged as an adult party night with a reputation for drinking and driving that rivals New Year’s Eve. According to today’s article “in 2012 when 54 pedestrians died in car crashes on Halloween nationwide, nearly half of those deaths involved a drunk driver.”

October 29, 2015

Cyclist Traffic Death Yields Long Prison Sentence

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The criminal phase of a trial in Maryland of a former Bishop who struck and killed a bike rider while she was driving drunk is over, but the legal system may not be finished with the case. The driver, an Episcopalian Bishop at the time of the accident, “pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene,” according to an Associated Press report posted on the ABC News website.

According to AP “her blood-alcohol was 0.22, and prosecutors said she was texting when she struck the 41-year-old cyclist… on December 27. The impact threw (him) onto (the car’s) hood and into the windshield of her car. He died of severe head trauma, leaving behind a wife and two young children.” The drunk driver left the scene of the accident for approximately 30 minutes, though she later returned, according to the AP.

Rarely does one see a case that raises so many legal issues in a single moment of irresponsibility: drunk driving, distracted driving, failing to share the road with cyclists, leaving the scene of an accident and, as a result of all that, a tragic fatality that may leave the driver open to a wrongful death action. Though the driver, who has been dismissed from her clerical position by the church, pled guilty, that acknowledgement of responsibility does little to ease the pain of the family she has torn apart. The AP quotes the victim’s sister-in-law describing the seven-year prison sentence (technically a 20-year sentence with all but seven years suspended by the judge) as “lukewarm.” It would also be interesting from a legal perspective to learn more about where the driver was drinking before the accident. Here in Oregon our Social Host and Dram Shop laws would place some liability for the accident on a host or a liquor store owner who served or sold the alcohol if the driver had appeared to be drunk at the time.

October 25, 2015

AAA Study Shows that Even Hands-Free Devices Pose Distracted Driving Danger

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The latest phase of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s long running investigation of distracted driving and its causes highlights some potentially disturbing issues, according to a recent article published by MyCentralOregon.com. As the website notes, “the results raise new and unexpected concerns regarding the use of phones and vehicle information systems while driving.”

Specifically, the study challenges the common assumption that switching to hands-free devices solves most distracted driving problems. According to the website, the study concluded that “potentially unsafe mental distractions can persist after a driver dials, changes music or sends a text using voice commands on a voice-activated system.” Especially interesting is the focus on things we do not usually think of when we use the term “distracted driving,” such as using a car’s music or navigation systems.

More critical, however, is the discovery that distracted problems go far beyond cellphones, and cannot be solved simply by switching to headsets, in part because the distraction these devices create lingers even after one’s attention returns to driving.

October 20, 2015

National Teen Driver Safety Week and the “5 to Drive”

by Matthew D. Kaplan

This is National Teen Driver Safety Week and to mark the occasion SafeKids, an organization I have long supported and helped promote, is doing all it can to publicize a set of simple, common sense, safety tips. Known as the “5 to Drive” the campaign aims to cut teen fatalities on our roads through simple, easy to remember, pointers:

Don’t drink and drive
Buckle Up. Every Trip.

October 15, 2015

Oregon Car Accident Deaths Are Rising

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The number of deaths statewide in Oregon car crashes has jumped by 31 percent over the last year – a worrying statistic that, according to The Oregonian, state officials are unsure how to explain.

A recent article in the newspaper reported that “in the year that ended September 23, the state tallied 312 traffic fatalities, up from 238 for the same time period the year before… Pedestrian deaths soared by 64 percent to 54.”

Exactly why this is happening is not clear. The newspaper reports that in presenting the figures to a state senate committee in Salem, officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation called the numbers “pretty sobering” and “said at the hearing that the usual factors – speeding, no seatbelts, drunken and distracted driving – had something to do with the increase, but (the officials) said they’re still looking for solutions.” The Oregonian quotes one ODOT official telling the committee: “There’s no single factor, which means there’s no silver bullet.”

October 11, 2015

Injuries to Children Prompt Examination of Foster Care

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Problems at a Portland-area foster care facility have brought wider issues surrounding the state’s child care system to public attention, including making it the focus of a recent state senate committee hearing. According to a recent article in The Oregonian “the issue flared… when the Senate’s human services committee confronted the Department of Human Services over accusations that a publicly-funded foster care agency abused or neglected children with little apparent oversight from state officials.”

Charges included the withholding of food, use of force with the children and unclean and unsafe conditions in some facilities. The newspaper notes that state officials stopped sending children to one particular facility in North Portland last month, but also raised broader questions about the system as a whole. More legislative hearings are expected in the coming months and several investigations are now underway. In addition, a former employee of the facility accused colleagues of altering reports and other data to conceal the wrongdoing. The director of the facility also appeared before the committee, where she denied all of the accusations.

According to the newspaper, state officials claim that 83 percent of the children in foster care receive a visit from a state worker each month. As this case demonstrates, however, that simply is not good enough. Injuries to children in the Oregon foster care system are far more likely to occur, and will be far more difficult to prevent, as long as both public and private foster homes are able to operate with so little supervision.

October 7, 2015

Columbia County Industrial Accident Highlights Timber Industry Dangers

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A logging fatality last month in Chapman, in Columbia County, is a reminder of the ever-present dangers of Oregon industrial accidents. Pamplin Media, citing local law enforcement officials, reports that a 54-year-old Scappoose woman died while she “and another person were felling large fir trees.”

Logging has been an important part of our state’s economy for over a century, and it provides a livelihood for thousands of Oregonians. It also, however, remains one of the most dangerous professions in America and fatalities like this are tragic reminders of why the timber industry still needs to be closely regulated.

Pamplin reports that the Columbia County Sheriff’s office “conducted an investigation and ruled the death an accident,” but adds that the incident “is also being investigated by Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division as an industrial accident.” This is appropriate because, as I have noted frequently on this blog, “industrial accident” is a term that has a very specific meaning in Oregon law.

October 5, 2015

Injuries to Children and the Risk of Laundry Pods

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Laundry ‘pods’ – essentially pre-packaged detergent that can be thrown in the machine with no need to measure it – have only been around for a few years but have quickly become popular here in Oregon and across the country. As a recent story on MyCentralOregon.com details, however, they also pose a significant risk of Oregon injuries to children – a risk critical enough that the industry is being forced to take note.

According to the website “after tens of thousands of calls from frightened caregivers to poison control centers across the country” the products are being remade. The site reports that according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers there were nearly 12,000 incidents involving laundry pods and children age six or younger last year. This year there were 7,184 such incidents through July – a figure that puts the country on pace to surpass that shocking 2014 number.

As a result Consumer Reports is recommending that people with young children in the house not use liquid laundry pods. When swallowed, the liquid detergent can “sometimes cause children to experience excessive vomiting and difficulty breathing,” MyCentralOregon reports.