Oregon Construction Accident Lawyers
Construction is among the most dangerous industries in America, and construction accident injuries are tragically common. Many construction accident claims cannot be resolved through simple workers compensation benefits. Our Oregon construction accident lawyers build the cases that hold all responsible parties accountable.
Speak with an Oregon Construction Accident Lawyer
The construction industry accounts for roughly one in five workplace fatalities nationwide each year, and injury rates on Oregon job sites have not meaningfully improved in the years since the pandemic. The result is a steady toll of falls, crush injuries, electrocutions, and deaths on sites across the state. If that happened to you, compensation may be available for what you have endured, what you still face, and the income you have lost.
Why Barton Trial Attorneys? A construction site injury is not an ordinary injury case. Multiple contractors, layered insurance policies, workers’ compensation, and OSHA findings all collide in the same claim, and handling it takes a firm that has done it before. Insurance carriers are working from the first phone call to pay you as little as they can. You owe it to yourself to have highly skilled Oregon trial lawyers working just as hard for you.
How Construction Accidents Happen
Federal safety data has identified the same four causes of construction fatalities for years: falls, being struck by an object, electrocutions, and caught-in or caught-between incidents. Together they account for roughly a third of all construction deaths; falls alone account for more than any other single cause.
The construction accident cases we see most often involve:
- Falls from height: scaffolding without proper planking or guardrails, unprotected leading edges, roof and skylight openings, ladders set on unstable ground, missing or unanchored fall arrest systems.
- Falls on the same level: unguarded floor openings, trip hazards, ungraded surfaces, poor lighting in stairwells and shafts.
- Struck-by incidents: loads dropped from cranes and hoists, unsecured material on scaffolds, swinging or rolling equipment, backing vehicles, tools falling from levels above.
- Caught-in and caught-between: trench and excavation collapse, unguarded machinery, equipment operated without lockout/tagout, workers pinned between a machine and a fixed object.
- Electrocution: contact with overhead power lines, unmarked or energized circuits, defective tools, missing ground-fault protection.
- Crane, forklift, and heavy equipment failures, including operator error, inadequate maintenance, and blind-spot collisions.
- Structural and material collapse: formwork failure, wall and roof collapse, failed shoring.
- Fires, explosions, and toxic exposure: gas leaks, welding and hot-work ignition, confined-space asphyxiation, silica and chemical exposure.
- Defective tools, machinery, and safety equipment, sold without adequate guarding, instructions, or warnings.
In any event the team at Barton Trial Attorneys is here to help. If you or someone you love was hurt on an Oregon job site, we urge you not to leave your future in the hands of a claims adjuster. Oregon law sets strict deadlines for filing a lawsuit, and evidence can disappear if it is not protected. Call (541) 265-5377 today for a free case consultation.
The Barton Difference: We Argue Stories, Not Just Facts
We are not just good trial lawyers. We are master storytellers who tell the true, compelling stories of everyday people who have been injured. We use the complex language of law, but also plain English, to tell stories that juries understand: stories that get better results. Our cases change not only our clients’ circumstances, but also the behavior of others, and the future direction of the law.
The Most Common Construction Accident Injuries
The injuries we see most often include:
- Traumatic brain injury, including concussion and diffuse axonal injury. These catastrophic injuries are the leading cause of construction fatalities, and a frequent consequence of falls and struck-by events even when a hard hat was worn. Mild TBI is routinely missed in the emergency department and routinely disputed later.
- Spinal cord injury, including paraplegia and tetraplegia, from falls, collapses, and crush injuries all related to the spine. Complications may involve herniated discs, vertebral fractures, chronic radiculopathy, and the surgeries and fusions that follow.
- Crush injuries and amputations, from machinery, trench collapse, and equipment rollovers, along with the prosthetic and revision-surgery costs. Orthopedic fractures may involve the pelvis, femur, tibia, calcaneus (ankle bone), wrist and forearm. These may require internal hardware, multiple procedures, and permanent loss of function.
- Severe burns and electrical injury, including internal damage and cardiac effects from current passing through the body, plus scarring and grafting.
- Respiratory disease from silica, asbestos, welding fume, and solvent exposure, resulting in an occupational injury or illness that may not appear for years.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and chronic pain: serious injuries with lifelong costs.
Who Can Be Held Responsible In a Construction Accident Case
Beyond your employer, the parties who may bear responsibility for a construction site injury include:
- General contractors and construction managers, for site safety, coordination of trades, and hazards they created or allowed to persist.
- Subcontractors, for hazards created by their own crews and equipment.
- Property owners and developers, for dangerous conditions on premises they control and for retained control over the manner of the work.
- Equipment manufacturers, lessors, and maintenance contractors, under product liability and negligence theories.
- Architects, engineers, and designers, for defective plans and specifications.
- Drivers and their employers, in vehicle strikes on and around active work zones.
- Utilities, for unmarked or improperly de-energized lines.
What To Do After a Construction Accident in Oregon
Get medical care immediately, and tell every provider that the injury happened at work. Follow through on every referral.
Report the injury to your employer in writing and file your workers compensation claim.
Do not let your vehicle be repaired, sold, or scrapped. It is evidence, and so is the truck.
Photograph everything including the scene, the equipment, the missing guardrail, the trench, and your injuries, as soon as anyone safely can. Sites change within hours.
Record the names of every contractor, subcontractor, and witness on site, and note who was operating what.
Preserve the evidence. Tools, machinery, harnesses, and defective products should not be repaired, returned to the lessor, or discarded. Tell us before anything moves.
Ask whether Oregon OSHA was notified, and keep any citation or inspection paperwork you receive.
Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer other than your own, and do not sign a release or a broad medical authorization before a lawyer reviews it.
Keep every bill, wage record, and receipt, plus a short journal of symptoms and daily limitations.
Consult an Oregon construction accident lawyer as soon as you can. Evidence can disappear and deadlines can sneak up on you. Working with an attorney protects the integrity of your construction accident case.
Oregon Laws That May Affect Your Construction Accident Case
Two-year Statute of Limitations (ORS 12.110)
Most Oregon personal injury claims must be filed within two (2) years from the date of injury. Claims against a public body (a city, a county, a school district, a public university expanding its campus) require written notice within 180 days under the Oregon Tort Claims Act (ORS 30.275). Workers’ compensation has its own, much shorter deadlines.
Modified comparative fault (ORS 31.600)
You can recover even if you were partly at fault, as long as you were not more at fault than the parties you are suing. At 50 percent or less, your recovery is reduced by your share; at 51 percent or more, you recover nothing. This is why the defense in construction cases invests so heavily in the theory that the worker was responsible for their accident.
Employer Liability Law (ORS 654.305)
Owners and general contractors who retain control over dangerous work can be held to a heightened standard of care, well beyond ordinary negligence. This element always works in your favor, particularly when you hire an attorney team that understands how to leverage it.
No Limit on Noneconomic Damages (Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, Inc.)
Oregon’s $500,000 statutory cap on noneconomic damages no longer applies to personal injury claims. In 2020, the Oregon Supreme Court held that applying a cap to a surviving injured plaintiff violates the Oregon Constitution. The cap continues to apply to wrongful death claims.
Punitive Damages (ORS 31.730)
Where a defendant acted with reckless or outrageous indifference to a known risk, Oregon permits punitive damages. The team at Barton Trial Attorneys has pursued them successfully, including a $4 million punitive award in a federal trucking case, and an amended complaint that took a case from $850,000 to $12.5 million.
Speak with an Oregon Construction Accident Attorney
Frequently Asked Questions about Oregon Construction Accident Claims
Can I sue if I’m already receiving workers’ compensation?
Not your own employer, in most cases, but often someone else. Workers’ compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against your employer. It does not bar a claim against a general contractor, a subcontractor, a property owner, an equipment manufacturer, or a driver. Those third-party construction accident claims run alongside your benefits and cover what comp does not.
How long do I have to file my claim?
Generally two years from the date of injury for a personal injury claim in Oregon, with a 180-day written notice requirement if a public body is involved. Workers’ compensation deadlines are far shorter. Because the exceptions are unforgiving, speak with a construction accident attorney as soon as you are able.
What if I’m an independent contractor, day laborer, or undocumented?
You may still have a claim. Oregon’s Employer Liability Law and ordinary negligence principles protect workers regardless of how a contract labels them, and immigration status does not bar recovery for a workplace injury. Misclassification is common in the construction industry and is often itself a fact worth developing.
What if I was partly at fault?
You can still recover. Under Oregon’s modified comparative fault rule, your award is reduced by your percentage of fault, and you are barred only if you were more than 50 percent responsible. Expect the defense to argue you ignored a rule. Expect us to show the jury the conditions that made following it impossible.
Will filing a claim get me fired?
Retaliation for filing a workers’ compensation claim is illegal in Oregon, and a third-party lawsuit is against a different company entirely. If your employer retaliates, that is a separate claim speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
What kind of compensation can I receive from a construction accident case?
Injured construction workers may receive compensation for their medical expenses (surgery, rehabilitation, medication, assistive devices, in-home care); lost wages and lost earning capacity; vocational retraining; pain and suffering; the cost of paying someone for the household services you can no longer perform; loss of consortium (intimacy); and punitive damages (where a defendant acted with reckless or outrageous indifference to a known risk).
Should I talk to the insurance adjuster?
No. Report your comp claim, and then talk to a lawyer before anything else. Insurance companies record statements early precisely because injured people minimize their symptoms and guess at facts they do not yet know; a signed release cannot be undone, even if you have evidence that your expenses are expected to exceed an agreed-upon amount. Call us today to discuss your legal options before signing anything or speaking on record.
Does an OSHA citation mean I win?
No, but it helps. A violation of a specific safety regulation is powerful evidence of negligence, and the inspection file often provides witness statements and measurements we could not otherwise get quickly. The absence of a citation does not mean the site was safe.
What does it cost to hire a construction accident lawyer?
Nothing upfront. We work on a contingency fee; this means we collect no retainer, and take no fee unless we recover for you. We also advance the substantial expert and litigation costs these cases require. Your initial consultation is free.
What does it cost to hire your firm?
Nothing upfront. We work on a contingency fee, which means you pay no retainer, and no legal fees unless we recover for you. We also advance the substantial expert and litigation costs these cases require. Your initial consultation is also free.
Do I have to go to trial?
Most cases resolve without one, but only cases genuinely prepared for trial resolve well. We prepare every case as though a jury will hear it, and we tell you honestly when an offer is fair and when it is not. The decision is always yours.
Injured on a Job Site? Talk to an Oregon Construction Accident Lawyer Today
We believe that every injured person should get the full compensation they deserve. If you have been injured in a construction accident, we encourage you to call (541) 265-5377 for a free consultation with a personal injury attorney at Barton Trial Attorneys.
Barton Trial Attorneys: Where you’re not a file. You’re family.