Barton Trial Attorneys Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
A serious spinal cord injury can dramatically affect a person’s mobility, earning capacity and quality of life in the long term. Our experienced spinal cord injury attorneys build the case your future depends on.
Spinal cord injury affects not just the spine, but the rest of the body as well. From chronic neuropathy and headaches, to partial or even full paralysis, the effects of spinal cord injury can be life-changing. Whether a client walks again, works again, or breathes without help is decided by the reality of their injury. What this damage costs, and who pays for it, is decided through the legal system.
After a catastrophic injury, the spinal cord injury attorneys at Barton are here to help.
We understand that a lawsuit against the responsible party is your one and only chance to fund a lifetime of medical care: that your case has to be built to carry that weight. Our personal injury attorneys have more than four decades of experience in cases just like yours. We do the work of proving, in detail, how much quality of life was taken and what restoring some of it will actually cost.
Speak with an Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
About Barton Trial Attorneys
We are nationally recognized personal injury lawyers who do things differently. Bill and Brent Barton, a father and son team, run a boutique firm that takes just ten or fewer cases at a time. Because we are highly selective about the cases we take, every client gets our undivided attention. We believe that every injured person deserves full, fair compensation under Oregon law—and we stand ready to help deserving Oregonians get every penny they are owed.
When you work with a Barton spinal cord injury lawyer, you are not a file. You are family.
Understanding Spinal Cord Injuries
The spinal cord is the cable that carries every signal between the brain and the rest of the body. Damage to the spinal cord does not always heal consistently or completely, the way a broken bone might; fewer than 1% of people regain complete neurological function by the time they leave the hospital.
In the United States, roughly 18,500 people sustain a traumatic spinal cord injury each year, and an estimated 311,000 live with one today. According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, first-year medical costs alone average more than $1.4 million for high cervical injuries and roughly $705,000 for paraplegia. These figures do not include the decades of attendant care, equipment replacement, home modification, and secondary complications that often follow.
Where the spinal cord is injured determines what is lost. A cervical injury can affect the arms, the hands, the diaphragm; a thoracic or lumbar injury can affect the legs, the bladder, the bowel, and/or sexual function. No two spinal cord injury cases are exactly alike, and many come down to clinical diagnoses and long-term prognoses made by vocational specialists.
When someone suffers a spinal cord injury as the result of another party’s negligence, the defense strategy is predictable: minimize the long-term effects, point to preexisting injuries, and suggest that the client will improve more than their own doctors expect. They will almost always offer a settlement figure that is only a fraction of what the injury will truly cost.
Meeting that requires an experienced spinal cord injury trial team, not a settlement mill. Every spinal cord injury victim we represent gets a case prepared as though it is going to verdict. We’ve found that this is the only preparation an insurer respects.
Speak with an Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injury
The single most common cause of spinal cord injury is a motor vehicle crash, which accounts for roughly 37 percent of traumatic cases nationally. Falls account for about 33 percent, and violence and sports make up most of the remainder. As the average age at injury has climbed —from 29 in the 1970s to about 44 today—falls have become a larger share of the total.
In our practice, spinal cord injury cases most often arise from:
- Truck and commercial vehicle collisions, where the forces involved and the layers of corporate responsibility both run deep (See our work on the Moutal trucking case).
- Car and motorcycle crashes, including rear-end and rollover collisions that cause cervical fracture or cord compression.
- Falls from height on construction sites and in unsafe premises, e.g.: inadequate fall protection, unguarded openings, defective stairs and railings.
- Defective products and machinery, including equipment sold without adequate guarding or warnings.
- Medical malpractice including surgical error during spinal or vascular procedures, anesthesia injury, epidural hematoma left undiagnosed, missed cauda equina syndrome, or failure to immobilize a fractured spine in the emergency department. A delay of hours in recognizing cord compression can be the difference between recovery and permanent paralysis.
- Diving, recreation, and sports injuries, often involving unmarked shallow water or unsafe premises.
Understanding the mechanism matters legally, not just medically. It determines who is responsible, how many insurance policies are available, and whether the case belongs in state or federal court.
Speak with an Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
What Full Compensation Actually Includes
Most personal injury lawsuits are valued from medical bills. A spinal cord injury case valued that way is undervalued from the start, because the bills that have already arrived are the smallest part of the loss.
A properly built case accounts for:
- Lifetime medical care, including surgery, rehabilitation, medication, respiratory support, and the treatment of secondary complications such as pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections, autonomic dysreflexia, and chronic pain.
- Attendant and nursing care, priced honestly. Family members who provide that care are not free labor, and a case that assumes they will keep providing it forever is a case that shifts the defendant’s costs onto the client’s family.
- Durable medical equipment and its replacement cycle: wheelchairs, lifts, standing frames, ventilators, catheter supplies.
- Home and vehicle modification: ramps, widened doorways, roll-in showers, adapted controls.
- Lost income and lost earning capacity, including the career that was interrupted and the promotions that will never come.
- Pain and suffering, disfigurement, and the loss of the ordinary pleasures that make up a life. This is what the law calls loss of enjoyment of life and what our clients describe as the loss of who they were.
- The effect on quality of life for an entire family, including a spouse’s loss of consortium.
We retain the life care planners, rehabilitation physicians, economists, biomechanical engineers, and vocational experts these cases require, and we front those costs ourselves. Our clients pay nothing out of pocket.
Speak with an Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
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.
Understanding Oregon Truck Accident Cases
Who Is Responsible for a Truck Crash?
One of the biggest differences between a car wreck and a commercial truck accident is the number of parties who may share the blame. A thorough investigation often reveals fault well beyond the person behind the wheel:
- The driver for speeding, distraction, fatigue, impairment, or unsafe maneuvers.
- The trucking company for negligent hiring, inadequate training, unrealistic schedules, or pressuring drivers to violate hours-of-service limits.
- The maintenance provider for failed brakes, bald tires, or skipped inspections.
- The cargo loader for overloaded or improperly secured freight that shifts in transit.
- The broker or shipper for putting an unsafe carrier on the road.
- The truck or parts manufacturer when a defect contributes to the crash.
Sorting out who is liable, and finding every available source of compensation, takes experience, resources, and a willingness to dig. We bring all three.
Common Causes of Oregon Truck Accidents
- Driver fatigue and hours-of-service violations
- Distracted driving, including phone use behind the wheel
- Speeding and driving too fast for conditions
- Improper lane changes into a blind spot
- Inadequate driver training and unsafe hiring practices
- Poor maintenance, brake failure, and tire blowouts
- Overloaded or improperly secured cargo
- Impaired driving
In one of our cases, data pulled from a driver’s phone was enough to prove distracted driving: evidence that helped support a manslaughter conviction. Modern trucking cases are won with modern tools, and we know how to use them.
If you were hurt in a crash with a semi or tractor trailer, we encourage you to reach out to us online, or call (503) 203-0015 for a free case consultation.
What to Do After a Truck Accident
Get emergency medical care immediately, and follow through on every referral. Spinal injuries can worsen with time and movement.
Do not let anyone move an injured person unnecessarily while waiting for paramedics.
Preserve the evidence. Vehicles, machinery, and defective products should not be repaired, released, or destroyed. Tell us before anything is scrapped.
Photograph the scene and the equipment if anyone in the family safely can.
Write down witness names and anything said at the scene.
Report the incident by filing a police report, informing an employer, or alerting a premises owner as applicable.
Do not give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurance company, and do not sign a release or medical authorization before a lawyer reviews it.
Keep every bill, record, and receipt, and a simple journal of symptoms and daily limitations.
Call an Oregon spinal cord injury lawyer early. Evidence disappears, and deadlines do not move. Our initial consultation is free.
For more information, please see our Client FAQ Page.
We encourage you to learn more about our Core Values and read our Testimonials. When you’re ready to contact us, we’ll be here.
Oregon Laws That Affect Your Spinal Cord Injury Case
Two-year deadline to file (ORS 12.110)
Most Oregon personal injury claims must be filed within two (2) years of the injury. Medical malpractice claims run two years from the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, subject to an outside five-year limit. Claims against a public body (the City of Portland, Multnomah County, TriMet, a public hospital and so on) require written notice within 180 days under the Oregon Tort Claims Act (ORS 30.275). Injured minors receive additional time under ORS 12.160, though not without limit.
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 other party. At 50 percent fault or less, your recovery is reduced by your share; at 51 percent or more, you recover nothing. This is why insurers invest so heavily in blaming catastrophically injured people.
No cap on noneconomic damages in personal injury cases (Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, 2020)
Oregon’s $500,000 statutory cap on noneconomic damages no longer applies to personal injury claims. In July 2020, the Oregon Supreme Court held that applying the cap of ORS 31.710 to a surviving injured plaintiff violates the remedy clause of Article I, section 10 of the Oregon Constitution. The cap continues to apply to wrongful death claims. For a spinal cord injury victim, this matters enormously: a jury’s full assessment of pain and suffering stands.
Punitive damages (ORS 31.730)
Where a defendant acted with reckless or outrageous indifference to a known risk, Oregon permits punitive damages. We have pursued them successfully; our track record includes 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 Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a spinal cord injury claim in Oregon?
Generally two (2) years from the date of injury under ORS 12.110. Medical malpractice claims run from discovery, with a five-year outside limit, and claims against a government entity require written notice within 180 days. Because the exceptions are unforgiving, speak with an attorney as soon as you are able.
What is my spinal cord injury case worth?
No honest lawyer will quote a number at the outset. Value depends on the level and completeness of the injury, the strength of the liability evidence, the available insurance, and how the harm has reshaped your life. What we can tell you is how the case will be valued; we conduct the necessary research to determine the lifetime cost of care and lost earnings
Is a spinal cord injury always permanent?
Not always, but rarely fully reversible. Incomplete injuries can improve substantially, particularly in the first eighteen months. Fewer than one percent of patients achieve complete neurological recovery by hospital discharge. Because the long term picture is uncertain early on, settling before your prognosis is understood is one of the costliest mistakes a family can make.
Can a spinal cord injury be caused by medical malpractice?
Yes, and more often than most people realize. Surgical error, anesthesia injury, an undiagnosed epidural hematoma, missed cauda equina syndrome, and failure to immobilize or image a fractured spine can all cause or worsen damage to the spinal cord. These are difficult cases requiring specialized experts, and they are cases our firm is built to try.
Who pays for my medical care while the case is pending?
Usually a combination of sources. Health insurance, Oregon’s mandatory Personal Injury Protection coverage in motor vehicle cases, workers’ compensation where the injury was work-related, and in some circumstances medical funding arranged against the future recovery. Coordinating these efforts, and resolving the liens they create, is part of what we do.
Should I accept the insurance company’s offer?
Talk to a lawyer first, always. Early offers in catastrophic cases are made before the full cost of care is known, and a signed release cannot be undone. In spinal cord injury cases the gap between a first offer and a fully prepared case is frequently measured in millions.
What does it cost to hire a spinal cord injury lawyer?
Nothing upfront. We work on a contingency fee, which means no retainer and no fee unless we recover for you. We also advance the substantial expert and litigation costs these cases require. Your initial consultation is free.
Do I have to go to trial?
Most cases resolve without going to trial. However, only cases genuinely prepared for trial resolve well in any event; this is why 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.
What if the person who injured me does not have enough insurance?
There is often more coverage than first appears. We pursue all avenues we investigate before valuing a case. This includes underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage, umbrella policies, employer and commercial liability policies, and additional responsible parties (a trucking company, a property owner, a product manufacturer, a maintenance contractor and so on).
Injured? Talk to an Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Attorney Today
If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal cord injury, you should not have to negotiate your future with an insurance adjuster. Oregon law sets strict deadlines, and critical evidence can disappear within weeks.
Call (541) 265-5377 for a free consultation with a Barton Trial Attorneys personal injury attorney. We take no fee unless we win.
Barton Trial Attorneys: Where you’re not a file. You’re family.