Legal Question in Personal Injury in Oregon

Re: personal injury

You definitely need to hire an attorney who deals with accidents. Most will provide a first consultation at no charge and tell you if you have a good case.

I do not do this work, but the office of Kafoury & McDougal does. You can contact them by googling kafoury mcdougal.

Re: personal injury

There are several areas of detailed factual inquiry that you'd want to make in person or at least on the telephone with a lawyer.

One area of inquiry is how you happened to be standing on this wall: Did the developer specifically instruct you to stand on the wall? Was it a new or an old wall? How many details of your work, and what types of details did he control?

The fact that Workers Comp denied you should NOT be the end of the story in regards to a possible comp claim. You have a limited time to appeal the denial, and you should have been provided with notice of your time for appeal.

Another area of questions: In retrospect, would it have been apparent, upon inspection, that there was some weakness in the wall? Did the owner know of any problem? Any prior problems with the wall? Was the house you were working on a personal residence of the developer, or was it new construction? I could go on.

As you can see, there are a number of questions that need answering, and your answers might well prompt more questions. This is why you need to be interviewed about the subject by a lawyer. When you do, you have at least three general areas of inquiry:

1) Was the Workers Comp denial proper and is it reasonably appealable? 2) Was the developer negligent in some way, or liable under some other legal theory? 3) Do the facts fall under Oregon's "Employer Liability Act," the "ELA?" This is a little-known law that sometimes applies in certain limited circumstances with worker injuries, when Workers Comp does not.

Best of luck to you. -- Sam

Re: personal injury

There are several areas of detailed factual inquiry that you'd want to make in person or at least on the telephone with a lawyer.

One area of inquiry is how you happened to be standing on this wall: Did the developer specifically instruct you to stand on the wall? Was it a new or an old wall? How many details of your work, and what types of details did he control?

The fact that Workers Comp denied you should NOT be the end of the story in regards to a possible comp claim. You have a limited time to appeal the denial, and you should have been provided with notice of your time for appeal.

Another area of questions: In retrospect, would it have been apparent, upon inspection, that there was some weakness in the wall? Did the owner know of any problem? Any prior problems with the wall? Was the house you were working on a personal residence of the developer, or was it new construction? I could go on.

As you can see, there are a number of questions that need answering, and your answers might well prompt more questions. This is why you need to be interviewed about the subject by a lawyer. When you do, you have at least three general areas of inquiry:

1) Was the Workers Comp denial proper and is it reasonably appealable? 2) Was the developer negligent in some way, or liable under some other legal theory? 3) Do the facts fall under Oregon's "Employer Liability Act," the "ELA?" This is a little-known law that sometimes applies in certain limited circumstances with worker injuries, when Workers Comp does not.

Best of luck to you. -- Sam