Car Accident Lawyers in Gresham, OR

Ask a Gresham tow driver which intersection they get called to most and Burnside Road at NE 162nd comes up fast — a crossing a Gresham police officer once called “a very dangerous intersection” after a fatal collision there. With roughly 113,000 residents, Gresham is Oregon’s fourth-largest city and Multnomah County’s second-largest, and its traffic runs on a mix most newcomers do not expect: TriMet’s MAX Blue Line light rail terminates here, the Mount Hood Highway (US 26) carries heavy weekend recreational traffic east toward Sandy and the mountain, and several of the region’s own transportation studies single out Gresham’s street network for its crash history.

When a Public Vehicle Is Part of the Crash

TriMet operates both the MAX Blue Line and the bus routes that crisscross Gresham, and because TriMet is a public agency, a crash involving one of its vehicles does not run on the standard two-year clock. The Oregon Tort Claims Act requires a formal written notice within as little as 180 days when the at-fault party is TriMet, a Gresham-Barlow School District bus, or a City of Gresham vehicle — a deadline that operates independently of, and far faster than, the two-year filing window under ORS 12.110 that covers a claim against a private driver.

PIP Covers the First Bills, Not the Whole Claim

Every Oregon auto policy carries personal injury protection of at least $15,000 per person, paid regardless of fault. That gets treatment started without a fight over blame, but a crash serious enough to require transport to Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center — Gresham’s acute care hospital — can burn through that limit well before recovery is finished. Once PIP runs out, the claim shifts to the at-fault driver’s liability coverage, or to the injured driver’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage if the other driver carried too little insurance or none at all.

The Corridors Gresham Crash Lawyers See Most

• Powell Boulevard. Flagged by the Oregon Department of Transportation as a high-crash state corridor; a Metro regional safety study counted multiple fatalities and dozens of serious injuries on the Gresham segment alone over a recent decade.
• Burnside Road, Cleveland Avenue to Powell. A county transportation safety plan documents a heavy mix of rear-end, angle, and pedestrian crashes along this stretch, with drivers frequently failing to yield at intersections.
• Stark Street, 162nd to 223rd. City-managed corridor with a documented speeding problem and a steady rate of rear-end and pedestrian collisions.
• 182nd Avenue. County safety reviews have flagged poor intersection lighting along this corridor as a contributing factor in nighttime crashes.

The 51% Fault Bar at Multnomah County Circuit Court

Civil claims arising from a Gresham crash are typically filed at Multnomah County Circuit Court in downtown Portland, the county seat court for all of Multnomah County. Oregon’s modified comparative negligence rule under ORS 31.600–31.620 reduces an award by the claimant’s own share of fault but cuts it off entirely once that share reaches 51%. A driver found 25% at fault on a $100,000 verdict still collects $75,000; cross the 51% line and the claim collects nothing — a distinction insurers push hard in multi-vehicle wrecks along corridors like Burnside and Stark.

No Cap Against a Private Driver

Oregon’s minimum liability coverage of 25/50/20, plus $25,000 in uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, becomes the practical source of recovery once PIP is exhausted, and non-economic damages against a private driver carry no enforceable cap after the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the state’s general damages cap in Lakin v. Senco Products (1999). That changes only when TriMet, the school district, or the City ends up as the defendant, since the Oregon Tort Claims Act applies a separate, lower cap to claims against public bodies.

Choosing a Car Accident Lawyer in Gresham

The Lawyer Atlas is a directory, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice for a specific situation. When comparing Gresham attorneys, ask how quickly they can move if a TriMet vehicle or school bus was involved and the 180-day notice applies, and how they argue fault in a multi-vehicle wreck near Burnside and 162nd. Consultations are almost always free, and representation is nearly always contingency-based.