If you have been injured in a car accident in Portland or Salem, Oregon, for example, there are potentially three types of damages you can recover from an at-fault driver. The first are called economic damages. Those damages generally include things like medical bills, damages to the vehicle and lost wages-although any out-of-pocket damages you suffer in an Oregon car crash can potentially be recovered in an auto insurance claim.
The second type of damages are known as non-economic damages. Non-economic damages typically include things like pain and suffering caused by the wreck. The third type of damages are known as punitive damages.
Punitive damages are available in an injury lawsuit when the at-fault driver was behaving particularly recklessly when they caused the accident. An example of conduct that might support a claim for punitive damages would be a lawsuit against a drunk driver who causes a car accident. We all know that drunk driving accidents can result in serious personal injuries or even wrongful death.
The second type of damages-non-economic damages-are generally not available if the accident injury victim was driving uninsured at the time of the accident. This means that if an uninsured driver in Portland or Bend or McMinnville is hit by another driver and suffers injuries through no fault of their own-they can recover economic, but not non-economic damages.
The exception to this rule under Oregon law is when the at-fault driver was driving recklessly. This means that if you're driving uninsured and the driver who hits you was driving recklessly, you can recover your economic damages, your pain and suffering damages and, in some cases, punitive damages. Reckless driving is defined as driving in a manner that evidences a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
To be clear, reckless driving is substantially more dangerous than negligent driving, but the line between the two isn't always crystal clear. A recent case issued by the Oregon Supreme Court illustrates the potential confusion.
By the time Morehouse v. Haynes reached the Oregon Supreme Court earlier in 2011, the fact pattern and whether it rose to the level of 'reckless driving' had befuddled several Oregon judges. The case involved a driver who sped into a known and well-marked set of curves and then took his eyes off the road, crossing the centerline and colliding with an oncoming car. A Portland car accident lawyer will call this a classic case of an auto crash caused by distracted driving.
Negligent driving, certainly. But was it reckless? In that case, the Court found it significant that the driver had driven the particular stretch of road (between Newberg and Hillsboro) 20 times in the month before the accident. He knew it well and he knew where the dangers were. He also testified that he knew slow-moving vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians could be present.
A divided court held that a jury had to decide whether the driver was reckless or merely negligent. From the driver's perspective, the lesson is that even common occurrences like adjusting your radio on familiar stretches of road can result in liability.
From the car accident victim's perspective, none of it would have mattered if they had just been driving insured.
Sarah Nelson is a female car accident lawyer in Portland, Oregon. She is one of only a handful of woman lawyers named to Oregon's Super Lawyers list of top injury lawyers in Oregon. Sarah practices statewide, from Portland, Beaverton, Gresham, Milwaukie, Hillsboro and Tigard, to the Oregon Coast (Astoria, Seaside, Lincoln City, Tillamook), to Oregon Wine Country and Yamhill County (McMinnville, Newberg) to Central Oregon (Bend, Redmond, Madras, Sisters, Prineville). She conducts free same and next day legal consultations for her Oregon auto accident injury clients.