A new law was passed in Washington State that went into effect on January 1, 2020. This affects the requirements for restraining children in child-specific safety seats while traveling in cars and trucks on Washington roadways. The new law requires all children under the age of two to sit i...

I have a friend who has been known to yell out “Safety first!” in most any situation, largely and usually for comedic effect (often when he's doing something most might consider unsafe).  Really, though, it is an important mindset to genuinely hold for the greater good.  With that in mind, ...

Car crashes occur for many reasons, but a big cause is snowy and icy road conditions. Snow is predicted here in the Clark County and Multnomah County area starting Tuesday or Wednesday. How can we best protect ourselves and our loved ones from the risks which nasty winter road conditions entail? ...

 There has long been a common perception that suicide is more common around the holidays—an understandably difficult time for folks who have lost someone they care about or who might be otherwise isolated from the people they love.  According to the CDC's National Center for Health Statist...

Will there be “snow in the valley” this year? As any longtime resident of our area knows, the answer is “who knows?” The only way to guarantee a snow encounter is to head to the mountains, which many of us will do one or more times this winter, for ski resorts, mountain retreats, snow parks, or p...

 It seems that most of my day is spent on the phone talking to insurance adjusters. Over the years, I have formed some outside impressions that my clients seem to find helpful to make sense of how the whole personal injury claim process works. To be fair, this is probably painting with too br...

Ben Melnick ably covered the topic of “what to do if you're hurt at a business” in great detail earlier this year. I wanted to follow up and emphasize just one of the points he hit in that post. The point is: get the video.  And actually, it usually isn't quite that simple. You may not be a...

 A partner of Schauermann Thayer was one of two speakers who presented on the topic of “MAR, De novo Appeals, and Beating the Bar”, on Wednesday, November 13, 2019.  The program was held in the community room at the Columbia Bank Building in Vancouver, Washington.  Co-presenting with Bill Thayer ...

We've written a blog prior entitled: “What if There's Sensitive Stuff in my Medical Records?” –on some level the answer depends on whether your personal injury claim is filed in Washington or Oregon. As we stated in the prior blog post linked to and referenced above, the general rule (at least...

Previously I wrote in this space about the fact that when “temp workers” (workers who are hired by a temporary staffing agency and placed with other facilities to fill labor needs) are hurt on the job, they will often have a personal injury claim against the employer they are placed with, b...

Insurance company adjusters evaluate risk the way the rest of us evaluate which television show we're going to watch tonight. They do it so often and on such a large scale that they often times do it without thinking about it—they take shortcuts and use mechanisms designed to mathematically and o...

The law governing loss of use claims can lead to some pretty amazing potential results, but practical considerations can sometimes serve to tamp those down.  First, the law in Washington and Oregon: Washington A claimant is entitled to recover damages for loss of use during the period ...

This blog is a continuation of a series published earlier entitled, “What You Should Know about Clark County's Courts”.  I won't repeat the basic attributes of Washington state Small Claims, District Courts, and Superior Courts, nor reiterate the essential details of the Washington MAR syst...

The Clark County Bar Association (CCBA) was established in 1978 and has become an integral part of the Clark County legal community for many years. Though membership in the CCBA is voluntarily, there is a very collegial and active bar in Southwest Washington, and most attorneys find that th...

Often you might hear attorneys referred to as “counsel” or “counselors”—particularly in more formal courtroom-type settings.  Merriam-Webster defines a “counselor” as first: “a person who gives advice or counseling”; and, second, within the context of a lawyer, specifically: “one that gives a...

A statute of limitations is a law that varies by state or other jurisdiction, and it limits the time in which a person may bring an action.  There are limitations on when the government can bring most criminal actions, with the exception being homicide. Similarly, there are limitations for wh...

This blog is a continuation of a series published earlier entitled, “What You Should Know about Clark County's Courts”.  As such, here I won't repeat the basic attributes of Washington state Small Claims, District Courts, and Superior Courts, nor reiterate the essential details of the Washing...

This post is aimed more at practitioners than the public, and addresses an issue we see come up with some frequency when handling cross-border cases in Oregon and Washington. When I'm handling a case for a Washington-resident client who gets into a car crash in Oregon, I will sometimes get ...

This is a “how to practice” blog that you may want to read and think about if you are a young lawyer. It might be of interest to clients and prospective clients as well, offering insights against which can be measured attorney-client relationships being forged or already formed. While it is perti...

A good public school system is one of the principal building blocks for American society. School is special in many respects. Attendance is mandatory, up to a certain age. Once there, participation is hard to enforce, and the expectations are demanding on teachers, administrators, staff, bus dr...

“Would anyone in the world ever ask for this?” This is a question I ask my clients all the time as they sit across from me and explain to me how someone else's carelessness (negligence) caused them injury. Another thing I tell them is, no matter what amount of money we might ultimately reco...

I've had clients tell me they don't want to make their situation a “federal case.” They of course refer to the fact that alongside our state courts (where most of our law practice occurs), there exist a network of federal trial and appellate courts that handle certain types of legal matters...

I've seen this scenario play out too many times with my clients to not address this important question on our firm's blog. In fact, just today I spoke with a woman who, even though she had liability insurance, she had neither health insurance nor personal injury protection (PIP) insurance. ...

Settling a personal injury case at the right time and for the right amount is a probably the most common and the most difficult question we deal with as personal injury attorneys. We try to minimize risk to our clients, and maximize the damages they can collect. The way we conceptualize tha...

Like years past, I had the opportunity again this year to attend the annual convention of the Washington State Association for Justice which was held in Seattle, Washington from September 18-20, 2019. Though Convention was held at the Seattle Bell Harbor International Conference Center, most ...