How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages. We apply the multiplier method, the industry-standard approach, to estimate noneconomic damages — then apply Oregon's fault rule and, where it genuinely still applies, the state's damages cap.
A 51% bar that favors the claimant at the exact threshold
Under ORS 31.600, Oregon bars recovery only once a claimant's fault exceeds the combined fault of everyone else involved. At exactly 50% fault, a claimant still recovers half of their damages — only fault above 50% bars recovery entirely. Oregon has also abolished the last clear chance doctrine and implied assumption of risk, two exceptions some other states still recognize.
A cap that survives for death, but not for injury
ORS 31.710 sets a $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages for claims arising out of bodily injury, death, or property damage. But the two categories have landed very differently in Oregon's courts. In Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, Inc. (2020), the Oregon Supreme Court held the cap unconstitutional as applied to a pedestrian struck by a garbage truck, because reducing his $10.5 million noneconomic award to $500,000 would have been a "dramatic reduction" violating the remedy clause of the Oregon Constitution. Courts have followed that pattern consistently since for ordinary bodily injury claims. For wrongful death claims specifically, though, the cap has generally been upheld — most recently reaffirmed in 2026 — because Oregon's wrongful death action is a creature of statute with a long history of limited recovery.
A real case behind the ruling
Scott Busch was crossing the street on his way to work when he was struck by a garbage truck. A jury awarded him $3,021,922 in economic damages and $10,500,000 in noneconomic damages. The trial court initially reduced the noneconomic award to the $500,000 cap; the Court of Appeals reversed, and the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed that reversal, restoring the noneconomic award in full.