Filing an Injury Claim in Oregon: The 180-Day Rule That Surprises Almost Everyone

Ask most people how long they have to file an injury claim in Oregon and they will say two years. That answer is correct just often enough to be dangerous — because in a surprising number of Oregon cases, the deadline that actually decides things arrives in 180 days.

The 180-day rule that catches people first

Oregon’s most unforgiving deadline has nothing to do with the statute of limitations. If your claim is against a public body — the state, a city, a county, a school district, a transit district, a public university — the Oregon Tort Claims Act generally requires formal notice of your claim within 180 days of the injury under ORS 30.275. For wrongful death claims, the notice period is generally one year.

Six months sounds like plenty of time until you consider what those months usually look like: treatment, recovery, waiting on an insurance adjuster who seems friendly and unhurried. The notice window can close while you are still in physical therapy.

It also applies more often than people expect. In Oregon, the public body might be:

• A city, if you tripped on a broken sidewalk or were hit by a municipal vehicle;
• The state, if a dangerous condition on a state highway contributed to a crash;
• A transit district, if a public bus was involved;
• A school district or public college, if the injury happened on their property or in their programs.

The statute recognizes a few ways notice can be satisfied, and limited extensions may exist where the injury itself prevents timely notice — but these are narrow questions you should put to a licensed Oregon attorney quickly, not assumptions to rely on. Public-body claims also carry their own overall liability limits under the Tort Claims Act, adjusted annually, which is one more way these cases play by different rules.

The two-year clock — and the ten-year wall

For most Oregon personal injury lawsuits, the general rule is two years from the date of injury under ORS 12.110. That covers the common territory: car accidents, falls, and most negligence claims. Medical malpractice claims follow their own timing under ORS 12.110(4), which generally runs two years from when the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.

Oregon adds an outer boundary that many states lack: under ORS 12.115, a negligence action generally cannot be commenced more than ten years from the act or omission, regardless of when the harm surfaced. Discovery rules can stretch a deadline; the ten-year wall is where the stretching stops.

Miss the applicable deadline and the likely outcome is dismissal, no matter how strong the underlying case. For a compact summary of Oregon’s deadlines and fault rules in one place, see our Oregon quick-reference page. And if you are comparing how Oregon stacks up against other states, we keep a running list in our state-by-state statute of limitations guide.

A fault state that makes everyone carry no-fault-style coverage

Oregon is not a no-fault state. The driver who caused the crash — through their liability insurance — is generally responsible for the harm, and there is no injury threshold you must clear before bringing a claim against them.

But Oregon layers something unusual on top of its fault system: mandatory personal injury protection (PIP). Every standard Oregon auto policy must include at least $15,000 per person in PIP benefits, which pay your initial medical expenses through your own insurer regardless of who caused the crash. Oregon drivers must also carry liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury, plus uninsured motorist coverage at the same levels.

Practically, that means an Oregon crash claim usually runs on two tracks at once: PIP covering early bills through your own policy, and a liability claim against the at-fault driver for everything PIP does not reach — and the existence of the first track is not a reason to neglect the second. PIP minimums are exhausted quickly in any serious injury.

Oregon’s fault math: the “not greater than” line

Oregon follows modified comparative fault under ORS 31.600. You can recover as long as your share of fault is not greater than the combined fault of everyone you are claiming against — in practice, stay at 50% or below and your recovery is reduced by your percentage; cross above it and recovery is generally barred.

Note the word combined. Oregon compares your fault against the total fault of the other parties together, which matters in crashes with multiple responsible drivers or a defendant plus a settled party. It is also worth repeating something we say often: an adjuster’s early opinion about your percentage of fault is a negotiating position, not a ruling. The percentage is decided by evidence — and ultimately a jury — not by the first confident phone call.

Oregon rules that can shrink a claim before fault is even argued

A few Oregon-specific provisions deserve attention because they change what is recoverable, not just who was at fault:

• Driving uninsured, or under the influence, can cost you your noneconomic damages. Under ORS 31.715, an injured driver who was violating Oregon’s insurance requirement or driving under the influence at the time of the crash generally cannot recover noneconomic damages — pain and suffering — with limited exceptions. Economic losses like medical bills may still be recoverable, but this is one of the harsher rules of its kind in the country.
• The seatbelt argument is capped. Under ORS 31.760, failure to wear a safety belt can reduce damages, but generally by no more than 5% — a modest, bounded reduction rather than a claim-killer.
• Damage caps are narrower than headlines suggest. Oregon does not cap economic damages. ORS 31.710 contains a $500,000 limit on noneconomic damages, but Oregon courts have significantly narrowed where it can apply, and as of 2026 it generally operates in wrongful death cases rather than ordinary injury suits. Claims against public bodies, as noted above, are subject to their own statutory limits. This area has shifted over the years, so treat any cap question as one for a licensed Oregon attorney.

What a claim is realistically worth depends on how these rules interact with your medical evidence, your losses, and the available coverage — we walk through the components in how injury claims are actually valued.

Putting the deadlines in order

If you take one thing from this page, take the sequencing. In Oregon, the first question is not “how strong is my case?” It is “who might be responsible, and is any of them a public body?” That answer determines whether your working deadline is measured in months or years — and evidence, witnesses, and camera footage fade on their own schedule either way.

If you were injured in Oregon and are not sure which deadlines apply to you, answer a few questions about what happened and we will connect you with a participating Oregon law firm that can evaluate your situation. It is free, confidential, and there is no obligation.