If you are injured in a car accident and cannot return to work due to those injuries, you have options. In Oregon, every automobile insurance policy issued in the state must include Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage. PIP coverage includes a whole suite of important benefits which we address in our Oregon PIP Benefits article, but in this article, we will focus primarily on the wage loss benefits.
Oregon PIP Wage Loss Benefits
PIP benefits are no-fault benefits. This means regardless of who is responsible for the car accident, the PIP insurance for the car you were in, whether as a driver or passenger, will be primary in paying applicable benefits. Oregon law states that if you were employed at the time of the accident and are unable to work for at least 14 calendar days because of accident-related injuries, you are entitled to PIP wage loss benefits.
The amount of benefits will depend on your usual income. You are entitled to 70% of the loss of income up to a maximum payment of $3,000 per month. This means that if you earn $1,000 per month, your wage loss benefit would be $700. If you earned $10,000 per month, your wage loss benefit would be capped at $3,000. Also, PIP benefits are limited to no more than a total of 52 weeks. You can read the full wage loss benefit of the PIP statute here.
Stacking PIP Wage Benefits
As noted above, PIP wage loss benefits will only extend to 52 weeks in the aggregate. However, if you are covered by more than one PIP policy, you are entitled to extend that coverage by another 52 weeks. For example, if you are a passenger in a vehicle, you may have coverage through the driver’s insurance as well as your own auto insurance.
Some insurance companies have refused to honor the extension of an additional 52 weeks. However, when this happened to one of our clients, our attorney Emily Shack, filed a lawsuit and, along with attorney Alexander Pletch, successfully argued to the Oregon Court of Appeals that they must stack the two policies. Click here to read the full case. Thanks to the effort of Ms. Shack and Mr. Pletch, Oregon law is now settled that insurance companies must honor their policies and offer another 52 weeks of wage loss coverage if two policies are available for the same accident.
Short-Term Disability Insurance
If you or your employer have purchased short-term disability, you may be entitled to the benefits of that policy. Check with your employer if such a policy was purchased on your behalf. It is important to review the “fine print” of the policy to determine the circumstances that trigger your benefits. Your employer’s human resources department/person should be able to provide you with information and guidance on how to proceed with making a claim for your short-term disability insurance.
Paid Leave Oregon
In March of 2024 the Oregon legislature passed Paid Leave Oregon. The law took effect July 1, 2024. Paid Leave Oregon allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave in a 52 week period for family, medical, or safe leave. Most relevant to this article, leave for a serious health condition is included as a recognized leave. Whether your car accident injuries constitute a serious health condition will need to be determined before benefits will be paid.
Other questions you may have after an accident.
Do I call the other driver’s insurance company to report the accident?
Do I file a claim with my own insurance company?
Should I get medical treatment?
Who will pay for the damage to the car?
Will I be able to get a rental while my car is being repaired?
