Albany, Oregon

It is unusual enough that Albany, Oregon straddles two counties - Linn and Beaton - but it is especially unusual for such a city to be the seat of one of those counties (Linn). Somehow, however, this situation seems a tiny bit less unusual in Albany. The city has always been a meeting point: located at the confluence of two rivers (the Calapooia and the Willamette), stretched across two counties and close to the better-known metropolises of Salem and Corvallis. In the Willamette region, Albany well deserves its nickname: 'The Hub of the Valley.'

The area's Native American history stretches back for many centuries. Epidemics, however, killed the majority of the indigenous Kalapuya tribe in the decade before the first white settlers arrived in 1848. Today, the tribe's heritage is remembered and celebrated in Albany's Regional Museum. The museum is part of a broader central district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and includes both the Thomas and Walter Monheith House, one of the area's oldest frame structures, and a Carnegie Library which is one of the oldest such buildings still in use as a library anywhere in the United States.

With its mix of agriculture, mining and industry 21^st century Albany boasts a more complex, and varied, economy than its founders could possibly have imagined. Kaplan Law LLC offers Albany's residents a wide range of legal services from our office at 50 SW Pine St in Portland.

Though Albany was a center of the timber business for generations, the decline of logging over the last few decades has been accompanied by the rise of a lesser-known industry: the mining of what are known as "rare earth" metals, such as zirconium, titanium and hafnium. Albany has been at the forefront of this little-known, but essential, industry since the 1940s when the federal government established a laboratory in the city to conduct specialized research on these and other rare metals.

Taken together, "natural resources and mining" (i.e. the mining and timber industries combined) employ over 38,000 Oregonians, according to figures published by the Oregon Department of Consumer Affairs in 2012. The state report indicates that the sector recorded 6.6 occupational injuries or illnesses per 1000 workers in 2010 (the last year for which figures are available). That number is significantly higher than the statewide average of 4.0 per 1000 and higher even than the figure for construction (4.5 per 1000), an occupation most people think of as high-risk.

Drilling deeper into that figure of 6.6 injuries/illnesses per 1000 workers, we find that cases serious enough to cause workers to miss days on the job, require a transfer to another job or continue work only with restrictions were also a significant concern. In 2010 these amounted to 3.7 per 1000.

Kaplan Law LLC is well-placed to handle these and other workplace legal issues. We are especially experienced in cases involving Oregon industrial accidents - a category that is particularly prevalent in industries such as timber and mining. Oregon industrial accidents include workplace injuries that are the result of an employer or supplier's failure to maintain equipment, or failure to provide the people operating that equipment with adequate training.

Kaplan Law is located in central Portland at 50 SW Pine St.