A sitting pro tem appointment on the Oregon Supreme Court while running a plaintiff-side injury firm since 1983 is an unusual combination, and for the Law Offices of Timothy Grabe it is the most credible single fact in the listing. It is a matter of court record, not a self-styled title, and it sets a different baseline than most solo personal injury practices can claim.
Practice focus on serious injuries
The scope is narrow and honestly so. Vehicle crashes anchor the caseload: car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, and bicycle collisions. Workplace injury coverage names the industries specifically: construction, logging, and manufacturing. Premises liability, slip and fall, product liability, wrongful death, and catastrophic harm categories including brain and spinal cord injuries, amputations, and severe burns round out the list. A Justia profile adds nursing home abuse. The Law Offices of Timothy Grabe is explicitly positioned around blue-collar and manual-labor workers with serious injuries, not a grab-bag of civil litigation. That specificity helps a prospective client self-sort quickly.
Vehicle crashes and workplace incidents
The co-authored "Courtroom Companion: Oregon Evidence" received the ACLEA 2024 Award of Professional Excellence, a named peer-reviewed category with a year attached and a lookup trail. The site cites trial verdicts totaling over two million dollars. The firm also notes that Grabe spent time earlier in his career on the insurance defense side, which it frames as a tactical reading advantage when opposing insurers. Whether that framing translates to better outcomes is an open question, but the underlying experience is factual and specific.
Professional credentials and trial experience
Fees run on contingency, so there is no upfront cost to a client, and the Law Offices of Timothy Grabe handles both negotiation and trial work. The firm operates out of the St. Clair House on SW St. Clair Avenue in Portland and also appears in records as Timothy Grabe, PC.
Published work and insurance defense background
Here is where the listing stumbles. Profiles exist on Avvo (listed as Timothy W. Grabe, with client reviews and endorsements), Yelp, and Justia, plus a few lawyer-rating aggregator pages. No aggregate star score or numeric review count surfaced on Google, Facebook, or the BBB. The Law Offices of Timothy Grabe maintains a Testimonials page, but those quotes are self-selected. For a firm in operation since 1983, the absence of accumulated third-party ratings is notable, not disqualifying on its own, but it means the credential layer and the public endorsement layer are not pulling together. An injured worker evaluating options has professional standing on one side and almost no independent client volume on the other.
Client reviews scattered across platforms
One practical detail: multiple third-party profiles list older or alternate Portland addresses and phone numbers, so confirming current contact information through the firm's own site is the right move before reaching out.
Verify current contact details before reaching out
The Law Offices of Timothy Grabe has genuine credentials and a focused practice, and those count for something. The pro tem appointment and the ACLEA-recognized publication are not decorative. But 40-plus years of practice with almost no visible third-party review presence leaves a gap that the credentials alone cannot close. The case for choosing this firm rests on the professional record, and that record is worth examining seriously; the case against is simply that there is not enough outside corroboration to be confident about client experience. A person with a catastrophic injury and real stakes should weigh that honestly before deciding.
