Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

ORS 656.266

Known as the Workers’ Compensation Law

The act spans §§ 656–656 (348 sections).

Applied in 106 court decisions — leading case Brown v. SAIF Corp. (2017)

Most recently applied in 346 Or. App. 208 - Robey v. Weir Esco (December 2025)

1987 c.713 §2; 2001 c.865 §2

How often courts cite this section

19881990200020102020202580
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) The burden of proving that an injury or occupational disease is compensable and of proving the nature and extent of any disability resulting therefrom is upon the worker. The worker cannot carry the burden of proving that an injury or occupational disease is compensable merely by disproving other possible explanations of how the injury or disease occurred.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, for the purpose of combined condition injury claims under ORS 656.005 (7)(a)(B) only:

(a) Once the worker establishes an otherwise compensable injury, the employer shall bear the burden of proof to establish the otherwise compensable injury is not, or is no longer, the major contributing cause of the disability of the combined condition or the major contributing cause of the need for treatment of the combined condition.

(b) Notwithstanding ORS 656.804, paragraph (a) of this subsection does not apply to any occupational disease claim.

Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.