Who’s really behind Sen. Virgil Smith’s plan to destroy Detroit residents’ No-Fault insurance rights?

The Detroit Free Press reported on June 6, 2011 that Detroit could become a test for a much less expensive, bare-bones form of new No-Fault auto insurance.  The plan is sponsored by State Sen. Virgil Smith. Sadly, the new plan Virgil Smith is considering is terrible for Detroit residents injured in auto accidents.

Virgil Smith’s plan would devastate the legal rights of Detroiters seriously injured in auto accidents.  It takes the worst of Michigan’s No-Fault insurance benefits (also called first-party or PIP benefits)  and third-party pain and suffering benefits, and lops off accident victims’ ability to purchase currently optional uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. In other words, the “basic” No-Fault that Smith envisions is so ridiculously low,  it would be wiped out before someone leaves the emergency room if they’ve suffered serious personal injury from an auto accident.

In turn, the costs for the injured driver would be shifted to Medicaid, and the burden of medical care shifted to the public taxpayers. Also, as the government through Medicaid and Medicare would presumably have a lien on the amount of medical care it has paid, injured accident victims would then get nothing for their injuries and pain and suffering in their lawsuit against the at-fault driver. As I said, Smith’s plan takes the  worst of both worlds.

Ironically, none of this deters Virgil Smith. Consumer groups have been telling him for years that his No- Fault insurance proposals are terrible for Detroit residents. Others, such as the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault and nearly every member of the Democratic Party in Detroit, have also told him his ideas are  devastating for Detroit residents seriously injured in auto accidents. It seems the only people who really like this idea are the auto insurance companies.

Smith says auto insurance premiums for Detroit residents must be lowered. I agree. But there are better and more effective ways of accomplishing this. Smith says he wants to take away important legal rights, such as life-time medical benefits, to lower the price of auto No-Fault insurance for City of Detroit residents.

But why is Smith not taking on the auto insurance companies?  For example, even though Michigan’s auto insurance companies enjoy some of the highest profitability margins in the nation here, Michigan is one of the few states without an insurance commissioner that can regulate the amount of profits insurance companies can make - for a product that we as drivers are legally required to buy.

If Smith truly cared about Detroiters as he says he does, and wants to lower insurance rates as he says he does, wouldn’t this be a better way to lower premiums instead of crushing the legal rights of Detroiters?

And what about red-lining and credit scoring?

Since the only ones who seem to be supporting Smith in this effort to destroy the legal rights of Detroiters seriously injured in auto accidents is the Insurance Institute of Michigan, doesn’t it beg the question of who really is putting Virgil Smith up to this?

Here’s the full story in the Detroit Free Press: Cheaper auto insurance that limits injury coverage in the works

- Steven M. Gursten is head of Michigan Auto Law. He is recognized as one of the nation’s top insurance lawyers handling serious auto injury cases and No-Fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the top jury verdict for a car accident or truck accident in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Additional resources to protect yourself:

Show us the money from proposed changes to Michigan’s No-Fault law

Why Detroit papers are falling for the proposed elimination of Michigan No-Fault law

Michigan No-Fault insurance resource center

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident,  motorcycle accident and No-Fault insurance lawsuits throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with an insurance lawyer. We are here to help you.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan truck accident attorney recovers $1.45 million verdict in Detroit

Congratulations to Lenny Koltonow and his deserving client for last week’s $1.45 million truck accident trial verdict. The verdict was received on May 17 in Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit.

What makes the case interesting is how the truck accident occurred.

The truck crash occurred in March 2009. Lenny’s client was driving on westbound I-94, in Detroit. The defendant was driving a semi-truck, also westbound on I-94, when his truck struck an overpass, causing the load he was carrying to spill onto the freeway in front of the plaintiff’s vehicle. The plaintiff could not avoid the spilled load, and Lenny’s client suffered several injuries from the resulting crash, including a neck injury that required surgery, a shoulder injury that required arthroscopic surgery, and a mild traumatic brain injury that fortunately resolved shortly after the crash.

The defense lawyer tried to argue that Lenny’s client had pre-existing injuries and treatment for neck, shoulder and head injuries, as he was a long-time tradesman. The jury rejected these arguments, and the testimony from seven (seven!) defense experts at trial, and found the plaintiff will never work again after his neck injury and surgery.

What makes this truck accident like all the others is how it was defended. One thing our truck accident attorneys know is that truck accident defense lawyers will almost never take responsibility for injuries caused by the companies they represent. This case was no exception. The defense lawyer hired seven doctors as experts, including many who are quite notorious among Michigan personal injury lawyers as “usual suspects” who do hundreds of exams for defense lawyers and insurance companies every year and rarely find anyone disabled from injuries, no matter how serious.

With 35 years experience fighting for his clients and receiving some of the highest auto and truck accident jury verdicts in the courtroom, Lenny is one of the most respected injury lawyers in Michigan. He does not accept mistreatment of his clients by auto insurance companies and the defense lawyers representing them.

Lenny is a Michigan Super Lawyer, and has been an AV-Rated lawyer (the best rating for legal ability and ethics) for the past 25 years. He has served on the executive board of the Michigan Association for Justice, and lectures on personal injury cases to Michigan lawyers at numerous seminars.

Congratulations to Lenny and his client.

- Steven Gursten is a partner of Michigan Auto Law and one of the top truck accident attorneys in the country. He is past president of the American Association for Justice Truck Accident Litigation Group, and has received the top-reported jury verdict in Michigan for truck accidents. Steve was named a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Leader in the Law for his work to promote national truck safety.

Related information:

Michigan truck accident FAQs

Do I have a case? When you need a Michigan truck accident lawyer

About Leonard M. Koltonow

Michigan Auto Law exclusively handles car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state of Michigan. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Detroit to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our truck accident attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

City of Detroit making it hard for accident victims to receive No-Fault insurance benefits

Below is a letter to Kevin Clinton, Michigan’s new insurance commissioner, from a Detroit accident lawyer. This letter is a good example of how auto insurance companies, including municipalities like Detroit, are making it nearly impossible for seriously injured bus accident victims to recover their No-Fault insurance benefits.

April 18, 2011

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

Kevin Clinton, Commissioner
Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation
611 West Ottawa Street, 3rd Floor
Lansing, MI  48933

Re:    Claimant

Dear Mr. Clinton:

I have listed one of my clients in the above caption, but the problems presented in this letter are now occurring with many of my clients, as well as for those accident victims who I frequently assist as a courtesy.

Recently, the City of Detroit Law Department has implemented new procedures that have made it much more difficult for bus accident claimants to recover Michigan No-Fault (PIP) benefits, for accidents involving City of Detroit  vehicles (i.e. DDOT).  The following is a list of problems that the City of Detroit  has created for new accident claimants:

1. The City of Detroit now requires claimants to print 14 pages of forms off of the Internet and mail them to the City, before they will issue a claim number. Many of these forms go far above and beyond what is required by MCL 500.3145 and it is intentionally burdensome. I am also concerned by the large number of residents who do not have Internet access. It also raises fundamental fairness concerns as to why the City of Detroit Law Department is creating these unnecessary obstacles with residents, many of whom will struggle to complete these 14 pages of unnecessary and complicated paperwork.

2. They have eliminated the ability of accident victims to report accidents over the phone, which every other insurer in Michigan allows.

3. The City of Detroit investigators (insurance adjusters) are not contacting the accident claimants by phone or via mail, and are not providing bus accident victims with their claim number information. As a result, many doctors will not treat these people for auto accident-related  personal injuries. This is contrary to the entire purpose and intent of the Michigan No-Fault Act, which is to provide prompt care and recovery to accident and injury victims.

4. When the clients call the City of Detroit claims adjusters and investigators, the voice mails are full and there is no way to leave a message.

5. The City is not paying bills on a timely basis pursuant to the No-Fault Act.  This  is not a recent development with the City of Detroit.

It is unacceptable for the City of Detroit, as a self-insured entity, to be allowed to treat its residents in this manner. On several occasions, I have had to call one or more of the attorneys on staff at the Detroit Law Department just to get a claim number. A person should not be forced to have to hire a lawyer just to get a claim number.

Very truly yours,

Jeffrey A. Bussell

Michigan Auto Law

- This blog was written by Jeffrey A. Bussell. Jeff joined Michigan Auto Law’s pre-lawsuit division with extensive experience in No-Fault insurance litigation. He works closely with car accident victims in the early stages of their lawsuits.

Related information:

Michigan Auto Law Detroit office

Legal loophole lets SMART bus off the hook - despite causing serious bus accident

3 potential cases for Michigan auto accidents

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our auto accident lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

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Why Detroit papers are falling for proposed elimination of Michigan’s No-Fault insurance law

This is a blog (or rant) I wrote in response to recent editorials by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press promoting slashing No Fault benefits in exchange for vague promises of savings from the insurance industry. It goes beyond the fact that we’ve heard these promises before from the insurance industry - and the promised savings have never materialized (in fact, premiums have only gone up). It also goes beyond the fact that both Detroit newspapers are currently tilting “conservative” and leaning Republican in their latest reincarnations.

These editorials are about the pending Senate bills that would dismantle No-Fault insurance benefits for car accident victims, in exchange for supposedly saving drivers money with their insurance premiums. Before Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system, which the Insurance Institute of Michigan has actually called the “best auto insurance coverage in the country,” gets turned on its head, a lot more needs to be known about the proposed changes and whether they’re  worth considering.

By saying they’re making Michigan auto insurance rates more affordable, the Michigan auto insurance industry, through its advocates in the Legislature, has chosen to demonize the crown jewel of Michigan’s No-Fault system: unlimited, lifetime medical benefits for seriously or catastrophically injured auto accident victims.

Our auto insurance industry is playing a “smoke and mirrors” game with people of Michigan, trying to convince them the reason they’re paying so much for auto insurance is because of the medical benefits guarantee in the No-Fault law, which the same auto insurance industry lobbied, badgered and bullied the Michigan Legislature into passing more than 30 years ago.

The real reason Michigan drivers pay so much for auto insurance is because insurance companies force them to do so. No one is asking why Michigan’s insurance companies enjoy the highest profitability margins in the nation. If Michigan auto insurance rates are unacceptably high, that’s because auto insurance companies choose for them to be high. These companies – and the companies alone – determine the premium price they’re going to charge auto insurance customers.

If Michigan had an insurance commissioner who had the power to regulate the amount of profits insurance companies can make for selling a product that our law requires drivers to purchase, these rates would significantly drop.  I don’t hear the insurance company lobbyists, or the Republicans they contribute so much money to in the Michigan Legislature, asking for expanded power for the Michigan insurance commissioner to regulate insurance company profits in this state.

So before the Michigan auto insurance industry gets away with gutting “the best auto insurance coverage in the country,” we need to know:

•    More about why the insurance industry is charging Michigan drivers so much for auto insurance,
•    Whether the proposed “gutting” of No-Fault benefits has any chance of actually saving Michigan drivers money,
•    Or whether this is all about slashing expenses and boosting profits for Michigan’s deep-pocketed insurance industry.

I propose that before anything more is done on their bills to dismantle Michigan’s No-Fault system, our auto insurance industry should provide answers to the following questions:

1. Are you willing to settle for less profits in order to make auto insurance more affordable for everyone? If so, how much less?

2. To keep Michigan auto insurance affordable for everyone and to protect Michigan drivers from ever-increasing insurance rates, are you willing to have your prices regulated by the insurance commissioner or capped (just as you are urging the Legislature to cap the fees that doctors can charge when treating Michigan auto accident victims)?

3. You insist that the cost of the average paid claim for No-Fault benefits (also called personal injury protection benefits (PIP) benefits) was $36,425 in 2010. But how many paid PIP claims were there in 2010? And how does the cost associated with those paid claims compare with the revenues from PIP premiums written and collected during 2010?

4. If the average paid claim for personal injury protection benefits is $36,425, then in how many years will it exceed the minimum PIP Choice limit of $50,000? (If your calculations are correct that the cost of the average paid PIP claim has tripled since 2000, then we can expect the average paid PIP claim to hit nearly $110,000 by 2020, right?)

5. Are you willing to guarantee in writing (perhaps as amendments to bills currently pending in the Michigan Senate) exactly how much Michigan drivers will save should your proposed No-Fault choice policy limits become law?

6. Even if Michigan drivers saved 10 percent to 30 percent on their auto insurance rates as a result of your proposed No-Fault changes, wouldn’t they still be paying some of the highest rates in the country? For instance, based on the figures released by Insure.com, a 10 percent savings would put Michigan just behind Louisiana with the country’s second highest rate. And a savings of 30 percent would put Michigan just after Connecticut with the country’s 12th highest rate.

7. If the goal is savings for drivers, why the huge recent bonuses to insurance company execs?

8. How will any of these proposals make any meaningful difference when vehicle damage is currently over 50 percent - and some say closer to 60 percent - of insurance payouts in this state?  Wouldn’t this be a better place to make meaningful changes before taking away critical protections for victims of traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury?

Once Michigan’s auto insurance industry provides answers to those questions, everyone will have the information we all need to have a meaningful discussion about the cause of Michigan’s high auto insurance prices and whether gutting “the best auto insurance coverage in the country” is really the best way to bring those prices down.

- Steven Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top insurance attorneys handling serious auto accident lawsuits. He writes about insurance company abuse and the Michigan No-Fault laws, and is available for comment.

Related information:

Show us the money from proposed changes to our No-Fault law

Three potential cases for Michigan auto accidents

Insurance attorney videos: No-Fault benefits and advice

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our No-Fault insurance attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

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Warning: Why the City of Detroit is jeopardizing No-Fault benefits to bus accident victims

Yesterday, I posted an open letter to the Michigan insurance commissioner regarding the City of Detroit’s new and deliberate policy of making it very difficult for Detroit residents to file an insurance claim. The real question is why? And here is where our Detroit accident lawyers have come to a disturbing conclusion: the City of Detroit wants to take away the rights of injured bus accident victims before they can even make a claim.

In yesterday’s open letter, we discussed the hoops bus accident  victims have to jump through to make a No-Fault insurance claim with the City of Detroit. Not only can victims not make a claim over the phone or even in person, but they now have to complete 14 pages worth of online forms that are very confusing and hard to fill out.

Under Michigan law, bus accident victims have 60 days to file a claim.

So if a bus accident victim does not make a No-Fault claim within the mandated 60 days because he or she is unable to jump through the hoops Detroit itself poses, then the city will not have to provide insurance benefits.

That’s right, if you’re injured in bus accident and have to make a claim with the City of Detroit, you only have 60 days from the date of the accident to give notice to Detroit that you’re going to make a claim.   MCL 124.419 states that all claims that arise from a transportation authority (City of Detroit, SMART, etc.), must have written notice given to the city or transportation authority no later than 60 days from the date of the injury.

Detroit knows that many of its residents and accident victims don’t have access to the Internet, and then there are those that might not have a printer to print out and complete the forms. The lawyers at the City of Detroit Law Department also know that by the time many of these bus accident injury victims figure out they have 60 days to make an insurance claim, they will still have to make the satisfaction of the city.

How many Detroiters do you think are going to lose their Michigan No-Fault insurance benefits forever, before the 60-day time limit expires?

And what does this mean to all of you, whether you are injured in a bus accident or not, or live in Detroit or not?  Well, for one, it means a waste of your tax money and an added burden on our court system. If these injured people can’t make a No-Fault claim with the City of Detroit, the medical bills get turned over to Medicaid.

Therefore, the City of Detroit is trying to place the burden of No-Fault Insurance onto you, the tax payer.  What’s more, these injured people are having to call and hire Detroit personal injury lawyers for a simple claim they are entitled to automatically file under the Michigan No-Fault law.

Stand up to bureaucracy and tactics like these from the City of Detroit. Tell them you don’t want to pay for the auto insurance benefits they’re responsible for and to stop taking advantage of Michigan drivers.

If you’ve been injured in a bus accident or other vehicle involving the City of Detroit or another transportation authority, call Michigan Auto Law at (800) 777-0028. We can answer all of your legal questions, and we will fight for your No-fault insurance benefits. We even have a law office in downtown Detroit.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top personal injury lawyers handling auto accident lawsuits. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Related information:

SMART bus’s outrageous tactics for avoiding bus accident liability comes to a screeching halt

SMART bus accident takes another injured person for a ride

Michigan truck accident resource center

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our bus accident lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.