Monroe, Michigan top 10 auto accident locations

My first trial was in Monroe when I was a first-year baby lawyer (technically, it wasn’t a trial, since the insurance company offered its full policy limits when we started picking a jury for my client). And I always think about that when I walk into the Monroe courthouse. I’ve spent hundreds of hours helping people in Monroe, Toledo, and surrounding areas who’ve been hurt in car and mostly truck accidents from I-75 in the past 20 years.

That’s why we created the Monroe Car Accident Lawyer Resource Center to provide residents with quick access to local information.

I write this with the June 2011 report by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), showing 34 percent of all traffic crashes and nearly one-third of all fatalities occurred at intersections.

SEMCOG has also recently rolled out 2010 data on high crash intersections — and this is something that every car accident lawyer with cases in Monroe, Michigan needs to be aware of. After the Supreme Court changed the law with road defect and governmental immunity claims, this may not lead to a cause of action, but Monroe car accident attorneys may want to consider how to advise their clients in the following areas.

If nothing else, I hope by listing the top 10 auto accident intersections, we can help keep Monroe area drivers safe and prevent car accidents (if people take a little more time and extra precautions).

1. Telegraph Road South and Front Street West, 32 auto accidents

2. Cole Road and Monroe Street North, 19 auto accidents

3. Lorain Street West and Telegraph Road North, 14 auto accidents

4. 7th Street West and Telegraph Road South, 14 auto accidents

5. Elm Ave. East and Monroe Street North, 13 auto accidents

6. Telegraph Road North and Fredericks Dr., 12 auto accidents

7.  Jones Ave. and Monroe Street South, 11 auto accidents

8. Elm Ave. West and Roessler Street North, 10 auto accidents

9. Elm Ave. East and Macomb Street North, 9 auto accidents

10. Monroe Street South and 3rd Street West, 9 auto accidents

1. Telegraph Road South and Front Street West, 27.4 auto accidents

2. Cole Road and Monroe Street North, 18.2 auto accidents

3. Elm Avenue East and Monroe Street North, 14.6 auto accidents

4. Telegraph Road North and Lorain Street West, 13.4 auto accidents

5. Telegraph Road North and Fredericks Dr., 12.6 auto accidents

6. Telegraph Road South and 7th Street West, 11.8 auto accidents

7. Telegraph Road North and Holiday Blvd., 10.8 auto accidents

8. Elm Ave. East and Macomb Street North, 10.2 auto accidents

9. Front St West and Roessler St South, 9.6 auto accidents

10. Dixie Hwy. North and Ternes Dr, 9.4 auto accidents

As you can see from the data above, the intersection of Telegraph and Front Street has the highest amount of accidents not only last year, but is on average, the most dangerous intersection in Monroe, Michigan for the past five years.  At a distant second is the area of Cole Road and Monroe Street, which leads into the downtown area.

These Monroe intersection statistics came from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning – 2010 Crash Facts. More details are available on the SEMCOG website.

The state of Michigan also released 2010 data for all counties, detailing the types of roads where
Auto accidents occur.  Monroe County saw a slight 3 percent increase in total traffic crashes in 2010 versus 2009, with about 53 percent of all crashes occurring on local roads.

Of the 3,797 crashes in Monroe County in 2010, Frenchtown Township had the highest number with 18 percent  of all car accidents, followed by the city of Monroe with 17 percent and Bedford Township with 12 percent.

For additional resources including how to file a police report in Monroe, you can visit our Monroe County accident statistics and local resources page.

Whether you’re driving into the Detroit metro area to shop for the holidays or vacation at one of our state’s many beautiful destinations, take a look at our Local Resources Guide for Michigan Car Accidents to obtain valuable accident tips for any major Michigan city or suburb.

I would be curious to hear from our Monroe drivers.  Why do you think these intersections have so many car accidents?  Are there other intersections in the Monroe area that you feel are especially unsafe? Feel free to give our lawyers feedback, and I’ll post your comment below.

And, as always, please stop speeding, avoid cell phone use and drive defensively.

- Steve Gursten - is a lawyer at Michigan Auto Law, and focuses on helping people injured in auto accidents.  He has received the top reported auto accident settlement in Monroe, Michigan in two of the past four years, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

- Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, by vedved82491

Related information to protect yourself:

Monroe car accident resources

Testimonialsfrom your Monroe lawyers

Recent car accident FAQs

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 an auto accident attorney.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Bicycle helmet saves Michigan Auto Law receptionist’s eye

Last week, one of our long-time receptionists, Lisa,  was in a terrible bike accident. Lisa was riding her bicycle over a bridge on Commerce Trail in Commerce Township, when her back tire slipped on some water.

She fell head-first onto the pavement, fracturing the orbital bone below her left eye. Our photo shows how bad Lisa’s bike injury was.

I’m glad to report that after emergency surgery, Lisa is healing well and already back to work.  What’s really remarkable about this bike accident is that Lisa’s bicycle helmet literally saved her eye — and quite likely prevented a serious brain injury.

Doctors told Lisa that if she was not wearing her bike helmet, she would have broken more bones in her face and that, in turn, would have displaced her eye.

The bike helmet also protected Lisa’s skull. If she didn’t have one, she certainly would have suffered a  concussion, and even a life-threatening traumatic brain injury (TBI) or closed-head injury from the trauma to her skull and brain.

I want to thank Lisa for allowing me to share this personal story.  Lisa said it would be a good thing for people to know how important a bicycle helmet is, and even offered to have her picture taken for this blog, so that it might serve as a warning for other bicyclists.

The irony is as an injury lawyer, I’ve been helping bicyclists hit by cars around Michigan for almost 20 years. My partner, Bobby Raitt, started the Michigan Association for Justice (MAJ) bike helmet giveaway to youth in under-served communities to help prevent pediatric traumatic brain injuries, when he served as  president of the MAJ. I’ve seen so many tragic bicycle accidents like Lisa’s, normally where people are hit by cars that simply don’t see them, or clipped as cars are driving by.  Many of these people suffer brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. And the bike accident injuries can be catastrophic when the rider is not wearing a helmet.

All of this is why I wanted to share with  my readers about Lisa’s bike accident. So please, always wear your bike safety helmets!

Consider the facts, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

•    The most serious injuries among the majority of people killed in bicycle accidents are to the head.

•    Helmet use has been estimated to reduce traumatic brain injury and head injury risk by 85 percent.

•    91 percent of bicyclists killed in 2009 (the latest statistic available) weren’t wearing helmets.

Many people think it can’t happen to them. But bike accidents are very common, especially in Michigan where almost all of our cities do not have bike lanes.   Maybe Detroit will take a page from Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC, where the number of bike paths in the city has multiplied to make the city greener and safer for bicyclists.

Below are some safety tips to help  our bicyclists stay safe.

1. Obey traffic lights, stop signs, one-way streets and other basic traffic laws. A bicyclist has the same rights and duties on the road as drivers of other vehicles, and additional responsibilities.

2. Ride as far “as practicable” to the right (or to the outside lanes on a one-way street), particularly when traffic is moving faster than you are.

3. Be prepared to yield at all times.

4. Use hand signals when turning or moving from a lane.

5. Yield the right-of-way to pedestrians. Give audible warning when passing a pedestrian.

6. Keep at least one hand on your handlebars. Keep control of your bicycle at all times.

7. Saddlebags, racks, baskets, and backpacks are all good ways to carry packages, as they free your hands for safe riding.

8. Use a headlight with a white light visible from ahead, and a red reflector/light visible from behind, when riding from sunset to sunrise or whenever visibility is poor. Wear reflective clothing as well.

9. Keep brakes adjusted so that, when braked, your bicycle skids on clean, dry pavement.

10. Ride astride a fixed seat. Riding “double” is discouraged.

11. Ride no more than two abreast.

- Steven M. Gursten is an accident lawyer and partner of Michigan Auto Law. He handles bike accidents, and received the top verdict for a car or truck accident in the state for 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

- Safety tips provided by Northville Township Police

Related information to protect yourself:

The truth about delayed and missed traumatic brain injury diagnosis

Michigan bike accident lawyer on anti-bike bias by police

Symptoms of traumatic brain injury

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 Michigan bike accident lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

4 of our Michigan personal injury attorneys named Best Lawyers in America

It’s a nice honor to announce that four of our partners at Michigan Auto Law have been named Best Lawyers in America. Last week, Super Lawyers listed nine of our attorneys as Michigan Super Lawyers in the personal injury category.

It’s especially pleasing because our firm does almost no marketing whatsoever. We have no billboards (anyone else amazed by how many there are these days?), bus ads, TV or Yellow Pages. Our entire marketing campaign is simply to try to have the very best car accident and truck accident verdicts and settlements in Michigan every year - and business will come.

Fortunately, with the top auto verdict in seven of the past 10 years in Michigan, and the top Michigan auto accident settlements every year, it has proved a sound strategy. And it keeps me off of billboards!

Now four of our Michigan personal injury attorneys were recently selected by their peers - other attorneys from across the country - for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2012— in the personal injury litigation specialty.

Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey of nearly 41,000 leading attorneys, who cast 3.9 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers. Those selected for Best Lawyers in America don’t pay a fee to be listed.

Our Best Lawyers include:

Lawrence Gursten: Larry is the founding partner of our law firm, and he has been one of the top car accident lawyers in the U.S. for more than 40 years.

Steven Gursten (me): I’ve been handling auto accident lawsuits for nearly two decades. I’m a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Lawyer of the Year, and a Leader in the Law for my work promoting truck safety. I’m also president of the  Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers Association, and past-president of the American Association for Justice Truck Accident Litigation Group.

David Christensen – Dave is a partner of Michigan Auto Law, and President of the Negligence Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan (the organization of all personal injury attorneys in the state). Dave is known for for his expertise in brain injury lawsuits.

Robert Raitt: Bob is also a partner of Michigan Auto Law. He’s past-president of the Michigan Association for Justice – a victims’ rights organization comprised of more than 2,000 injury attorneys across the state. Bob is a tenacious trial lawyer who has multiple million-dollar verdicts and settlements.

Best Lawyers in America is considered the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. For more than 25 years, it has helped lawyers and clients find legal counsel in unfamiliar jurisdictions or specialties.

The lawyers listed in Best Lawyers in America don’t choose which practice areas they’re included in; they are voted into the practice areas from the votes they receive from their lawyer peers. Michigan Auto Law has been listed in the Personal Injury Litigation section this year and for the past several years.

Congratulations to our Michigan Auto Law Best Lawyers 2012.

- The Best Lawyers in America® 2012  is copyright 2011 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.

Related information:

What to do after a car accident in Michigan

Our clients and their stories

Michigan Auto Law in the news

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Teaching voir dire for Michigan personal injury attorneys

Next week, I will be moderating and speaking to my fellow personal injury attorneys at a Michigan Association for Justice seminar. The topic is voir dire, or the questioning of prospective jurors.

Voir dire is conducted by lawyers and by a judge in court. It’s a process that’s used to determine if any juror is biased in a way that would tend to favor one side over another in a trial. Voir dire can be as simple as finding out if a juror already knows one of the parties or lawyers or it can be more complicated, like the insurance company executive who is asked to serve on a No-Fault insurance trial on overdue and owing insurance benefits.

In my opinion, voir dire is the most important part of trial.  It is far more important than the opening statement or closing argument. In this world today, with polarized opinions and strongly held views, if you cannot find six or eight people who can be fair to both sides equally, you’ve already failed your client.

For example, according to one study I read, as many as 25 percent of the population doesn’t believe that a person injured due to another person’s negligence should receive compensation for pain and suffering.  But in a car accident case, where medical bills and the first three years of wage loss are paid by a person’s own No-Fault insurance company, pain and suffering is the reason you are there in court.  If 25 percent of your jury doesn’t even believe the person should get this, despite what the court instructs (or for that matter the Constitution of the United States), you have a real problem.

Voir dire is where so many otherwise well-intentioned injury lawyers fail in court, because they never get a jury who can be fair to both sides.  It doesn’t matter if your case is just, or you present a stronger case in each phase of trial; if the people sitting on the jury are fundamentally predisposed before they hear any of the evidence to side against you, you are in big trouble.

And that makes this seminar so important for Michigan personal injury attorneys. If we can’t get a feel for the personalities and likely views of the people on the jury panel, than how can we properly protect our clients after they’ve been injured in auto accidents?

The topics of the seminar, which will be held in Redford, Michigan, as are follows:
•    What tools today can  assist you in jury selection?
•    Tips and strategies to de-select the anti-plaintiff juror
•    A helpful panel discussion with several well-respected Michigan  judges.

The Michigan Association for Justice (formerly the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association) is a state organization of more than 2,000 personal  injury attorneys who are dedicated to helping accident victims. Our lawyers are strong supporters of the Michigan Association for Justice, as past-presidents and current members of the MAJ Board.

I know this seminar will be a valuable resource to help our Michigan personal injury attorneys  protect their clients, and get fair results in car accident and truck accident cases.

Don’t forget to visit Facebook.com/MichiganAutoLaw this week to enter to win a $1,032 check as part of our distracted driving awareness campaign.

- Steve Gursten is one of the top personal injury attorneys in Michigan. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict or pain and suffering settlement in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly. Steve is past chair of the Michigan Association for Justice executive board.

Related Information:

What’s the No. 1 thing attorneys can’t tell jurors in trial?

Tort “reform” - A failed experiment in legal-social engineering

Free book - Protecting your legal rights after an auto accident

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan bike accident lawyer on anti-bicyclist bias by police

I was sent an interesting article that appeared in the New York Times last week titled, “A new breed of lawyers focuses on bicyclists’ rights.” The article focuses on a select few bicycle accident lawyers who are fighting back against the perceived police prejudice against cyclists.

The article dealt more with lawyers taking on tickets and citations against bicycle riders. But as a lawyer who has handled many Michigan bicycle accident cases involving serious injuries after bike riders were hit by cars, I can say I’ve seen this same bias in police in investigations.

Lawyers who handle cases for injured bicyclists need to be aware of two things that resonate from this article:

1. Police reports are often wrong and often erroneously blame the bicyclist. This stems in large part from the misunderstanding many police officers have about cyclist rights when investigating a bicycle accident.

2. In bike accident cases, there’s always a strong predisposition to blame the bicyclist.  Any injury lawyer that thinks otherwise should spend an afternoon focus grouping these cases as I have done, and hearing some of the things that  potential jurors say. Many of our jurors as motorists, feel that cyclists are “in the way” of traffic,” and should be able to avoid cars on the road.  Even when the car hits the biker, jurors tend to find fault with the cyclist just for being on a bike.

These are dangerous cases for lawyers who are inexperienced in handling bicycle accident injury cases. I’ve seen attorneys who aren’t familiar with bike accident liability arguments  get “no caused” on liability, even when they assumed negligence was very clear. Even when it’s undisputed that the car hits the bike, lawyers should never take negligence for granted in these cases.

Although the New York Times article spent a lot of time on police issuing tickets to cyclists for not keeping right, cyclists are also getting tickets for moving out of the designated bike lanes - even when they need to avoid obstacles such as cars or branches.

The bike accident cases I’ve worked on don’t really apply to tickets.  My cases involve injury  car-bicycle collisions, where I believe some police, and many people, tend to blame the cyclists.  The point to all this of course is that while cyclists have the same rights as everyone else on the road, many people harbor an unfounded bias against cyclists because these motorists, police officers, and others aren’t cyclists. And everyone has heard horror stories about how dangerous cycling on roads is, or knows someone who was seriously injured – even when it wasn’t their fault.

A lawyer representing an injured cyclist will have to voir dire extensively to make sure there is no predisposition to side with the motorist to the detriment of his or her injured cyclist client.

It’s nice to think about a Michigan one day, where most of the population cycles. But our current infrastructure makes that a pipe dream at the moment, and there are almost no bike lanes to allow people to safely bike to work.  While it’s nice to think about such a world, I wouldn’t recommend it in cities such as Detroit or Sterling Heights.

My advice to any bicycle rider who has been injured is to talk with an experienced Michigan bicycle accident lawyer who is familiar with and can work to undo the harmful effects of bias against bikers injured in accidents with cars.

Only through careful investigation of the accident scene, interviews with witnesses, accident reconstruction, deposition of the investigating police officers, extensive voir dire, focus groups and juror questionnaires on anti-bicyclist attitudes, can cyclists who were injured through no fault of their own recover their full measure of compensation after a serious bike accident.  In the meantime, keep safe!

Remember, you can visit Facebook.com/MichiganAutoLaw to enter to win a $1,032 check as part of our distracted driving awareness campaign.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top accident lawyers. 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. Gursten and the other accident lawyers at Michigan Auto Law regularly help injured bicycle accident victims.

- Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, by Ed Yourdon

Related information to protect yourself:

The truth about delayed and missed traumatic brain injury diagnosis

Child safety tips - wear a bicycle helmet

Free book - How to Keep Your Children Safe

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 bicycle accident lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan Auto Law wants to stop texting while driving with $1,032 giveaway

Today our accident attorneys are kicking off a three-week campaign sweepstakes against the dangers of texting while driving — and the winner will receive a $1,032 check.

All you have to do is visit Michigan Auto Law’s Facebook page, “Like” the law firm and enter to win by watching a short video on distracted driving and filling out a quick contact form.

People who text and drive are 23 times more likely to be in an auto accident, according to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. We want to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving and we also want to really protect Michigan drivers.

The distracted driving campaign will run three weeks and the winner will be announced on Sept. 12, 2011. Official rules and details can be found on Facebook.com/MichiganAutoLaw.

The winner can use the money however he or she wishes, but we hope the winner will use it to buy the right kind of auto insurance. Part of this campaign also centers on our hope to educate drivers about just how many people today are uninsured on our roads.

About 50 percent of Detroit drivers, for example, are driving without any auto insurance whatsoever today. And in the state of Michigan, about 19 percent of drivers have no auto insurance, according to published reports such as the Detroit Legal News and a news release by the Insurance Research Council.

Why giveaway $1,032? The Insurance Institute of Michigan’s December 2010 data states that the average auto insurance premium in Michigan is $1,032.02.

People are not properly protected, and we’re hoping this campaign lets us spread awareness about just how dangerous texting while driving is, while also helping educate the public about the proper auto insurance they should be buying.

We have drivers who are texting, talking on the phone, even surfing the Internet. Meanwhile, in some cities, we have up to 50 percent of our drivers riding with no insurance to protect them in case of a serious auto accident. It’s the perfect storm.

Uninsured motorist coverage is a special, low-cost additional insurance coverage people can buy.  It’s typically sold as  uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. These coverages are must-have. For the price of a movie and popcorn, this UM/UIM can protect you and your family if you’re a car crash with a driver who doesn’t have auto insurance.

I hope this campaign will make drivers – especially newer drivers – think twice before they text and drive. If we can prevent even one car accident, it’s worth it. I also want people participating in this great opportunity to win cash for auto insurance and to make a sincere pledge to not text and drive.

- Steven M. Gursten, partner of Michigan Auto Law, is recognized as one of the nation’s top accident attorneys. Steve has received the top verdicts and settlements for car accident or truck accidents cases in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly. He frequently blogs about distracted driving and is available for comment.

Related Information to protect yourself:

Choosing the best auto insurance in Michigan

Top 4 best Michigan auto insurance companies

Michigan No-Fault insurance 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 an one of our accident attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Drunk driving car accidents and deaths in Macomb County, Michigan

I’ve been writing about the latest Michigan drunk driving statistics. I’ve been focusing on this topic because drunk driving fatalities occur the most during Michigan summers, especially in the month of July.

These statistics come from a list of drunk driving car accidents and fatalities by county in Michigan for 2009, provided by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. The list ranks Michigan counties by population and number of drunken driving auto accidents and fatalities per capita.

Of all the counties in Michigan, Macomb County had the third most auto accidents involving drunk driving.

Michigan Auto Law has one of our five law firm offices is in Sterling Heights, Michigan. This provides a convenient location to meet with people who have been injured in car accidents in Sterling Heights, Shelby Township and Warren.  It serves as a convenient base camp when we are in trial in Macomb County Circuit Court (such as when we received the top-reported car accident verdict, when a Sterling Heights resident was seriously injured).

Because of the more concentrated population in Macomb County, the ranking according to number of fatal car crashes per capita is actually not as high in there as it was in many other Michigan counties. These statistics go by a Macomb County population estimate of 831,427 residents and 20,797 estimated car accidents.

Drinking and driving accidents in Macomb County – Macomb County had the third-most drinking and driving accidents, with 795 crashes involving drivers who had been drinking.

Drinking and driving fatalities in Macomb County – There were 15 drinking and driving fatalities in Oakland County, the third highest amount of drinking and driving fatalities in all of the Michigan counties.

Macomb County’s fatal crash rate - The Macomb County rating for fatal car accidents involving drunk drivers was .0180, and it ranked 54 out of 64 total Michigan counties.

Please, promise to never drink and drive. You can always call a friend, family member or a cab instead.

- Source – Michigan State Police Michigan Traffic Facts

- Steven M. Gursten, partner of Michigan Auto Law, is recognized as one of the nation’s top auto attorneys. He frequently blogs about safe driving and is available for comment.

More resources to protect yourself:

Michigan drunk driving and fatal car accident statistics

New Michigan drunk driving law targets “drunker” drivers

Preventing car accidents - Michigan safe driving tips

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 an one of our auto attorneys.

Kansas City Auto Accident Blog

Drunk driving car accidents and deaths in Macomb County, Michigan

I’ve been writing about the latest Michigan drunk driving statistics. I’ve been focusing on this topic because drunk driving fatalities occur the most during Michigan summers, especially in the month of July.

These statistics come from a list of drunk driving car accidents and fatalities by county in Michigan for 2009, provided by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. The list ranks Michigan counties by population and number of drunken driving auto accidents and fatalities per capita.

Of all the counties in Michigan, Macomb County had the third most auto accidents involving drunk driving.

Michigan Auto Law has one of our five law firm offices is in Sterling Heights, Michigan. This provides a convenient location to meet with people who have been injured in car accidents in Sterling Heights, Shelby Township and Warren.  It serves as a convenient base camp when we are in trial in Macomb County Circuit Court (such as when we received the top-reported car accident verdict, when a Sterling Heights resident was seriously injured).

Because of the more concentrated population in Macomb County, the ranking according to number of fatal car crashes per capita is actually not as high in there as it was in many other Michigan counties. These statistics go by a Macomb County population estimate of 831,427 residents and 20,797 estimated car accidents.

Drinking and driving accidents in Macomb County – Macomb County had the third-most drinking and driving accidents, with 795 crashes involving drivers who had been drinking.

Drinking and driving fatalities in Macomb County – There were 15 drinking and driving fatalities in Oakland County, the third highest amount of drinking and driving fatalities in all of the Michigan counties.

Macomb County’s fatal crash rate - The Macomb County rating for fatal car accidents involving drunk drivers was .0180, and it ranked 54 out of 64 total Michigan counties.

Please, promise to never drink and drive. You can always call a friend, family member or a cab instead.

- Source – Michigan State Police Michigan Traffic Facts

- Steven M. Gursten, partner of Michigan Auto Law, is recognized as one of the nation’s top auto attorneys. He frequently blogs about safe driving and is available for comment.

More resources to protect yourself:

Michigan drunk driving and fatal car accident statistics

New Michigan drunk driving law targets “drunker” drivers

Preventing car accidents - Michigan safe driving tips

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 an one of our auto attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan No-Fault insurance allows van purchase for injured auto accident victim

There’s an important new case on van modifications.  For car accident lawyers and insurance lawyers helping people in litigation over van modifications or the purchase of handicapped accessible vans; and for lawyers with clients who have suffered spinal cord injuries and now require wheelchairs, this new No-Fault insurance case should have an immediate impact in settlement negotiations.

In the case, a Michigan car accident victim who suffered serious personal injury (including needing  a  wheelchair), is entitled to the full purchase price of a replacement van from his No-Fault insurance company. Under the Michigan No-Fault Act, the auto insurance company of the personal injury victim is required to purchase the entire vehicle, rather than only the cost of modifying a motor vehicle that was previously owned.

Under Michigan’s No-Fault law, the cost of a modified van is considered an allowable expense for someone who has suffered serious personal injury and requires it.  This has been the law in Michigan since Davis v. Citizens Ins Co, 195 Mich App 323 (1992).

A recent Michigan Court of Appeals case, Admire v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., digs up this issue in a different way.

The main issue in Admire v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co. was how the transportation expense requirement has been changed by Griffith v State Farm Mut Auto Ins Co, 472 Mich 521; (2005).  In Admire, Auto Owners made the following argument based upon Griffith: because the plaintiff drove a motor vehicle before his car accident and the serious injuries that required the purchase of a modified van, that van is not a compensable benefit. In other words, if the plaintiff would have used a van before his car accident, then Auto Owners is not required to purchase or modify a van for him after the crash, because he drove before.

This silly argument - if a person would or could have used something before being seriously injured - would essentially negate any insurance company’s responsibility to pay for anything under the Michigan No-Fault Act. It ignores that now, after a car accident, a van has become required for a person’s care, recovery or rehabilitation. That’s the critical inquiry insurance lawyers must make to recover benefits.

Also, this argument had been previously rejected in a prior No-Fault insurance case dealing with allowable expenses, called Begin v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co, 284 Mich App 581, (2009).  Begin also ruled that Davis has not overruled by Griffith.

Begin stated that, in certain instances: ‘the product, service, or accommodation used by the injured person before an accident is so blended with another product, service, or accommodation that the whole cost is an allowable expense if it satisfies the statutory criteria of being sufficiently related to injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident and if it is a reasonable charge and reasonably necessary for the injured person’s care, recovery, or rehabilitation under MCL 500.3107(1)(a).’ …

Admire v. Auto Owners is an extremely important No-Fault case. The Auto Owners argument, if adopted, would have blown a huge gaping hole in the Michigan No-Fault Act, the nation’s best insurance law.  If the Auto Owners rationale had been accepted, an auto insurance company would be able to exclude paying for nearly anything that a severely injured person would need or require if it could show that a person used or could have used that product or service before his or her car accident.

To Auto Owners, it didn’t matter that the car accident victim was now in a wheelchair from his car accident, and required a modified transportation van to get to doctors appointments. Fortunately for everyone, and especially those who have suffered catastrophic injury and require attendant care, transportation, and home modifications, the courts in Admire and Begin have rejected this attempt to avoid payment.

As stated: “here plaintiff claimed, and presented evidence, that his transportation needs were different from those of an uninjured person and that the modified van for which he sought reimbursement was related to care necessitated by his injuries arising out of the operation or use of a motor vehicle.”

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

Related information:

Your Michigan No-Fault benefits

3 potential cases after an auto accident

The pain and suffering lawsuit

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 lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan No-Fault ‘reform’ is bad for drivers, but great for insurance companies

“Reform” does not mean lowering premiums. It does not mean ending Michigan’s problem with too many people driving without any auto insurance. “Reform” is the  insurance industry’s way of saying “Let’s boost our [already record-breaking] profits.”

Michigan drivers (and voters) would do well to remember this as Michigan’s auto insurance industry proposes new  “reform” (read, dismantling) of Michigan’s No Fault insurance system. Previously, the Insurance Institute of Michigan and its executive director, Pete Kuhnmuench, have described Michigan No-Fault insurance as “offering the best No-Fault medical benefits of any state” and providing policyholders with “the Cadillac of auto insurance policies.”

What changed?  With Republicans now in control in the Michigan Legislature, the insurance company lobbyists are sensing an opportunity to boost profits in the state - already the highest in the nation in insurance company profitability. Gone are the comments about Michigan “offering the best No-Fault benefits” and other talk of how good a deal our No-Fault system actually is for state residents.

Currently, in return for an auto insurance premium that the Insurance Journal has called “extremely reasonable,” Michigan’s mandatory No-Fault insurance system provides personal protection insurance coverage (also called No-Fault PIP) which guarantees Michigan auto accident victims unlimited medical benefits to assist with their auto accident-related care, recovery and rehabilitation.

That means that even if a Michigan auto accident victim’s medical expenses runs as high as $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million, those expenses are paid in full by the victim’s No-Fault auto insurance company.

However, under the “reform” proposed by Michigan’s auto insurance industry, that would now all change.

Under the Michigan auto insurance industry’s proposed “reform,” Michigan drivers would trade their unlimited medical benefits for LIMITED medical benefits (say… medical benefits capped at $50,000).

And, the trade-off for being duped into abandoning “the best No-Fault medical benefits” in the country is that Michigan drivers might have a couple hundred dollars shaved off of their annual No-Fault auto insurance premium.

I say “might” because the insurance industry has promised us savings before, in return for greater restrictions. For example, in 1995, they promised us dramatic savings on car insurance in exchange for Michigan adopting the most draconian injury threshold law in the nation - one that made it very hard to sue someone else for injuries and pain and suffering - and yet car insurance premiums only continued to go up.

It looks like this new  dangerous and inadequate auto insurance will soon be tested on Detroit residents, under the unproven statement that it’s “cheaper.”

The absurdity of this is made all the more obvious when two points are considered:

1. First, $50,000 in medical benefits provides woefully inadequate coverage for seriously or catastrophically injured Michigan auto accident victims. “[A] single injury can cost millions of dollars,” the Insurance Institute of Michigan has said. And if $50,000 is the medical cap, it is burned through in the emergency room in any serious injury car accident, leaving the remainder to the taxpayers and Medicaid.

2. There is no guarantee that Michigan drivers will ever actually see any savings as a result of the so-called “reform” that Michigan’s auto insurance industry is trying to foist upon them.

In more than 60 pages of proposed House and Senate bills explaining in excruciating detail the myriad ways in which Michigan auto insurance companies can dismantle Michigan drivers’ unlimited medical benefits, there is not a single word promising Michigan drivers “savings” — let alone how much or for how long — as their compensation for having “the best No-Fault medical benefits” in the country slashed.

The industry has backed proposed Michigan No-Fault “reform” legislation in 2008 and 2010 and will undoubtedly throw its support behind the proposed legislation that is certain to surface in the near future. Notably, both previous bills — Senate Bill 1278 and House Bill 6094 — “died” from inactivity at the end of their respective legislative terms.

“Profits are essential,” as the president of the Insurance Information Institute told the Michigan House Insurance Committee in December 2009.

And, profits lie at the heart of the Michigan auto insurance industry’s crusade to “reform” Michigan’s No-Fault system. Not saving money for Michigan drivers or trying to end Michigan’s “uninsured motorist” problem, as the industry’s press releases and journal articles strain credulity to suggest.

- Steven M. Gursten is head of Michigan Auto Law. He is recognized as one of the nation’s top lawyers handling serious auto injury cases and No-Fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the highest 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 our No-Fault law

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

Your Michigan No-Fault benefits

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 a car insurance lawyer. We are here to help you.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

What’s behind the insurance industry’s attack on Michigan doctors?

Doctors that provide necessary medical treatment for auto accident injury victims are now being targeted by the Michigan insurance industry.  As of now, the powerful medical lobby has yet to take on the insurance industry allegations. But it’s an important issue that people need to be aware of, and if the insurance industry has its way (to further boost record-breaking insurance company profits in this state), the quality and care of medicine for thousands of auto accident victims will suffer.

There is a  proposal to regulate medical fees in auto accident cases, and it’s part of a package of pending Senate bills aiming to destroy Michigan’s No-Fault system.

As an insurance lawyer in Michigan, I believe the proposal to cap fees for doctors treating car accident victims should be opposed. The proposal to cap fees reeks of hypocrisy: Michigan auto insurance companies have successfully defeated governmental attempts to regulate the price of auto insurance for decades, even though the government requires drivers to purchase No-Fault insurance.

But now, the same insurance industry is asking its Republican allies in the Michigan Legislature to regulate the prices charged by another industry – the doctors who provide care for accident victims.

Why? Because regulation of doctors and hospitals that provide care under the No-Fault Act to auto accident victims will significantly boost the profits of the Michigan auto insurance companies.

In Senate Bill 0294, Michigan’s auto insurance industry through its advocate-lawmakers, proposes limiting the fees that doctors can charge and bill to No-Fault insurance companies for medical treatments and services provided to auto accident victims.

Under the bill, doctors’ charges to auto insurance companies would be limited to the amounts specified in a predetermined medical fee schedule. The fee limit would apply to such medical treatments and procedures as:

•    Surgery
•    Radiology
•    Hospitalizations
•    Mental health services
•    Hearing and vision services
•    Home health services
•    Medical equipment
•    Medical supplies
•    Orthotics
•    Prosthetics
•    Dental services
•    Medications
•    Occupational therapy
•    Physical therapy.

If the facts and data actually supported the allegations being made, I would support it. But as of yet, these are only blanket assertions made by lobbyists without any factual support. The auto insurance industry insists regulation is necessary because doctors are “defrauding” the insurance system in Michigan with padded bills and charges for expensive, but unnecessary and ineffective procedures, which is forcing auto insurance companies to pay out more money (than they want to) on medical claims filed by car accident victims.

Consider the following ridiculous and shameful accusations made against doctors who treat seriously and catastrophically injured auto accident victims:

•    The American Insurance Association has said that “fraudulent activities and claim-padding abuse” by doctors and medical providers is possible under an “unlimited No-Fault benefit system” such as Michigan’s.

•    The Insurance Research Council has accused doctors and medical care providers who treat seriously and catastrophically injured auto accident victims in Michigan and other states of committing “claim fraud” (“material misrepresentation of the facts of a loss”) and “claim buildup” (“inflation of an otherwise legitimate claim, such as through unnecessary medical treatments and diagnostic procedures”).

•    Moreover, the Insurance Research Council has also accused doctors of “reacting to cost pressures … by increasing their charges to auto injury insurers.” The Rand Institute for Civil Justice has made similar allegations.

Even former Michigan Insurance Commissioner D. Joseph Olson has joined the smear campaign against doctors and medical care providers who treat seriously and catastrophically injured Michigan auto accident victims.

In a paper he co-authored last year, Olson stopped just short of blatantly accusing doctors of defrauding No-Fault insurance companies.

“When an individual suffers an injury [in a Michigan auto accident] and the insurance company must pay all — or nearly all — medical costs, both the injured party and those who are delivering treatment will have every incentive to choose very expensive treatments even if the added value of those treatments is small. … Given the incentives by medical care providers to use expensive treatments, it is a problem that the state has no constraints on costs, such as medical fee schedules …”

What goes unmentioned in those attacks is that they are not backed up with actual, real-world examples in Michigan.

The Insurance Institute of Michigan, which is the voice of the state’s insurance industry, provides no evidence on its website of a widespread crisis on the scale that might begin to justify the bill targeting Michigan doctors.

In fact, in the “Insurance-related crime” section of the Insurance Institute of Michigan’s 2010 IIM Fact Book, there is no mention of the so-called “No Fault-defrauding-doctors” epidemic, let alone a single example.

- 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.

- This blog was written by Steven Gursten and Todd Berg, esq.

Related information:

Allstate must pay $21 million for defaming doctor

Allstate won’t be targeting Michigan doctors who help car accident victims

Three 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 No-Fault insurance attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

New rule curbs lawyer solicitation letters in Michigan

Let’s face it, there is nothing good about an injured auto accident victim being barraged by personal injury attorney solicitation letters in the mail days after a car crash, asking if they need an injury lawyer. It is incredibly demeaning to the legal profession, and especially to Michigan lawyers who practice personal injury law and auto accident litigation with integrity. I’m sure it leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of auto accident victims who received these solicitation letters.

What’s worse, the practice of injury lawyers sending FOIA requests out for police reports and then sending these solicitation letters to accident victims has been quickly spreading in the last couple years. I could easily tick off almost  a dozen personal injury law firms that regularly send these solicitation letters out today (because when I meet my clients for meetings, they show me these solicitation letters).

And what is still worse is that many of these solicitation letters are from personal injury lawyers who have no real qualifications or credentials to handle serious auto accident cases. Come to think of it, that’s  probably the best explanation of why these lawyers are sending solicitation letters in the first place. But in the last couple years, there were a couple well-known personal injury law firms that were also sending the solicitation letters and engaging in the process. It was becoming  a race to the bottom.

Now thankfully, there are some (minor) restrictions on the process.  At least it’s a start.

The new rule, which amends MRPC 7.3 on attorney solicitation says:
•    That an injury attorney must now wait 30 days to contact a potential client by a written communication after a death, injury or accident.
•    That the solicitation letters now need to have the words “advertising material” on the outside of the envelope, and at the beginning and end of the letter.
•    This requirement applies to any type of brochure, postcard, letter, pamphlet etc., no matter how it is written or delivered.

Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about the need to ban insurance company solicitation of car accident victims.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top 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.

Related information:

Worst personal injury attorney commercials

Michigan car accident FAQs

When should I contact an injury lawyer?

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 personal injury lawyers.

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

Proposed change to Michigan rules on lawyer referral fees is terrible for accident victims

I recently discussed the recent interview I had with Michigan Lawyers Weekly about the proposed amendment to rules governing referral fees between lawyers. If passed, this rule would limit referral fees to 25 percent, among other harmful changes.

The Michigan Supreme Court clerk is taking comments on the proposal until Sept. 1, 2011. They can be sent by email to MSC_clerk@courts.mi.gov, or in writing to: P.O. Box 30052, Lansing, MI 48909. This is what I wrote:

The Michigan Supreme Court is considering changing a rule change that will significantly harm the quality of legal representation in Michigan, and will certainly harm the public that we as lawyers have sworn to represent.

The proposed change to Rule 1.5 of the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct:
1. Is unnecessary.
2. Seeks to poorly address a problem that does not yet exist in Michigan.
3. Seeks to regulate the arms-length contractual agreement made between lawyers.
4. And, most important of all, it significantly harms the unsuspecting public in need of legal help.
5. It also harms the public by creating a perverse financial disincentive for lawyers to NOT refer cases to subject matter experts, but to handle these cases themselves.

There seems no reason for this proposed rule change to MRPC 1.5 other than as a boondoggle for lawyers who are less qualified to provide quality legal representation on matters that they should be referring out to injury attorneys better able to provide quality legal representation. This proposed rule also creates a strong financial disincentive for the referring lawyer to refer a case to a specialist, and it will result in harming the public and diminishing the quality of legal representation in this state.

The public policy behind this proposed rule change could not be worse.

The rule change being considered would regulate how Michigan lawyers refer cases to other Michigan lawyers and cap the attorney referral fee to 25 percent.

We as lawyers in the state of Michigan have an important interest in protecting the public and ensuring the public receives the best legal representation possible. This proposed rule change to MRPC Rule 1.5 would damage the quality of legal help and harm unsuspecting members of the public, by making it harder for Michigan lawyers to refer cases to recognized subject experts who, by virtue of experience, demonstrated results, and legal expertise, and receive referrals from other lawyers.

Again, this proposed rule would significantly harms the unsuspecting public in need of legal representation by making it harder for lawyers to refer cases to legal experts. The rule has a number of  unnecessary and bureaucratic legal disclosure requirements. These disclosure rules would create a dampening effect that will make it awkward for lawyers to connect clients with those lawyers best able to serve their interests. It will be extremely awkward for many injury attorneys, especially in the beginning of a case and new attorney-client relationship to explain to a new client why they feel the client would be better served with a subject matter specialist. Instead of referring these cases out to lawyers better able to help the client, more lawyers will choose to keep cases they would have otherwise referred to other lawyers. It is the unsuspecting client who is harmed.

The legal profession should be making it easier to have lawyers connect clients with those lawyers best able to help them, and who have the most subject matter expertise and experience. This proposed rule change instead makes it harder.

Yes, contingent fees between lawyers and the public should be – must be –  regulated.  We have a legitimate and important interest in preventing abuse, and as a professional organization, we should seek to protect the public from abuse.  An attorney-client contingent fee agreement that is signed between a client and a lawyer should have safeguards so if a client is injured, or vulnerable, or unsophisticated, he or she is protected.

This proposal, however, seeks to regulate the contractual relationship among lawyers. It seeks to impose regulation on a voluntary agreement negotiated freely between two attorneys. These referral agreements should reflect the skill of the attorney being referred the case, the underlying complexity and cost of the case, and the nature of the attorneys relationship to each other. Michigan lawyers should be able to enter into a private contract based upon these, and other factors.

Moreover, this unnecessary regulation seeks to poorly addresses a problem that does not even exist in Michigan.

Who is this proposed rule intended to protect?  The lawyer who probably shouldn’t have signed the case to begin with, or the unsuspecting public? It is fiction to believe in a tough and competitive legal world, that a lawyer won’t sign a case he probably would otherwise have referred to another lawyer, even if the client would have been far better served by that lawyer referring the case to an expert and receiving an attorney referral fee.  Speaking of fiction, this proposed rule change sounds like something out of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”  Perhaps we should call it the “Equal Opportunity and Full Employment Act for Less Qualified Lawyers”?

Limiting the maximum referral fee to 25 percent of the amount recovered creates a direct adverse financial incentive for the referring lawyer. We are creating an economic incentive for injury attorneys to keep cases because by capping the referral fee to 25 percent, that lawyer makes just as much money if he keeps the case as he would if it had been referred out, even if the client recovers less than half! The money the referring lawyer receives is the same, but the client (and innocent public in need of legal representation) has now received one-half to one-third the amount he or she should have received if the mater had been referred to a more qualified lawyer to handle the case.

This rule only hurts the public, and it only helps lawyers less qualified to handle legal matters that they should be referring out to more qualified lawyers.

These cases should be referred to a specialist.  Yes, a specialist!  For it is time for the Michigan Supreme Court to change its out-dated rules prohibiting attorneys from indicating they specialize in a specific area of law. It is time we recognize what lawyers in Michigan do every single day – which is they refer cases to lawyers that specialize in that area of law.

Our ethical rules are increasingly at odds with a legal world that is ever more complex, more fragmented, and more specialized with every passing day. We should be encouraging lawyers to connect the public with those lawyers who specialize in that area of law, because it is the client who is best served. We should not be ignoring the increasing complexity of law today, or trying to enforce rules that were created for a by-gone era of general practitioners. And we certainly should not be creating financial disincentives that prevent the public from receiving the highest quality of legal representation possible.

Our mission is to serve the public, not ourselves. This rule change only serves those lawyers who should have referred out the case and received an attorney referral fee by putting the client’s interest first.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top injury attorneys. 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.

Related information:

No-Fault tip for injury lawyers: pick your venue for PIP cases

Three potential cases for auto accidents in Michigan

Michigan personal injury attorneys

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 injury attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

The best auto insurance coverage for teen drivers in Michigan

There’s a new teenage driving law in Michigan – that restricts passengers of teen drivers and only allows them to drive until 10 p.m. In addition to questions about the new law, our No-Fault lawyers have been getting many questions from concerned parents on insurance coverage for teen drivers, especially during this time of college graduation.

We realize that parents are trying to save money on their kids’ car insurance.  And trust me, we recognize that the cost of insuring a teen driver is expensive - auto insurance is one of the few areas where it is legal to discriminate on the basis of age, after all. But many parents are making huge mistakes by trying to save a few dollars.

The biggest mistake I see regarding teen drivers is not listing your teenager as a “named insured” on your auto insurance policy. This is very dangerous. And if your teen causes (or is injured in) a serious car accident when driving a car that she normally drives but is not listed on as a “named insured” or “named driver,” there can be disastrous consequences. These consequences include your child’s medical bills not being covered by your own auto insurance company, and being barred from suing an at-fault driver who causes serious personal injury to your teenager - even when your teen is completely innocent.

That’s why I’m posting frequently asked questions below, with answers on the best automobile insurance coverage for your new teen drivers.

Q. My child is now a teen driver. What changes do I need to make to my auto insurance to make sure my teenager is protected under the Michigan No-Fault law?
A. A parent must inform his insurance company that there is a new licensed driver in the home. Parents are also supposed to list the primary driver of each vehicle (named-drivers).  If parents purposely avoid listing their teenagers, either as living in the house or as named-drivers,  this could be considered insurance fraud, and coverage can be canceled by your insurance company where the policy is considered void ab initio.

Q.  What is the best level of coverage for my teen/college age driver?
A. Assuming the teen has her own separate auto insurance coverage, the minimum policies she should carry should be $250,000/$500,000 for bodily injury (personal injury if she causes an auto accident) and $250,000/$500,000 in Unininsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UM/UIM).  If the teen is on her parents’ policy, her coverage is the same. Every person should purchase UM/UIM. It is the best insurance coverage, and many people know nothing about it.  Ask your agent about this coverage, and if your insurance company doesn’t offer these important Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage, you should find a new insurance company to properly protect you and your family.

Q. How should a family’s policy be structured if the teen drives a parent’s car versus having his own car?
A. A teen should be listed as a named-driver, so the auto insurer can never say that it was unaware that there were teens in the house or that the teens drove the car.  If the teen owns the car, then the teen really should be a named-insured or co-named-insured.

Q. If a teen is driving her car and the passengers are injured in an accident, how are those passengers covered by the Michigan No-Fault law?
A. The order of auto insurers would be the same as any car accident:
1. The passenger would receive No-Fault benefits through his own insurance.
2. If the passenger does not have auto insurance, then he would receive No-Fault benefits from a resident-relative.
3. If that relative is not covered,  then the passenger would seek benefits from owner of the car.
4. If the car owner is uninsured then the passenger would receive benefits from the driver of the car.
5. If all else fails, the passenger would look to the Michigan Assigned Claims Facility for No-Fault benefits.

Q. What can a parent/teen do to make sure the teen is protected while riding as a passenger in a friend’s car?
A. As long as the teen or resident-relative has insurance, the teen is protected by the Michigan No-Fault law and can receive all of the No-Fault insurance benefits in case she is injured in a serious car accident.  As long as the teen is not operating an uninsured vehicle that she could be considered an owner of by frequent use (constructive ownership), she is going to receive No-Fault insurance benefits from somewhere (see answer to previous question).

Q. How can teens and parents minimize the costs and premiums of their auto insurance policies while still being fully protected? (higher deductible, etc?)
A. Once the proper insurance coverage has been determined, call an independent insurance agent that represents several auto insurance companies, to determine which insurer will give the best rate.

- Steve Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top lawyers handling serious car accident injury cases and auto No-Fault litigation. Steve speaks and writes extensively on safe driving and Michigan’s auto  laws, and is available for comment.

Related information:

TBI – leading cause of death and disability for American youth

Top 5 hazardous actions by teen drivers

Pain and suffering and your car accident

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 insurance lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Michigan motorcycle accident deaths increase by 21 percent

Last week, a study on Motorcyclist Traffic Fatalities by State was released by the Governors Highway Safety Association. The good news is the study reported an 2.4 percent drop in wrongful death motorcycle accidents throughout the country from 2009 to 2010. The alarming news is that  Michigan bikers had a near 21 percent spike in motorcycle accident deaths.

According to the study, which tracked motorcycle accident deaths throughout a nine-month period in 2009 and 2010, in Michigan, 92 bikers were killed in 2009 and 111 were killed in 2010.

That’s a horrific increase, considering most of the other states had drops in motorcycle deaths.  Texas had 60 less motorcycle accident deaths than the year before.

Even more troubling is Michigan had the third highest increase in motorcycle accident fatalities in the entire U.S., trailing behind only New York and Wisconsin.

As a motorcycle accident lawyer, it’s infuriating that at the same time that Michigan has the third highest spike in motorcycle accident deaths, our legislators are on the verge of repealing  the helmet law. Talk about being tone deaf to the underlying facts.

What does this all mean? It means that although other states are tightening motorcycle safety,  Michigan is going the other way. Decreased helmet use (especially after the repeal law), combined with more people riding motorcycles than ever before and the start of spring is a bad combination for bikers and public safety.

Another cause for worry is something the Detroit Free Press reported on in its article – Motorcycle deaths drop but trend worrisome. The study stated that nationwide, there were 80 fewer motorcycle deaths from January through September of 2010 than in the same time frame the previous year.

But biker injuries and fatalities started to climb back up during the last three of those nine months. This is worrying safety advocates and motorcycle accident lawyers alike. The drop is all in the front half of the year, and biker deaths rose during the second half of the year – rising 3 percent in the third quarter.

This signifies that  motorcycle deaths from crashes have hit rock bottom and are starting to increase.
Meanwhile, I found this action plan from the U.S. Department of Transportation on reducing motorcycle fatalities.

- Steven M. Gursten heads Michigan Auto Law and is recognized as one of the nation’s top motorcycle lawyers. He received the highest motorcycle accident settlement in Michigan last year, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly. Steve has spoken at trial seminars on winning motorcycle accident lawsuits, and is available for comment.

Related information:

What to do after a motorcycle accident in Michigan

How long do I have to bring a motorcycle accident lawsuit?

Michigan motorcycle accident law - FAQs

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.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

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Michigan insurance lawyer tip – excess replacement services are allowable expenses

Warning  - legalese alert.  This blog is written more for my Michigan auto accident lawyer and insurance claims adjuster readers. But it addresses an extremely important issue that impacts every economic claim made in every auto accident trial that lawyers in Michigan are making today.

Every auto accident case I’ve ever tried that has had an economic claim also had an excess replacement services claim. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, we tell our clients that replacement services are help with services you would have normally performed if you were not injured in an auto accident.

Replacement services claims here have two different, but interrelated meanings. There is the No-fault insurance claim made with your own auto insurance company for replacement services. They are paid at $20 per day, and limited to three years under the Michigan No Fault Act.

Then there is the excess replacement services claim. The excess replacement services claim arises after the first three years of No-Fault, if the auto accident victim is still disabled due to his or her injuries and can’t perform these services. This can also be an excess claim, over and above the $20 per day that the insurance company must pay in replacement services during the first three years.

That’s because the $20 per day for replacement services was set by statute in 1973, but was never indexed to inflation

View the Original article

Michigan auto attorney warning: AAA uninsured motorist coverage arbitration

April 16th, 2011 Watch out, arbitration may mean trial for UM, even after the arb award!

AAA just added a nasty little addition to its policy regarding uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage (UM and UIM) and the right to arbitration. This change is going to surprise a lot of auto attorneys in Michigan next year (and probably cause a lot of very unhappy clients for lawyers unaware of this important policy change).

Here’s the change to AAA’s policy language:

For damages caused by an underinsured motor vehicle:

a. … the decision agreed to in writing by two of the arbitrators will be binding if the amount of damages determined by the arbitrators does not exceed $50,000 for bodily injury to any one person or $100,000 for bodily injury to two or more persons in any one motor vehicle accident. Judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrators may be entered in the Circuit Court in the county in which the arbitration was held.

b. if the amount exceeds $50,000 for bodily injury to any one person or $100,000 for bodily injury to two or more persons, the decision of the arbitrators will not be binding and either party may demand the right to a trial, unless the parties agree otherwise by prior written agreement. Trial shall be on all issues of the arbitrators’ decision. This demand must be made within 60 days of the arbitrators’ decision and suit filed in the court of proper jurisdiction within 120 days of the arbitrators’ decision. If this demand is not timely made or if suit is not timely filed, the decision of the arbitrators will be binding. Judgment upon any binding award rendered by the arbitrators may be entered in the Circuit Court in the county in which the arbitration was held.

The take away for auto accident attorneys in Michigan, and perhaps other states if AAA has made this change nationwide, is to make sure you agree, in writing, before arbitration that the arbitration decision will be binding no matter what the arbitration award.  Make sure the AAA insurance defense lawyer has agreed to this, in writing, or any arbitration award will not be binding, and you just spent a whole day educating the defense attorney and the insurance company on the strengths of your case so they can better prepare for trial.

How arbitration works in Michigan auto accident cases

Not every auto accident case goes to trial (unlike in TV).  In fact, the vast majority settle.  However, to receive the best possible settlement for pain and suffering if you’ve been injured in an auto accident, I’ve  learned that there’s a strong correlation between the more your lawyer prepares for trial and the higher the likelihood that the case will settle, and settle at a higher amount.  In other words, having an attorney who is preparing for trial shows the auto insurance company that you’re prepared and serious, and increases the risk and exposure to the insurance company of a high jury verdict.

To avoid trial, many auto accident cases go into arbitration. The benefits of arbitration for auto accident victims are that the hearing is normally over in one day, whereas a full-blown trial can take several weeks.  Also, the costs are a fraction of what your attorney will need to spend to take the case to trial.  Finally, there is normally never an appeal

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Tips for dealing with Allstate, Colossus claims software in Michigan

April 7th, 2011 Accident lawyer explains how Colossus manipulates the value of personal injury cases, and how car accident victims can protect themselves

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Allstate confesses to using computer program to reduce settlements for auto accident victims in Michigan

(I’ll stop writing about them when Allstate stops giving me so much to write about), this is part  of a  series I’ll be posting about the auto insurance company’s efforts to unfairly use a controversial computer program called Colossus. Colossus is designed to low-ball  settlement awards for injured car accident victims in Michigan and around the country.

The software is used by many large auto insurance companies to “calculate” the settlement value of car accident injury claims. The system involves the insurance adjuster feeding data into the program, which then gives a settlement range, and the goal is to methodically drive down auto accident settlements.

Our car accident attorneys have watched innocent accident victims treated terribly by this giant insurer for almost 20 years. Hopefully, that’s now going to change. Allstate Insurance Company was recently held accountable for its unfair use of the

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