New HB 4936 No-Fault “reform” bill extremely punitive to motorcyclists’ legal rights

Hidden in the new No-Fault “reform” bill  HB 4936 is a very nasty surprise for motorcycle owners. HB 4936 would devastate Michigan motorcyclist legal rights.

As a Michigan lawyer, I write often about motorcycle safety and the issue of motorcycle helmets. And even though I’m a strong proponent of helmets, HB 4936 goes far beyond this and is extraordinarily punitive to motorcycle operators who will choose not to wear a helmet (I already assume the Michigan helmet law will be overturned this year or early next - as does, ominously, this legislation).

HB 4936 says that any motorcycle operator or passenger who does not wear a helmet conforming to Motor Vehicle Code requirements is now completely disqualified from receiving any kind of auto No-Fault PIP benefits.  [§3113(D)]

Motorcyclists who do not wear legally conforming motorcycle helmets are not also not entitled to collect any economic loss damages from the at-fault driver who causes the motorcycle accident and the injuries to the motorcyclist.  Again, this is regardless of whether the motorcycle operator is completely innocent and not at fault for the motorcycle accident. There is no relationship between liability, causation, or injuries suffered by the motorcyclist. Simply the failure to wear a motorcycle helmet will deprive the injured motorcyclist from being able to pursue any economic loss damages against an at-fault driver who caused the motorcycle accident. [§3135(3)(c)]

Comment: these new extremely punitive legal provisions being aimed at motorcycle operators seem set out to punish Michigan motorcyclists. There isn’t really any other explanation for a completely innocent motorcycle operator being barred from even collecting excess wage loss from, for example, a drunk driver who paralyzes him for life as would happen under this bill.  Much like the horribly punitive auto accident law that already exists and so severely penalizes an owner and operator of a motor vehicle who is uninsured (where uninsured drivers lose their right to sue the wrongdoer driver who caused the accident without regard to how catastrophic the injuries are, even if the uninsured driver is entirely without fault), the same draconian legislation is now being aimed at motorcycle owners who choose not to wear helmets.

Therefore, under HB 4936, regardless of whether a motorcycle helmet would have had anything to do with causing the motorcycle crash itself, and without any regard to  the injuries suffered by an innocent motorcycle operator, there will be no PIP protection or viable claim for excess economic loss.

Currently, under our law, an injured motorcycle rider can collect No-Fault insurance benefits, including all available PIP coverage, from the car that causes the motorcycle accident. Insurance companies don’t like this because it eats into their profits. They see an opportunity now to shift this long-settled Michigan law, and the entire cost of medical care from the insurance companies to the taxpayers.

This is great for state’s auto insurance companies, since motorcycle accidents make up a significantly higher percentage of significant medical claims for insurance companies and for the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Fund.  Since these motorcycle accidents will still happen, and catastrophic injury accidents will  occur at the same (or probably significantly higher rates with the repeal of the state’s helmet law, the costs of these catastrophic spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries will now be shifted to taxpayers — as a lifetime of future medical care is shifted to Medicare.

Further Analysis: Under HB 4936, even if a motorcyclist wears a helmet, a motorcycle operator is still only entitled to the lowest minimum PIP coverage available. In  HB 4936, that amount is $250,000 for medical and rehabilitation expenses. In the other pending No-Fault bills, that amount is a ridiculous $50,000 for medical and rehabilitation expenses - an amount that is wiped out in a weekend hospital stay.  Whatever lower insurance limit that will be enacted in Michigan will apply regardless of whether the motorcyclist wears a helmet, obeys the law, and even if that motorcycle owner has purchased higher insurance coverage protection on his or her own personal auto No-Fault insurance policy. [§3114(6)]

Motorcycle operators or passengers who do not wear conforming motorcycle helmets will be deemed at least 35 percent at fault if they make for noneconomic (pain and suffering) damages in a lawsuit against a driver who causes them to be injured.  This is a minimum 35 percent allocation of comparative fault, regardless of whether any true fault exists with the motorcycle operator and regardless of whether the lack of a helmet played any causal role or relationship to the accident or the injuries suffered by the motorcycle operator. [§3135(2)(b)]

Comment: you almost have to read this one twice to grasp how nasty this provision is.  A completely innocent motorcycle operator who bears no fault whatsoever for causing an accident that he or she is injured in would see the monetary recovery for injuries and pain and suffering slashed by at least 35 percent - for no explicable reason.

As a lawyer, I have been helping injured motorcycle accident owners and operators for almost 20 years.  I have certainly seen more than my share of anti-motorcyclist bias by police, insurance companies, and juries.  But I have never seen anything that is inexplicably this discriminatory to a group that has done nothing wrong.

HB 4936 will destroy the legal rights of safe and legal motorcycle owners in Michigan.  I hope the safe and legal owners and operators of motorcycles will let their voices be heard so these draconian and discriminatory provisions can be changed.

- Steven M. Gursten is a motorcycle accident attorney and partner of Michigan Auto Law. He is president of the Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers Association and lectures to lawyers around the nation on how to win motorcycle accident and injury cases.  Steve received the highest motorcycle settlement in Michigan last year, according to published year-end reports by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Related information to protect yourself:

Motorcycle helmet repeal will result in more motorcycle accidents, deaths and costs

What to do after a motorcycle accident in Michigan

15 motorcycle 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 one of our motorcycle accident attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

New study highlights dangers of so-called No-Fault ‘reform’

The giant boondoggle to the state’s auto insurance companies, disguised as “PIP Choice” has been obvious to many insurance lawyers and consumer protection groups from the beginning.  But a recent Anderson study shows just how costly and harmful  No Fault ‘reform’ actually is.

Entitled “Impact of Proposed ‘PIP Choice’ Law in Michigan,” the study, which was commissioned by the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault (CPAN), reaches four  fact-based conclusions about what will happen if the Legislature enacts the proposed insurance company wish-list of  Michigan’s No-Fault insurance laws:

1. Approximately 800 seriously injured Michigan auto accident victims will be deprived of necessary medical care each year.

2. The medical costs of providing lifetime care will be shifted to the taxpayers as these catastrophically injured accident victims are shifted to Medicare.

3. Michigan will lose between 2,500 to 5,000 jobs.

4. Profits for Michigan’s auto insurance companies (already some of the nation’s highest)  will skyrocket because, with little or no change to the amount of premium dollars collected, Michigan’s auto insurance companies will pay out nearly $100 million less per year in claims.

Currently, under Michigan’s No-Fault Law, seriously injured auto accident victims are guaranteed unlimited, lifetime medical coverage for all of their accident-related medical needs, so long as those needs are reasonably necessary for the victim’s care, recovery and/or rehabilitation.

Every year, between 850 and 1,200 car accident victims in Michigan suffer catastrophic injuries, such as a traumatic brain injury. A catastrophic injury involves medical expenses that exceed $500,000 per year.

PIP Choice will change all of this, of course.  According to the CPAN study,  it is estimated that 75 percent to 90 percent of Michigan drivers will cease to elect and pay for unlimited, lifetime medical coverage and instead, will opt for the new and cheaper medical insurance plan, which carries a $50,000 maximum coverage limit.

As an insurance attorney who helps people injured in car accidents, I see most people with serious injuries go through this in two days of emergency room care after a serious car crash.

Again, $50,000 is nowhere near enough to cover expenses associated with any serious Michigan auto accident.

The inadequacy of the $50,000 medical coverage limit is even more obvious for catastrophically injured auto accident victims.

The CPAN study estimates that with 75 percent to 90 percent of Michigan drivers opting for the minimum medical coverage, approximately 638 to 765 Michigan residents a year who suffer catastrophic injuries in car accidents will be devastated by this change.

As such, they will be forced to:

1. Go without needed medical care and treatment because of no insurance coverage.

2. Pay out-of-pocket and, ultimately, face personal ruin and bankruptcy.

3. Mistakenly rely on health insurance that does not exist (a growing number of  private health insurance plans now have specific  auto accident-related exclusions).

4. Get shifted to the taxpayers, in the form of Medicare (also problematic because Medicaid and Medicare are limited in terms of what medical services they’ll cover).

Additionally, the CPAN study reports that the funding for present and future catastrophically injured Michigan auto accident victims will be endangered, because as fewer people opt for unlimited, lifetime medical coverage, fewer people will be paying into the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association fund, which pays for victims’ injuries that exceed $500,000.

Approximately 2,500 to 5,000 jobs will be lost if so-called No Fault ‘Reform’ passes, predicts the CPAN study.

This is trickle-down economics in reverse:

As fewer people opt for unlimited, lifetime medical coverage, there will be fewer unlimited, lifetime medical claims, i.e., catastrophic injury claims, to be paid.

And, as there are fewer claims and less money being paid to the healthcare providers, demand for and the ability to pay for the same number of employees will drop, thereby resulting in terminations and lay-offs.

This is true because even though there will continue to be approximately 850 to 1,200 catastrophic claims per year, between 75 percent and 90 percent of those claims will no longer be covered by the victims’ No- Fault insurance.

As if all of that were not disturbing enough, consider how much the CPAN study estimates that Michigan’s auto insurance companies will profit from so-called No Fault “reform.”

Setting aside the fact that there are no guarantees in writing that Michigan drivers will actually save money (or how much) as a result of the dismantling of Michigan’s No Fault system, the CPAN study shows that Michigan’s auto insurance companies will experience little to no change in the amount of premium dollars they collect from Michigan drivers.

But they will experience seismic changes on the other side of the balance sheet.

According to the CPAN study, so-called No Fault “reform” will allow Michigan’s auto insurance companies to “pay out between $91 and $109 million less in claims each year …”

All of this is poetry for Michigan’s auto insurance industry.

There is only one way to avoid real harm to Michigan residents, and that is to prevent  dismantling of Michigan’s No-Fault Law in the first place.

Call your State Representative and State Senator and tell them about this important study from CPAN.

Ask why we are dismantling the nation’s best insurance system to give an unnecessary boondoggle to insurance companies that are already making more money in Michigan than in any other state.

Ask, if lowering auto insurance premiums is truly the goal, aren’t there far better ways of achieving this rather than savaging No-Fault benefits for those who will need them most, such as regulating the amount of profits that insurance companies can make in Michigan for a product (auto  insurance) that residents are required by state law to purchase?

Ask, why is Michigan one of the only states where the insurance commissioner does not have the power to regulate insurance company profits?

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

Related information to protect yourself:

Michigan doctors and hospitals against No-Fault “reform”

No-Fault “reform” - bad for drivers, great for insurance companies

Your Michigan No-Fault insurance benefits

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 insurance attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

HB 4936: Why I predict taking away No-Fault protections will fail to lower the price of auto insurance (again)

Yesterday, I discussed how HB 4936, recently proposed by Republican state Rep. Pete Lund, would likely serve as the framework for any future No-Fault “reform” legislation.

This proposed legislation has no safeguards to lower auto insurance premiums, even though it takes away valuable No-Fault PIP protections from Michigan citizens.

Comment: How many times have we been lied to in this state by auto insurance companies who have promised vast savings in return for savaging our No-Fault protections and benefits?

As an auto insurance lawyer, I saw the insurance industry make these promises in 1995, when then Governor Engler passed radical tort “reform,” and again in 2004 with Kreiner v. Fischer. Although third-party auto accident (pain and suffering lawsuits) dropped by half, and thousands of innocent and injured Michigan citizens had their claims literally thrown out of court under this new law (the nation’s harshest auto injury threshold law) — auto insurance premiums only went up.

Costs went down, accident claims went down, pay-outs went down, but insurance premiums continued to rise.

In 2005 and again in 2006, independent studies of Michigan’s insurance companies found that the rates Michigan insurance companies were charging were “excessive.”

The Anderson study: Impact of proposed PIP Choice Law in Michigan estimates that reducing PIP will cause insurance companies profits to increase by over $100 million a year.

Here’s my big problem with all of these bills: people are giving up incredibly valuable No-Fault protections (even if most aren’t even aware how important these are until it will be too late); but these sacrifices are being made without any built-in safeguards, protections, or guarantees to prevent insurance companies from continuing to charge excessive auto insurance premiums to Michigan consumers.

How many times are we going to be lied to before we realize that without any type of safeguards, there will be no incentive for the auto insurance companies to use these new higher profits to lower the price of auto insurance for us?

If auto premiums are not reduced, this will reinforce the downward cycle of forcing Michigan residents to choose the cheapest insurance coverage because of the high prices.  Those who need it most get hurt the most because of the high prices.

As I’ve written before, and as an insurance lawyer for nearly 20 years focusing on No-Fault insurance claims, the obvious answer - and protection for Michigan consumers - is to allow the Michigan insurance commissioner to regulate the amount of profits that insurance companies are allowed to reap for a product (No-Fault insurance) that we are forced to buy.

Insurance commissioners have this power in almost every state - except Michigan.

Incredibly, this one modification - which would drastically lower auto insurance premiums overnight while keeping the insurance benefits and protections of our auto insurance law intact - has been absent from any of the Republican sponsored legislative bills, including HB 4936, and SB 293 and SB294.

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

Related information to protect yourself:

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

3 potential cases for Michigan auto accidents

Michigan’s current No-Fault Act and statues

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

Allstate sins 3 & 4: Running doctors out of business and using alleged “corporate irregularities” as reason to refuse payment of No-Fault benefits

Allstate sins 3 & 4: Running doctors out of business and using alleged “corporate irregularities” as reason to refuse payment of No-Fault benefits

How to (really) save Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system

There are two things that are currently being lost in the political debate of whether to change Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system.

The first is that since Michigan No-Fault was created, with one simple sentence 40 years ago, it has provided the best and most comprehensive system of health care coverage that exists in the United States.  Michigan No-Fault has created a system of health care that’s more comprehensive than Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, workers’ comp and anything else.  And this remarkable one sentence created our No-Fault insurance system without using public tax dollars.

That is amazing.

It is also being completely lost in the current political debate about No-Fault “reform.”

Yes, No-Fault insurance in Michigan is expensive. But there is an easy fix that preserves the strengths of our current system, and that significantly lowers its costs.

Before we dismantle an insurance system that has been universally lauded by experts as a model system, we should be asking the question that so far, the two leading forces behind the push to destroy Michigan No-Fault insurance are not asking – the Republicans in the Michigan Legislature and the auto insurance industry that contributes and funds them: Why is No-Fault so expensive today?

And here’s the tragedy: We’re about to lose the best insurance system in the country because no one is looking at the simple fix.

The reason No-Fault is so expensive in Michigan is because the insurance companies are making huge profits on their auto No-Fault lines of insurance. The Republican legislators (and inexplicably, Virgil Smith, the Democratic from Detroit) completely ignore this point, which could significantly lower the cost of auto No-Fault for everyone, while keeping intact a system that provides better and more comprehensive health care coverage to Michigan drivers.

The simple fix is to regulate insurance company profits in order to save Michigan drivers money on their No-Fault premiums.

I realize people may read this think that because I’m a lawyer helping people in car accidents and no fault disputes with insurance companies, I’m biased in favor of our current system. That is true, and it is exactly the past nearly twenty years helping auto accident victims as a lawyer that qualifies me to write this.  As a Michigan No-Fault insurance lawyer, I see and help people every day while they’re recovering after catastrophic injuries, such as traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury from auto accidents.  And I see my clients receive a level of medical care that is better than any other, and at zero cost to the taxpayers.

I have read for years the studies that have repeatedly proclaimed Michigan’s No-Fault System the nation’s best, and I read the Angoff study from 2007 that warned that it was the auto insurers who were jeopardizing the current system by charging outlandish amounts and reaping record-breaking profits.

The fix to regulate insurance company profits is actually politically unthinkable. We would have to ask the Republicans who control the Michigan House and Senate to pass legislation to give the Michigan insurance commissioner the same power that insurance commissioners have in most other states: the power to regulate the amount of profits that auto insurance companies can charge us for No-Fault insurance, a product that we are legally required by the state of Michigan to purchase.

That simple, reasonable fix is impossible in our post-Citizens United world of unlimited corporate campaign donations. And these politicians who are most willing to destroy our current system are also the main beneficiaries of this new largesse.  And this largesse in the form of campaign contributions comes from insurance companies that want, and will likely now get, the best of both worlds – abolishing payments by replacing our current No-Fault system with PIP Choice, while boosting still higher insurance company profits in what is already the nation’s most profitable state to sell auto insurance.

A second simple fix is to address the cause of where the bulk of rising costs are today, which is comprehensive and collision coverage.  There is no need to destroy our unlimited medical care and coverage.  Comprehensive and collision coverage are the real cost drivers.  These insurance coverages are not mandatory, but they are coverages that many people buy.  The cost of collision can be contained in other ways.  Destroying unlimited PIP, the crown jewel of No-Fault, is not what is causing the problem.

We created 40 years ago with one sentence — not thousands of pages of legislation as today —  a health care system for auto accident victims that has been proven better than anything else that has come before or since in this country.

But instead of asking how to duplicate and replicate this across the nation, we are watching as political forces with special interests clearly adverse to what is best for the public good, make ready to destroy No-Fault and replace it with PIP Choice, a system where those that need it most are going to have it least.  A $50,000 limit, which is in the most current PIP Choice bill, is wiped out after a few days in an emergency room.  After this, the entire cost of medical care and rehabilitation for that person’s medical care for an entire lifetime will be shifted to the taxpayers and to Medicaid.

This is what the Republicans want to replace No-Fault with?

This tragedy will occur because no one today was willing to ask about the most simple and easy way that we could have taken to preserve the current No-Fault system by significantly lowering its costs.

Asking the same politicians who receive campaign donations from the profits the insurance industry makes to reform insurance company abuse - that is the main driver of the escalating cost of No-Fault insurance -  is unthinkable.  So we will destroy our No-Fault system instead, and replace it with something far worse and far more costly for everyone.

How tragic.

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

Related information:

Michigan No-Fault “reform” - bad for drivers, great for insurance companies

Injured Michigan accident victims can’t afford “savings” from proposed No-Fault “reform”

What are my Michigan No-Fault insurance benefits?

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.

Kansas City Auto Accident Blog

How to (really) save Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system

There are two things that are currently being lost in the political debate of whether to change Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system.

The first is that since Michigan No-Fault was created, with one simple sentence 40 years ago, it has provided the best and most comprehensive system of health care coverage that exists in the United States.  Michigan No-Fault has created a system of health care that’s more comprehensive than Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, workers’ comp and anything else.  And this remarkable one sentence created our No-Fault insurance system without using public tax dollars.

That is amazing.

It is also being completely lost in the current political debate about No-Fault “reform.”

Yes, No-Fault insurance in Michigan is expensive. But there is an easy fix that preserves the strengths of our current system, and that significantly lowers its costs.

Before we dismantle an insurance system that has been universally lauded by experts as a model system, we should be asking the question that so far, the two leading forces behind the push to destroy Michigan No-Fault insurance are not asking – the Republicans in the Michigan Legislature and the auto insurance industry that contributes and funds them: Why is No-Fault so expensive today?

And here’s the tragedy: We’re about to lose the best insurance system in the country because no one is looking at the simple fix.

The reason No-Fault is so expensive in Michigan is because the insurance companies are making huge profits on their auto No-Fault lines of insurance. The Republican legislators (and inexplicably, Virgil Smith, the Democratic from Detroit) completely ignore this point, which could significantly lower the cost of auto No-Fault for everyone, while keeping intact a system that provides better and more comprehensive health care coverage to Michigan drivers.

The simple fix is to regulate insurance company profits in order to save Michigan drivers money on their No-Fault premiums.

I realize people may read this think that because I’m a lawyer helping people in car accidents and no fault disputes with insurance companies, I’m biased in favor of our current system. That is true, and it is exactly the past nearly twenty years helping auto accident victims as a lawyer that qualifies me to write this.  As a Michigan No-Fault insurance lawyer, I see and help people every day while they’re recovering after catastrophic injuries, such as traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury from auto accidents.  And I see my clients receive a level of medical care that is better than any other, and at zero cost to the taxpayers.

I have read for years the studies that have repeatedly proclaimed Michigan’s No-Fault System the nation’s best, and I read the Angoff study from 2007 that warned that it was the auto insurers who were jeopardizing the current system by charging outlandish amounts and reaping record-breaking profits.

The fix to regulate insurance company profits is actually politically unthinkable. We would have to ask the Republicans who control the Michigan House and Senate to pass legislation to give the Michigan insurance commissioner the same power that insurance commissioners have in most other states: the power to regulate the amount of profits that auto insurance companies can charge us for No-Fault insurance, a product that we are legally required by the state of Michigan to purchase.

That simple, reasonable fix is impossible in our post-Citizens United world of unlimited corporate campaign donations. And these politicians who are most willing to destroy our current system are also the main beneficiaries of this new largesse.  And this largesse in the form of campaign contributions comes from insurance companies that want, and will likely now get, the best of both worlds – abolishing payments by replacing our current No-Fault system with PIP Choice, while boosting still higher insurance company profits in what is already the nation’s most profitable state to sell auto insurance.

A second simple fix is to address the cause of where the bulk of rising costs are today, which is comprehensive and collision coverage.  There is no need to destroy our unlimited medical care and coverage.  Comprehensive and collision coverage are the real cost drivers.  These insurance coverages are not mandatory, but they are coverages that many people buy.  The cost of collision can be contained in other ways.  Destroying unlimited PIP, the crown jewel of No-Fault, is not what is causing the problem.

We created 40 years ago with one sentence — not thousands of pages of legislation as today —  a health care system for auto accident victims that has been proven better than anything else that has come before or since in this country.

But instead of asking how to duplicate and replicate this across the nation, we are watching as political forces with special interests clearly adverse to what is best for the public good, make ready to destroy No-Fault and replace it with PIP Choice, a system where those that need it most are going to have it least.  A $50,000 limit, which is in the most current PIP Choice bill, is wiped out after a few days in an emergency room.  After this, the entire cost of medical care and rehabilitation for that person’s medical care for an entire lifetime will be shifted to the taxpayers and to Medicaid.

This is what the Republicans want to replace No-Fault with?

This tragedy will occur because no one today was willing to ask about the most simple and easy way that we could have taken to preserve the current No-Fault system by significantly lowering its costs.

Asking the same politicians who receive campaign donations from the profits the insurance industry makes to reform insurance company abuse - that is the main driver of the escalating cost of No-Fault insurance -  is unthinkable.  So we will destroy our No-Fault system instead, and replace it with something far worse and far more costly for everyone.

How tragic.

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

Related information:

Michigan No-Fault “reform” - bad for drivers, great for insurance companies

Injured Michigan accident victims can’t afford “savings” from proposed No-Fault “reform”

What are my Michigan No-Fault insurance benefits?

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

Snyder would tie motorcycle helmet law repeal to No-Fault “reform”

The Detroit News recently ran a story on how our governor mentioned that he will consider the motorcycle helmet repeal issue as part of a broader conversation about No-Fault insurance “reform.”  Governor Snyder hasn’t offered details on his plan as of yet.

For those unfamiliar with the proposed motorcycle helmet law repeal, the Michigan Senate has approved a bill to allow motorcyclists 21 and over the option to ride without a motorcycle helmet – as long as they purchase $100,000 in motorcycle PIP insurance coverage. The bill is expected to be passed by the House as well.

There are also proposed bills to “reform” Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system,  currently the best in the nation for injured auto accident victims (By the way, this is not just what the insurance lawyers think).  If these insurance bills are passed, Michigan drivers would no longer have unlimited medical coverage in case of an auto accident. Instead, the cost of medical care and treatment for injured auto accident victims would be limited to as low as $50,000. If this happens, after an injured auto accident victim reaches that $50,000 cap, the financial burden for their lifetime medical care would be shifted from auto insurance companies — to Michigan taxpayers and Medicare.

Snyder’s idea to tie these two issues together is ludicrous. As I’ve written before, Michigan bikers say their choice to wear a helmet is a matter of personal freedom and expression liberty. But these “advocates” completely ignore that their “personal liberty” intrudes on the personal liberty of everyone else - when taxpayers are asked to pay a motorcycle accident victim’s lifetime medical bills for traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries. That’s if the motorcyclist survives in the first place…

Yes, folks, bikers are 45 percent more likely to die when not wearing a motorcycle helmet if they are involved in a motorcycle accident. So… why in the world wouldn’t you wear one?!

Let’s try and attempt to figure out where Snyder is going with this plan. Say motorcyclists are not required to wear a helmet in Michigan any longer. And say the No-Fault “reform” bills are passed, limiting the medical benefits to a lowly cap.

Now let’s say a biker gets in a very serious Michigan motorcycle accident while not wearing his helmet and sustains a catastrophic brain injury that disables him for the rest of his life.

First of all, if this biker did wear  his helmet, he might not ever suffer this brain injury in the first place, or it likely will not be so severe. He might be able to recover and live a normal life. He could have been saved (Read my recent blog about how a bareheaded biker died in a rally against motorcycle helmets).

Who is going to pay for this motorcyclist’s traumatic brain injury and lifetime medical care?

It won’t be the No-Fault insurance company, which would have footed the bill under Michigan’s current No-fault insurance law if the biker had motorcycle PIP, or had been hit by a car.

Again, after this biker reaches $50,000 in medical care (which could likely be exhausted before the first week in the hospital alone), it is now up to the taxpayers and Mediicaid  to pay for his medical care.  As many motorcycle accident injuries without helmets are catastrophic TBI and spinal cord injuries, the taxpayers would assume the cost of paying for lifetime catastrophic medical care.

This is politics at its worst. Synder’s proposal to tie No-Fault reform helps no one but the insurance companies.  We would be letting bikers die and suffer catastrophic injuries in preventable motorcycle accidents, and putting our fiscal house in even greater jeopardy by assuming the cost of these injuries. Again, it’s putting the financial responsibility for their care squarely on Michigan taxpayers.

It’s a bad idea, all the way around.

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

Related information to protect yourself:

What to do after a Michigan motorcycle accident

Motorcycle accident lawsuits in Michigan

Editorial: No time to repeal motorcycle helmet sanity

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 motorcycle lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Snyder would tie motorcycle helmet law repeal to No-Fault “reform”

The Detroit News recently ran a story on how our governor mentioned that he will consider the motorcycle helmet repeal issue as part of a broader conversation about No-Fault insurance “reform.”  Governor Snyder hasn’t offered details on his plan as of yet.

For those unfamiliar with the proposed motorcycle helmet law repeal, the Michigan Senate has approved a bill to allow motorcyclists 21 and over the option to ride without a motorcycle helmet – as long as they purchase $100,000 in motorcycle PIP insurance coverage. The bill is expected to be passed by the House as well.

There are also proposed bills to “reform” Michigan’s No-Fault insurance system,  currently the best in the nation for injured auto accident victims (By the way, this is not just what the insurance lawyers think).  If these insurance bills are passed, Michigan drivers would no longer have unlimited medical coverage in case of an auto accident. Instead, the cost of medical care and treatment for injured auto accident victims would be limited to as low as $50,000. If this happens, after an injured auto accident victim reaches that $50,000 cap, the financial burden for their lifetime medical care would be shifted from auto insurance companies — to Michigan taxpayers and Medicare.

Snyder’s idea to tie these two issues together is ludicrous. As I’ve written before, Michigan bikers say their choice to wear a helmet is a matter of personal freedom and expression liberty. But these “advocates” completely ignore that their “personal liberty” intrudes on the personal liberty of everyone else - when taxpayers are asked to pay a motorcycle accident victim’s lifetime medical bills for traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries. That’s if the motorcyclist survives in the first place…

Yes, folks, bikers are 45 percent more likely to die when not wearing a motorcycle helmet if they are involved in a motorcycle accident. So… why in the world wouldn’t you wear one?!

Let’s try and attempt to figure out where Snyder is going with this plan. Say motorcyclists are not required to wear a helmet in Michigan any longer. And say the No-Fault “reform” bills are passed, limiting the medical benefits to a lowly cap.

Now let’s say a biker gets in a very serious Michigan motorcycle accident while not wearing his helmet and sustains a catastrophic brain injury that disables him for the rest of his life.

First of all, if this biker did wear  his helmet, he might not ever suffer this brain injury in the first place, or it likely will not be so severe. He might be able to recover and live a normal life. He could have been saved (Read my recent blog about how a bareheaded biker died in a rally against motorcycle helmets).

Who is going to pay for this motorcyclist’s traumatic brain injury and lifetime medical care?

It won’t be the No-Fault insurance company, which would have footed the bill under Michigan’s current No-fault insurance law if the biker had motorcycle PIP, or had been hit by a car.

Again, after this biker reaches $50,000 in medical care (which could likely be exhausted before the first week in the hospital alone), it is now up to the taxpayers and Mediicaid  to pay for his medical care.  As many motorcycle accident injuries without helmets are catastrophic TBI and spinal cord injuries, the taxpayers would assume the cost of paying for lifetime catastrophic medical care.

This is politics at its worst. Synder’s proposal to tie No-Fault reform helps no one but the insurance companies.  We would be letting bikers die and suffer catastrophic injuries in preventable motorcycle accidents, and putting our fiscal house in even greater jeopardy by assuming the cost of these injuries. Again, it’s putting the financial responsibility for their care squarely on Michigan taxpayers.

It’s a bad idea, all the way around.

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

Related information to protect yourself:

What to do after a Michigan motorcycle accident

Motorcycle accident lawsuits in Michigan

Editorial: No time to repeal motorcycle helmet sanity

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 motorcycle lawyers.

Kansas City Auto Accident Blog

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 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

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

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.

No-Fault tip for insurance lawyers – Pick your venue for PIP cases

It’s a simple rule that all too many insurance lawyers tend to forget: you can file No Fault lawsuits (also called personal injury protection (PIP) cases) in any court venue you choose in Michigan.

The mistake is that most No Fault lawyers assume you have to file the PIP (the insurance case for No Fault benefits)  in the same venue where you are required to file  your third-party auto negligence case (this is the case for pain and suffering against the driver and his/her insurance company who caused the accident).   But a No-Fault PIP case is a contract action, not a tort action.  As a contact action, it does not have to be filed in the venue where the underlying car accident occurred.

There’s published and unpublished case law in Michigan supporting this. It has been repeatedly held by the Court of Appeals that a No Fault case is a contract action that is subject to the venue statute found at MCL 600.1621. Ferguson v. Pioneer State Mutual Insurance Company of Michigan, 273 Mich App 47, 50-55 (2006); see, also, Shiroka v. Farm Bureau, 276 Mich App 98, 104-109 (2007). The contract venue statute provides that a proper venue is where:

A. the county in which a defendant resides, has place of business, or conducts business or in which the registered office of a defendant corporation is located, is a proper county in which to commence and try an action. MCL 600.1621.

In other words, No Fault insurers do business in every county of the state. Therefore, you could file in a venue you like, or that is more convenient. You can do this for every single one of your No-Fault PIP cases. For example, before we moved to our main office to Farmington Hills from Southfield, I used to file many of my No Fault PIP cases in Southfield District Court, and I would literally walk across the street for hearings and motions. That saved me hours of travel time and allowed me to help many more people (sadly, there’s never a shortage of people being denied auto insurance benefits by claims adjusters in Michigan, a state without bad faith laws, punitive damages, or a consumer protection act to protect people from insurance company abuse).

Another example, Michigan Auto Law has a Sterling Heights law office. It makes much more sense for  Sterling Heights auto accident lawyers to file in  Macomb County  - either circuit court or district court, then to travel to  a further venue, such as where someone was injured and has her third-party case.

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

Related information:

Your Michigan No Fault benefits

Help for Michigan injury lawyers

Three potential cases for auto accidents in Michigan

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

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.

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

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.

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.