 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
Copyright 2003 Michael J. Gallagher - All Rights Reserved |
“What benefits and I allowed to receive?” Each of your rights is described in greater detail later in this booklet. In summary, your rights include payment of reasonable medical bills, including services, accommodation and rehabilitation for the rest of your life for injuries suffered in the accident. Your benefits also include eighty-five injured. Lost wages are subject to monthly maximums and are paid only for three (3) years. Your insurance company will also pay up to twenty dollars ($20.00) per day for services you used to provide for yourself or your family (dishwashing, snow removal, home repairs, etc.) that you are unable to perform and must hire someone else to do. Additional benefits include mileage to and from medical appointments and payment to people who provide medical assistance to you at home, even if they are your relatives. Long term benefits for seriously injured people (spinal cord, brain damage, burs, etc.) is perhaps the most complex area of No-fault law. Therefore, it is wise to consult an attorney as to the full range of medical and rehabilitative services that are available under Michigan law. The same is true if a relative has died in an accident. “What if I have health insurance?” Under most No-fault policies (called “excess” or “coordinated medical benefits”), your health insurance company pays the medical benefits it provides and your No-fault carrier pays the rest. Some No-fault policies are not “coordinated” and those policies pay your entire medical bills even if you already have health insurance. The bill from your No-fault insurance company will state clearly whether your medical bills are “coordinated” or “excess”. In some situations, your general health policy may shift primary responsibility of your medical benefits to the No-fault carrier. Your general health care policy will clearly state if it shifts primary responsibility for your medical benefits to your No-fault carrier. “What if I get benefits form someone other than a health insurance company such as workers’ compensation, Medicaid, or Social Security disability?” Your No-fault carrier has the right to subtract from what it owes any benefits that you are entitled to receive through such programs. “What about pain, suffering, scarring, and other injuries that are not money losses?” The law permits you to sue the at-fault driver under very limited circumstances. First, you must have been seriously injured. The law defines serious injury as “death” of “serious impairment of body function” or “permanent serious disfigurement.” In addition, you cannot be more than fifty percent (50%) at fault in the accident. If you have suffered one of these “serious injuries” and the other person is 50% or more at fault in the accident, you can sue for non-economic losses including pain, suffering, mental anguish, scars and disfigurement. This is an area in which legal advice is very helpful. If you have any questions, please contact me: Michael J. Gallagher, Personal Injury Attorney mike@lawyerinjuryexpert.com 1-877-445-4446 |
|
||||||||||
 |
| Home | Philosophy | About Michael | Successes | Testimonials | Legal Tips |