Protect Your Legal Rights to Auto No-Fault Benefits

WXYZ TV - Webcast with Attorney Mark Bernstein
March 19, 2008

Commentator Warren Pierce:

You’ve seen, certainly, the ads around, but we wanted to get up close and personal, this noon hour, on our WXYZ.com webchat. I’m Warren Pierce. He’s Mark Bernstein. The Bernstein Law Firm has been around since 1968. It’s been in the family since, what, 1922.

So if you have questions about if you’ve been injured, if you know someone who’s been injured, a family member, someone down the street, in a car accident or a truck accident. And there are differences, by the way, that we’ll get into between car and truck accidents, or pedestrian accidents. And then there are motorcycles and motorcycle law differs from . . .

Attorney Mark Bernstein:

Right and Michigan is a unique state. There are only 13 states in the United States- this relates to motor vehicle accidents. This would cover semi-truck accidents, doesn’t cover motorcycle accidents unless the motorcycle comes into contact with another car, it’s a distinction only an attorney would appreciate. Certainly, car accidents apply to this.

In Michigan, we are a No-Fault state, which means you get very important No-Fault benefits for, what we call, your “economic damages.” When you’ve been involved in an accident you can’t work, you need medical coverage, and the like.

In Michigan, you get all of those benefits from your own insurance company. So assume you have AAA auto insurance and you’ve been in, God forbid, an auto accident. I’ve been involved in an auto accident. I would contact AAA and they are obligated, under the law, to pay up to three years of lost wages, 85% of your lost wages, to pay for all of your medical expenses that aren’t covered by health insurance, and also a number of other very important things, including something called “attendant care.”

Attendant care is something like a family member who takes care of you after you’ve been involved in an accident, is entitled to compensation for delivering that service - for helping you. It was a law that was passed in the very early 70’s and it’s a tremendously progressive law.

Commentator Warren Pierce:

And I have a question about that. But we’ve got phone callers calling in. We’ve got emails coming in, too. But very quickly, Mark Bernstein, if in fact all those things you said are true, and I certainly do believe they are, why would they need someone like you, if in fact your insurance company is paying your lost wages, is paying your medical care, is paying for someone to take care of you?

Attorney Mark Bernstein:

I always tell people that if insurance companies and adjusters in the insurance industry treated people fairly, I’d be out of business. And I’m pretty sure, unfortunately, that that is not going to happen in the near future.

We have many, many clients who contact us after getting contacted by the insurance company saying, “We are awfully sorry about this horrible injury caused by this drunk driver. And we’re willing - you’ve fractured your femur, you’ve been in a wheelchair for eight months, you have rods and pins and plates installed in your leg, you’re going to feel this for the rest of your life. Here’s a check, we feel bad, for $5,000, or $10,000.” Many people in this environment sometimes take that and run.

Commentator Warren Pierce:

Really?

Attorney Mark Bernstein:

Oh yeah, many do. I urge people, if you’re sitting at home, watching this on the web, thinking about this about yourself, or a loved one, or the future, God forbid, if you find yourself in this circumstance, you need to think about that because that is an injury that is worth much more than that.

Commentator Warren Pierce:

Alright and we’ve got to figure out - by the way, how do you go about, as an attorney, Mark Bernstein, doing that? But as I say, we’re loaded up. We’ve got email. Let’s take an email.