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Call 911 and report the crash. Michigan law requires reporting any accident involving injury, death, or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more under MCL 257.622, and the UD-10 crash report that follows becomes the foundational document for your PIP claim and any later lawsuit. 

At the scene, photograph vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, and traffic controls before anything moves. On corridors like the Southfield Freeway, I-696, or the Lodge, wreckage is cleared fast and that evidence is gone within the hour. 

Get evaluated the same day, even if you feel fine. Adrenaline masks soft tissue and head injuries, and treatment gaps give adjusters grounds to dispute causation later. 

Notify your own insurer rather than the other driver's. Under Michigan No-Fault, your policy pays medical care and wage loss regardless of fault. File your written application for PIP benefits within one year of the crash. If you have no policy and none is available through a spouse or resident relative, apply to the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan within that same year. 

Yes, but Michigan No-Fault limits when. Under MCL 500.3135, you can sue an at-fault driver for pain and suffering only if the crash caused death, permanent serious disfigurement, or serious impairment of an important body function. That last category is where most disputes live, and insurers argue it aggressively. 

Serious impairment turns on whether the injury affects your general ability to lead your normal life. Courts examine what you did before compared to after: the job you can no longer perform, the sport you gave up, the lifting restriction your surgeon imposed. Objectively manifested injuries with imaging and surgical records carry more weight than subjective pain complaints. 

Two other claims exist independently of that threshold. You can sue for excess economic damages when medical bills or wage loss exceed your chosen PIP level, under MCL 500.3135(3)(c). And Michigan's mini-tort allows recovery of up to $3,000 for vehicle damage your collision coverage does not pay. 

You generally have three years from the crash date to file a third-party lawsuit. 

Not always. A minor Southfield fender bender with no injuries, a clear police report, and a cooperative adjuster is a claim most people can close themselves. 

Certain signals change that answer. If your insurer denies or cuts off PIP benefits, schedules you for an independent medical examination, or disputes whether your treatment is reasonably necessary, you are now in a contested claim with a company that handles thousands annually while you handle one. 

Priority disputes are another trigger. When a passenger, pedestrian, motorcyclist, or resident relative is injured, Michigan's order of priority rules determine which insurer pays, and carriers routinely point at each other while bills go unpaid. 

You should also get advice before recorded statements, before signing medical authorizations, and before accepting any settlement that closes your claim. Michigan's serious impairment threshold means the difference between a modest PIP recovery and a full third-party case, and that assessment is difficult to make while you are still treating. 

Most Michigan car accident lawyers evaluate these questions at no cost. 

The economics usually favor representation, and Michigan regulates the cost. 

Under Michigan Court Rule 8.121, contingency fees in personal injury cases are capped at one third of the net recovery. In No-Fault benefit disputes, courts assess whether a fee is reasonable, and overdue PIP benefits carry 12 percent penalty interest under MCL 500.3142, along with the possibility of attorney fees paid by the insurer when a denial was unreasonable. 

That structure matters. You pay nothing upfront, nothing hourly, and nothing if there is no recovery. The practical question becomes whether representation increases the outcome by more than the fee. 

It frequently does in three situations: when the serious impairment threshold is contested, when medical bills approach or exceed your selected PIP tier, and when future care, attendant care, or reduced earning capacity must be valued rather than simply tallied. 

For a straightforward property damage claim under the $3,000 mini-tort, hiring counsel rarely makes financial sense. For a disputed injury claim, it usually does. 

It depends on how your auto policy is coordinated and which PIP tier you selected. 

With uncoordinated coverage, your auto insurer pays first for accident injuries and your health plan is secondary. With coordinated coverage, which carries a lower premium, your health insurance pays first and PIP covers what remains. Michigan drivers often choose coordination without realizing it shifts deductibles, copays, and network restrictions onto them after a crash. 

If you elected the $250,000 tier with PIP medical exclusions under the 2019 reform, your health plan becomes the primary payer entirely. That option is only available when you hold qualifying health coverage, defined as a plan that does not exclude or limit auto injury care and carries an annual individual deductible of $6,000 or less. 

Practical gaps follow. Health plans commonly deny or restrict attendant care, home modifications, vehicle modifications, and replacement services that Michigan PIP is designed to pay. Health insurers also assert subrogation rights against any settlement you later recover from the at-fault driver. 

Medicare's role depends on a choice you may have made at your last policy renewal. 

Michigan's 2019 reform created a full PIP medical opt-out under MCL 500.3107d for drivers enrolled in both Medicare Parts A and B, provided every spouse and resident relative on the policy has qualifying coverage elsewhere. If you took that option, Medicare becomes your primary payer for auto injuries. 

If you kept PIP at any level, your auto insurer pays first and Medicare is secondary until your tier is exhausted. Under the federal Medicare Secondary Payer rules, any conditional payments Medicare makes in the meantime must be reimbursed from a later settlement, and that lien is resolved before you receive funds. 

The opt-out carries real exposure. Medicare does not cover attendant care, replacement services, home or vehicle modifications, or wage loss, all of which Michigan PIP covers. It also imposes deductibles and coinsurance that unlimited PIP does not. Serious brain and spinal injuries routinely generate costs Medicare will not reach. 

Yes, though Michigan's reform created a specific interaction worth understanding. 

Under MCL 500.3107c, drivers enrolled in Medicaid may select a $50,000 PIP medical limit, a tier unavailable to anyone else. It carries the largest premium reduction and the smallest cushion. Once that $50,000 is exhausted, Medicaid becomes the payer for continued accident-related care. 

That transition changes what treatment looks like. Medicaid operates on its own fee schedule, prior authorization requirements, and provider network, and many specialists who accept No-Fault patients do not accept Medicaid. Care that was routinely approved under PIP can become difficult to obtain. 

Michigan Medicaid also asserts a statutory right of recovery against any settlement or judgment connected to the injury. That lien is negotiated and satisfied before distribution, which reduces net recovery and should factor into how a case is valued. 

If you have no auto policy at all, the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan caps PIP medical benefits at $250,000 rather than the amount you might otherwise have selected. 

Michigan has no statute requiring replacement, but federal guidance and your PIP coverage both point toward it. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises replacing a child seat after any moderate or severe crash. A crash qualifies as minor, and the seat may be reused, only when all five conditions apply: the vehicle was driven from the scene, the door nearest the seat was undamaged, no occupant sustained injuries, airbags did not deploy, and the seat shows no visible damage. 

Any one condition failing means replacement. Structural compromise in a car seat is frequently invisible, since stress fractures form in the shell and harness webbing stretches without any external sign. 

Under MCL 500.3107, replacement can qualify as an allowable expense payable through your No-Fault benefits. Keep the damaged seat, photograph it, and document the manufacturer, model, and date of manufacture before disposal. Some insurers request the seat itself. 

Michigan's child restraint law, MCL 257.710d, applies independently and continues to require an appropriate restraint regardless of the crash.