This week, Michigan attorney Steven M. Gursten was featured in the Detroit Legal News after this legal blog for Michigan accident victims, drivers and personal injury lawyers alike impressed a reporter.

The Jan. 26, 2008 story discussed the reason Metro Detroit lawyers maintain blogs and how blogs are changing the legal profession. But we believe our blog is only effective if it’s a valuable resource for our readers and friends.

In the article, Steve pointed out that the Internet and blogs are changing the way younger generations that have grown up with technology find lawyers. He says for a large population of potential clients, Google is the first place they’ll look.

Top Mistakes Accident Victims Make: No. 2

One of the biggest problems our auto accident lawyers face — especially because many of our personal injury cases are referred to us by other attorneys a year or two after a car crash has occurred — is that accident victims do not take photos of their injuries. Taking photos is critically important. Pictures are objective, credible evidence, and they help to correlate a car accident with the occupant’s trauma; especially when the defense later contests that the collision wasn’t severe enough to cause the claimed injuries. Additionally, taking photos of injuries is compelling. It makes the injuries real, believable and vivid.

Top Mistakes Accident Victims Make: No. 1

The best way to avoid mistakes in a lawsuit is excellent communication with your personal injury attorney. There are so many confusing laws that can trap the unsuspecting and wreck havoc on a Michigan automobile accident case, even when people are trying to be truthful, honest and do the right thing. The best advice remains the simplest: Call your accident attorney if you have a question, and certainly before doing something that can have a major impact on your personal injury case, like filing an application for social security disability, not understanding why an injured person cannot file for unemployment or posting misleading photos of yourself on the Internet.

Today, President Barack Obama made history when he was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. The irony is that Americans would likely not be swearing in our first African American president if George W. Bush’s presidency hadn’t been such a disaster. This thought brings me to the Michigan Association for Justice (formerly Michigan Trial Lawyers Association) seminar last week. As part of the seminar, top Michigan car accident lawyers put together an excellent motion and brief for plaintiff lawyers facing Kreiner defense motions to dismiss cases under serious impairment. I cannot help thinking that if we had compiled this motion and brief soon after the Michigan Supreme Court released Kreiner v. Fischer in 2004, perhaps we would have a very different body of case law today. Additionally, fewer accident victims might have had their cases dismissed throughout the lingering past four years.

The auto accident lawyers of Michigan Auto Law are proud to announce that partner Steven M. Gursten has gotten the largest settlement and the second highest verdict in the entire state of Michigan for 2008, according to a year-end report by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

In addition to achieving some of the highest car and truck accident settlements each year for injury victims in Michigan, Steve Gursten has received the largest jury verdict for four of the past seven years

Said Lawyers Weekly about Gursten’s successful record in 2005: “…considering the fact that there are approximately 4,000 Michigan attorneys who say they handle personal injury cases as part of their practice, the odds of accomplishing this feat are astronomical.”

Kudos to my friend Ken Shigley, an excellent Atlanta trial lawyer, for assembling a list for lawyers to consider when litigating truck accident cases. Ken’s list is based upon the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new proposed rule on safety audits. The FMCSA has identified 11 regulatory violations reflecting “a clear lack of basic safety management controls.” And under the proposed rule, an automatic failure of a truck safety audit would result.

I suggest Michigan lawyers use these 11 deadly sins as a discovery and deposition checklist.

WXYZ-TV Channel 7 has exposed a particularly nasty insurance company tactic in Michigan that’s causing real harm to people injured in car accidents. Some Michigan insurance companies like Nationwide, Allstate and State Farm stop paying legitimate insurance claims for no reason, except to say a person is “under investigation.”

This can happen to anyone. In the news story, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company put a well-respected elderly woman “under investigation” and cut off her benefits entirely. This woman had no history of wrongdoing and never even filed a prior insurance claim. She wasn’t told why her insurance benefits were being terminated, what she had done wrong or how she could reinstate them.

Michigan lawyers are expecting big changes to Michigan’s car accident threshold law in 2009. But what will these changes be? And how and when will automobile accident injury victims be affected by these changes?

On Jan. 15, 2008, Michigan Auto Law partners Steven Gursten and Robert Raitt will be addressing what the future holds for Michigan car accident lawyers and injury victims at the Michigan Association for Justice (formerly the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association) Kreiner Update Forum.

The worst Michigan no-fault insurance case of 2008 snuck in with only two days of the year remaining. In Moore v. Secura, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an opinion that will destroy the rights of thousands of people injured in motor vehicle accidents.

The two worst parts of the decision are as follows:

Michigan auto insurance companies will use notorious “cut-off” doctors now more than ever to suspend and terminate people’s no-fault insurance benefits.

Why? Because Michigan insurance companies are no longer required to resolve conflicting medical opinions before suspending or terminating no-fault insurance benefits.

The accident lawyers of Michigan Auto Law would like to wish our readers a very Happy New Year. And what is a new year without hope for the future? For thousands of Michigan residents who have been seriously injured in automobile accidents, 2009 may bring much needed hope.

Michigan’s current auto accident law, as interpreted by Kreiner v. Fischer, unfairly discriminates against different groups of people — even when they sustain essentially identical injuries from a car accident.