Michigan No-Fault attorneys say for seriously injured auto accident victims, attendant care nursing services are essential

There is more confusion over what attendant care is then over any other Michigan personal injury protection (PIP) benefit. Many people think of attendant care as in-home nursing services. But the definition I’ve been using when explaining attendant care to my own clients for nearly 20 years is this: because of how serious the injuries are, an “attendant” is required to provide “care” for the accident victim… That’s why they call it  “attendant care.”

Attendant care attorney explains how catastrophically injured auto accident victims could have limited home nursing services, reduced quality of care

Today I’m discussing how HB 4936 will reduce Michigan attendant care insurance benefits.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “attendant care,” as an attendant care attorney for almost 20 years, I like to explain it as follows: When an auto accident victim is injured so badly that he can’t take care of his most basic needs, like eating, using the bathroom, bathing and getting dressed, the victim’s No-Fault insurance company will pay a nurse or someone in the family to help. That service is called attendant care. Some people also refer to this as nursing care services.

No-Fault attendant care lawyers answer FAQs about in-home attendant care (nursing services) for auto accident victims

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear about attendant care and No-Fault benefits.

Be aware that sadly, many insurance company claims adjusters will not inform their own insured customers after a serious injury that attendant care is available. And many lawyers in Michigan are unfamiliar with attendant care, unless they are very experienced handling car accident and No-Fault cases. Even today, there are probably hundreds of  Michigan car accident victims who don’t realize that attendant care  No-Fault insurance benefits are available to help them.

TBI attorney says if Michigan’s No-Fault benefits system is dismantled by law change, brain injury victims like Juliana Ramos would be left without medical care and attendant care

Every year for the past decade, millions of Americans  tune in to listen and vote for their favorite singer on American Idol. My daughter takes over the television and demands to stay up late (she’s still very upset about Pia being voted off). But this year, it was the story of a contestant who didn’t make the final cut that caught the attention of the judges, viewers and our traumatic brain injury attorneys.

Auto accident attorney gives tips on how to best communicate with your auto insurance company

Most people recovering from a car accident assume that they will be treated fairly.  They also assume they will actually receive the No-Fault insurance benefits they have been paying for, often for years, from the insurance company when they suffer personal injury from an accident. But this doesn’t always happen, thanks to an array of insurance company tactics designed to rob auto accident victims of important legal  rights that put more money in the insurance industry’s pocket.

I just received a question in response to a blog I wrote about new attendant care rates for family members in Michigan. Our reader, Tiffany, asks, “Is there a web site where I can look up the current hourly rates for at-home attendant care?”

Here’s my response:

Thank you for your question, Tiffany. Many people have never even heard of attendant care, which is an important No-Fault insurance benefit that is available to people who have been seriously injured in a car accident or truck accident.  Our lawyers explain what attendant care is by how it sounds. Attendant care (also referred to as nursing care services) refers to activities of daily living that you are unable to perform yourself due to the severity of your personal injuries. Therefore, you require the help of someone else (the attendant) to provide the care.

One thing that makes attendant care cases so difficult is that there is not a readily accessible definition of what exactly attendant care (AC) is. Many people have never even heard of this no-fault benefit. To put it simply, our car accident attorneys say attendant care benefits (also referred to as nursing services) are “activities of daily living.”

Adding to the misunderstanding of attendant care, many Michigan insurance companies are not exactly forthcoming about telling people who have been injured in auto accidents that they’re entitled to it.  Some insurance companies just completely lie and deny attendant care exists — even when asked directly by their own severely injured customer, or the injured person’s caregiver.

Car Accident Lawyer Highlights Court Trend Requiring Permanent Injuries for Plaintiffs to Win

I’d like to remind my fellow car accident lawyers that judges in Michigan are forgetting injuries do not need to be permanent to be serious. This is exemplified in O’Keefe v. Auto Club, an unpublished Michigan Court of Appeals win for an auto accident victim who sustained neck and back injuries.

I make note of it because although the plaintiff wins, this case perpetuates the problem of seemingly requiring that an impairment is permanent in order for it to qualify as a serious impairment of body function. In O’Keefe, the fact that saves the day for the plaintiff’s claim is that her residual impairments “appear to be permanent.”

From left, Steven M. Gursten, Judge William J. Giovan and attorney Ed Stein

I received a comment yesterday from retired Chief Judge of Wayne County Circuit Court, William J. Giovan, after my letter on Johnson v. Wausau.

Judge Giovan is a true intellectual and has an excellent grasp of the rules of evidence.  In fact, I once invited him to speak to the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association on evidentiary issues car accident lawyers face in trial.  Judge Giovan also knew my grandfather, and on more than one occasion, has shared memories of him as a lawyer while we were in his chambers.  It isn’t every judge that knows and cares about three generations of one family.

Michigan Lawyers Weekly, The Oakland Press and the Detroit Legal News recently published my letter on Johnson v. Wausau Insurance Co., a case about an insurance company adjuster who lied to save money from paying attendant care insurance benefits to the caregivers of a 10-month-old girl with a severe traumatic brain injury from a car accident — and got away with it. Well, my letter has sparked a little debate, mainly from an attorney Daniel J. Bernard.  Mr. Bernard disagreed with my opinion of the case, which now allows insurance adjusters to legally lie to their customers in order to avoid paying no-fault insurance benefits. As an attendant care attorney in Michigan, I thought it was one of the most disturbing cases I’ve ever read. I feel so strongly about the horrible public policy this case creates for Michigan residents, that I wanted to respond to Mr. Bernard. My rebuttal was printed Monday on the front page of the Detroit Legal News as follows. Please click on the title to see the story in its newspaper form.