No-Fault lawyer gives statistics that show raising auto insurance rates is completely unnecessary

If I could ask Pete Kuhnmuench one question, it would be, “Why?”

Mr. Kuhnmuench is the spokesman for the Insurance Institute of Michigan, a lobbying group that represents 90 insurance companies doing business in Michigan, and one that has been threatening insurance rate increases for Michigan drivers after the Michigan Supreme Court corrected the state’s auto accident law  in McCormick v. Carrier.

Within hours of McCormick, the insurance companies that he represents were threatening to raise auto insurance rates on Michigan drivers again, despite the record-breaking profits they continue to rake in each year in Michigan.

Dr. Mary Kneiser’s IME lawsuit is strong example of independent medical examiner abuse

This is the last post in my mini series of blogs on independent medical examiners. Mary Kneiser is a busy IME doctor, and has been for many years. Dr. Kneiser has been hired by auto insurance companies and personal injury defense law firms to do one time “examinations” of injured plaintiffs, write reports and testify. Ask any experienced personal injury attorney about her, and you will get an earful.

No-fault insurance lawyer breaks down the proposed independent medical exam rule 500.2252

This is the third post in my mini-series of blogs about independent medical examinations (IMEs) and how many notorious IME doctors make a great living claiming people with serious personal injuries are able to return to work and no longer need medical treatment. After all, there is little downside for them. The money is great, and in a state without many of the protections that exist in other states, insurance companies can select the nastiest “cut-off” doctors they can find to stop paying needed wage loss and medical bills to their own insured customers.

Michigan TBI attorney warns auto accident victims who have suffered traumatic brain injury about a popular insurance medical examiner

On Tuesday, I wrote about the havoc “independent” medical examiners are bringing to car accident victims and the No-Fault insurance system in Michigan. Which brings me now to John Baker, Ph.D. This man is a neuropsychologist in Oakland County (Royal Oak), who is often hired by auto insurance companies for “second opinion” defense examinations of injured car accident victims who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.

No-Fault insurance lawyer explains how “independent” medical examiners devastate lives after serious car accidents and undermine our No-Fault system

When people suffer personal injury in  car accidents in Michigan, their auto insurance companies must pay No-Fault insurance benefits for all auto accident-related medical treatment that’s reasonably necessary for the injured person’s recovery and rehabilitation. By simply filing an application for No-Fault insurance benefits within one year of the car accident date with their own No-Fault insurers, auto accident victims are provided with legally mandated No-Fault insurance so they can try to heal and put their lives back together.

Personal injury attorney exposes insurance companies threats and scare tactics - and huge profits - following McCormick v. Carrier

The insurance industry in Michigan sure must think we are pretty dumb. Within hours of the monumental McCormick v. Carrier being issued by the Michigan Supreme Court on August 1, 2010, a lobbying group representing 90 Michigan insurance companies issued a press release to the media threatening to raise auto insurance premiums. They say, the McCormick case will “seriously undermine the viability of the state’s No-Fault statute.”

Auto accident lawyer debunks another insurance company scare tactic after the Michigan auto law changed

This is part two from yesterday’s blog on the Macomb Daily newspaper article.  In that interview, the insurance industry spokesperson threatened insurance rate increases after Sunday’s McCormick v. Carrier case, despite the record-breaking profits auto insurance companies in Michigan continue to garner.

McCormick v. Carrier is a Michigan Supreme Court case that overturned the controversial Kreiner v Fischer “serious impairment of body function” threshold case, returning important legal rights to potentially hundreds of Michigan car accident victims who were told they did not have a case under Kreiner. It involved a car accident with serious personal injuries that occurred in Flint, Michigan.

Auto accident attorney debunks the scare tactic used by insurance companies after Michigan’s auto law has changed

Yesterday morning, I woke up to find my picture on the front page of The Macomb Daily.  The article was based on an interview I had done on the new case of McCormick v. Carrier and the Michigan Supreme Court making it easier for the injured to collect compensation for car accidents. I spoke about how happy I was for Michigan auto accident victims who have suffered serious personal injuries, but have had their legal rights taken away. These people had their accident cases thrown out of court by the old harsh auto accident threshold law under Kreiner v. Fischer, before it was overturned Sunday night.

I go on vacation for one week, and the Michigan Supreme Court drops a bombshell on credit scoring while I’m gone. Last Thursday, the Court issued an opinion, in a bitterly divided 4-3 ruling, that allows Michigan’s auto insurance companies to use a person’s credit report to determine rates for people.

The Court majority even said state regulators exceeded their authority when they banned the practice as discriminatory. But it is discriminatory.  And it makes zero sense.

Let’s be very clear on this: credit scoring using credit reports is by definition, discriminatory. It is also perniciously evil. Read here about your No-Fault insurance rights.

My partner Robert Raitt was in the Detroit Free Press this week. Bob, an attorney who handles auto accident cases, is past-president of the Michigan Assocition for Justice, and he was responding to a call for more “tort reform” in Michigan. Bob makes a lot of good points, and he touched on cases involving car accidents that the lawyers in this law firm have personal experience with.

For example, Michigan was ranked by auto insurance corporations as having the safest drivers in the nation combined with the hardest car accident threshold law in the country, and yet Michigan drivers pay some of the highest premiums in the country.