A drunk driver with a .30 blood alcohol level slams head-on into the oncoming car of an 11-year-old boy.  The drunk driver walks away. The boy, Anthony, doesn’t walk away at all.  Anthony isn’t able to walk again for at least another month after the car accident, due to multiple fractures to his foot, wrist, hand and ribs. He also loses consciousness and requires in-home nursing care while recovering from his injuries. He misses two more months from school, and has to drop out of the many activities he participated in before the car crash, such as playing on the football team.

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.

If you have been injured in a car accident or truck accident in Michigan and need to know how much money you will be entitled to for wage loss, the no-fault lawyers of Michigan Auto Law can help. Michigan wage loss is a no-fault insurance benefit (also called personal injury protection or PIP benefit) that auto accident victims are entitled to after a crash, which compensates you for wages lost due to your personal injuries.

Last week, The Oakland Press and Detroit Legal News published my letter on Johnson v. Wausau Insurance Co., a case in which an insurance company adjuster lied to save money from paying attendant care insurance benefits to the caregiver of a 10-month-old girl with traumatic brain injuries from a car accident, and got away with it. I was so outraged by this case that I felt compelled to write about it.

How to Diagnose Clients with TBI During the Interview

In efforts to help my fellow traumatic brain injury lawyers, this is another blog with information from several TBI legal seminars I’ll be speaking at in the near future. I always say that the first step in helping anyone who has suffered a traumatic brain injury from a car accident or truck accident is to find it. Unfortunately, this usually requires many years of experience for lawyers already familiar with TBI law and cases. So I’ve put together this checklist for lawyers to use during the client interview when they suspect traumatic brain injury. Remember that most emergency rooms routinely miss the diagnosis of traumatic brain injury. If you or a loved one suspects brain injury, you can also administer these questions to yourself and then talk to your doctor.

Michigan personal injury lawyer Robert M. Raitt will be speaking at the Michigan Association for Justice No-Fault Institute VI seminar June 19 in Southfield. Formerly the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association, the Michigan Association for Justice is an organization comprised of more than 1,700 personal injury attorneys across the state rallying for the rights of plaintiffs who have been injured or taken advantage of by special interests.

Bob will discuss opening statements and closing arguments in first-party and third-party car accident cases and truck accident cases.

Almost never. In an effort to save as much money as possible on auto insurance premiums, many people elect coordinated/excess wage loss on their personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, because it’s cheaper than primary wage loss.  PIP coverage provides no-fault benefits (medical expenses/mileage, wage loss, household replacement services and attendant care) after someone has been injured in a car accident.  Coordinated/excess wage loss is an optional coverage that a no-fault insurance company pays secondary to other sources of disability income.

And it can be very dangerous in certain situations.

Michigan no-fault insurance lawyer David E. Christensen will be speaking at the Michigan Association for Justice No-Fault Institute VI seminar June 19 in Southfield, Mich. Formerly the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association, the Michigan Association for Justice is a plaintiffs’ rights organization comprised of more than 1,700 personal injury attorneys across the state.

Dave will discuss jury selection in first- and third-party car accident and truck accident cases. Topics to be covered include jury selection techniques that work and do not work, and jury selection in personal injury protection (PIP) cases and tort cases.

— David E. Christensen is a Michigan Auto Law partner and an executive board member of the Michigan Association for Justice. David is vice chair of the State Bar of Michigan Negligence Law Section, and is a recognized expert on closed-head and psychiatric injury cases.

The Basics of Neuroimaging for Brain Injury

Here’s my fourth TBI blog for TBI attorneys, with tips from three traumatic brain injury seminars I’ll be lecturing at this summer. It’s another blog on objective manifestation. According to Michigan’s auto accident threshold law, an impairment must be objectively manifested in order for a car accident victim to recover damages for pain and suffering. And in order for an impairment to be objectively manifested, there must be a medically identifiable injury or condition that has a physical basis.