Jordan Jones, a Michigan Auto Law attorney, serves as a plaintiffs’ lawyer No Fault expert for ICLE program on 2017’s No Fault law decisions
Michigan Auto Law attorney Jordan M. Jones recently appeared as a plaintiffs’ lawyer expert for an ICLE “on-demand” video seminar, “First-Party No Fault Update 2017,” which focused on judicial decisions and new statutes concerning injured people who sue their car insurance companies.
This annual program gives lawyers who practice No Fault law a review of Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals decisions handed down in the year so far, and a breakdown of how and why each opinion could impact or is impacting their practice.
For example, Jordan explained Kemp v. Farm Bureau General Insurance Company of Michigan, a recent Supreme Court ruling that stated a man’s back injury from unloading a parked car could qualify for No Fault benefits. This case, which concerns the No Fault law’s “parked motor vehicle exception,” makes clear how important this exception is — and how auto insurance companies may try to manipulate that exception to sidestep their legal duty to injury victims.
Also discussed, Shelton v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, in which Court of Appeals determined that the No Fault fraud rule — as established in the Court of Appeals’ 2014 Bahri v. IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company decision — can only be applied to car crash victims who happen to be policyholders on the policy under which No Fault benefits are sought.
As background, in Bahri, the Court of Appeals concluded — erroneously — that, because a car crash victim made mistakes in her claims for No Fault replacement services, she could be disqualified from receiving all present and future No Fault insurance benefits (i.e., reimbursement for medical expenses, wage loss) on the basis of her alleged/so-called violation of a “general fraud exclusion” in her auto insurance policy.
Ever since Bahri, insurance companies — and their adjusters — have been on the hunt for any mistakes they can use to claim “fraud” in any car crash victim’s replacement services or attendant care form submissions and wage loss claims.
ICLE is the Institute of Continuing Legal Education for lawyers. The organization provides training and education to Michigan lawyers, often with experts in the field, like Jordan, leading these classes.
Jordan Jones is a frequent ICLE lecturer. He has served as a No Fault law attorney expert for legal seminars including one on how to effectively depose expert witnesses and lay witnesses in a No Fault lawsuit, and another on the basics of handling a No Fault case in Michigan.
In addition, Jordan spoke for the New Jersey Association for Justice — a plaintiffs’ trial lawyers’ organization — in 2015 on the best methods for trial lawyers to prove impairment and disability.
At Michigan Auto Law, Jordan focuses his practice on litigating serious auto and trucking accident cases.
He was part of the trial team that earned the top-reported truck accident jury verdict in Michigan in 2012, according to published reports from Michigan Lawyers Weekly. In the case, a Macomb County jury awarded a $2.55 million verdict to the surviving family of an elderly man who was hit by a commercial truck while riding his bicycle. The insurance company had only offered $250,000, saying an 83-year-old man’s life wasn’t worth any more than that.
He also helped secure a $34 million truck accident injury settlement in 2014 — the largest-reported truck accident settlement in the U.S. for that year.
In addition, Jordan was named a 2015 “Up & Coming Lawyer” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, and has been named a “Rising Star” by Michigan Super Lawyers, an honor limited to the top 5% of Michigan attorneys.
For information on how to get the “First-Party No-Fault Update 2017” on-demand seminar, visit here.
