A Detroit PIP car accident lawyer helps you claim the no-fault benefits your own auto insurer owes you after a crash, and pushes back when those benefits get cut off. At Christensen Law, we handle Michigan Personal Injury Protection claims out of our Detroit office in the Ford Building on Griswold Street. We treat a stalled PIP claim as the financial emergency it usually is.
Medical bills do not pause while an adjuster reviews your file. If your benefits have been delayed, reduced, or denied, call us at (248) 900-9000 and tell us what happened.
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What Are PIP Benefits Under Michigan’s No-Fault Law?
PIP benefits are the medical, wage loss, and household help payments your own auto insurance company owes you after a car crash, regardless of who caused it. Michigan routes these first-party benefits through your own policy under MCL 500.3105, which makes an insurer responsible for accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle.
MCL 500.3107 spells out what those benefits cover. In practice, a Detroit no-fault PIP benefits claim usually includes:
- Reasonable charges for reasonably necessary medical care, rehabilitation, and long-term treatment
- Up to 85% of lost wages for as long as three years after the crash
- Replacement services for household tasks you can no longer do, capped at $20 per day for up to three years
- Mileage and transportation costs for treatment-related travel
- Attendant care when a physician says you need help at home
- Survivor’s loss benefits for dependents after a fatal crash
- Each category carries its own proof requirements, and insurers evaluate them separately. That is why a single claim can be partly paid and partly denied at the same time.
Why Detroit Families Bring PIP Disputes to Christensen Law
We are a Michigan trial firm, and that shapes how we handle a PIP file from the first phone call. Insurance companies respond differently to a firm that prepares cases for a jury.
- We work only under Michigan law, including the first-party and third-party rules that trip people up most
- Our Detroit office sits in the Ford Building on Griswold Street, a short walk from the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and the Wayne County Circuit Court
- Five Michigan offices, in Southfield, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Troy, mean we can meet you close to home
- We decline cases we are not positioned to litigate well, which keeps our attention on the files we accept
- You will know the attorney and the team on your claim, and you can reach them directly
PIP work is detail work. Reading a policy for the coverage level that was actually selected, tracking which bills went in and when, and documenting a physician’s care recommendations often decides whether benefits get restored.
Tell us what your insurer has said so far, and we will tell you honestly where the claim stands. Call (248) 900-9000 to start that conversation.
Why Was My Detroit Car Accident PIP Claim Denied?
Most PIP denials rest on one of a handful of arguments, and nearly all of them can be answered with documentation. As a Michigan PIP claim denial lawyer in Detroit would tell you, the first step is getting the insurer’s stated reason in writing, because the written reason is often much narrower than what an adjuster says over the phone.
The reasons we see most often include:
- The treatment was not reasonably necessary, usually after a records review by a doctor who never examined you
- The injury was not caused by the crash, with the insurer pointing to a pre-existing condition
- The bills exceed the PIP coverage level selected on the policy
- Another policy has higher priority and should pay first
- Notice was late, or the application for benefits was incomplete
- You missed a medical examination the insurer scheduled
None of these positions ends a claim on its own. Each one can be tested with medical records, policy documents, and, when it comes to that, a lawsuit for unpaid benefits.
Do You Have to Attend the Insurance Company’s Medical Exam?
Michigan no-fault policies generally allow an insurer to request a medical examination, and refusing outright is risky because it hands the carrier a reason to suspend benefits. The examination is arranged and paid for by the insurance company, and the physician conducting it is not your treating doctor.
That does not mean you go in unprepared. People looking for Detroit car accident PIP coverage help often reach us the week one of these exams is scheduled, and there is a fair amount that can be done in that window.
- We confirm the exam is actually authorized under the policy and the statute
- We ask what records have been sent to the examining physician, and supply what is missing
- We prepare you for the kind of questions asked, including questions about your daily activities
- We arrange for the exam to be observed or recorded where that is permitted
- We compare the resulting report against your treating physicians’ findings
A report from one of these exams is evidence, not a verdict. When it conflicts with your treating doctors, that conflict is exactly the sort of thing a court decides rather than an adjuster.
How Much PIP Coverage Do You Actually Have?
Your PIP medical limit depends on the coverage level selected on the policy you are claiming under, and that changed for Michigan drivers after the 2019 no-fault reform. Under MCL 500.3107c, drivers now pick from set levels instead of receiving unlimited coverage automatically.
The levels are unlimited, $500,000, and $250,000, with a $50,000 option available only to people enrolled in Medicaid, plus a full opt-out for households with qualifying Medicare coverage. A policy that carries no selection defaults to unlimited benefits, which is worth checking before anyone tells you your coverage ran out. Our discussion of how the PIP coverage levels compare walks through what each tier does and does not pay.
Which policy applies is a separate question from how much it pays. MCL 500.3114 sets the order of priority, generally starting with your own policy, then a spouse’s policy, then that of a relative living in your household. When no household policy applies, the claim may move to the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan, which operates under oversight from the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
Getting priority right early matters a great deal. Filing against the wrong insurer can burn months and run you into the one-year deadlines below.
Deadlines That Can End a Detroit PIP Benefits Claim
Michigan no-fault runs two separate one-year clocks, and people lose money by confusing them. Both live in MCL 500.3145.
The one-year notice rule calls for written notice of the injury to the insurer within one year of the crash, or a lawsuit filed within that year. The notice has to identify the injured person along with the time, place, and nature of the injury.
The one-year-back rule is a different thing entirely. It limits how far back you can reach for benefits, so a claimant can be perfectly timely on the notice rule and still lose older bills. If a suit is filed today, losses incurred more than a year earlier generally sit outside the recoverable window.
There is relief built into the statute. The one-year-back period is tolled from the date you make a specific claim for payment until the insurer formally denies it, which is one reason we push for denials in writing rather than by phone.
When PIP Is Not Enough: Third-Party Claims in Detroit
PIP does not pay for pain and suffering, and it does not cover wage loss past three years or medical bills above your coverage level. Those losses come from a third-party claim against the driver who caused the crash, which is a separate case built on fault.
MCL 500.3135 sets the gate. Non-economic damages are available only where the injured person suffered death, permanent serious disfigurement, or a serious impairment of body function, which the statute defines as an objectively manifested impairment of an important body function affecting the person’s general ability to lead a normal life.
Fault matters here in a way it never does in a PIP claim. Under MCL 600.2959, damages are reduced by your share of responsibility, and a person found more than 50% at fault cannot recover non-economic damages at all.
The deadline is three years from the date of the crash under MCL 600.5805. Our broader Detroit car accident practice covers how the two claims get built alongside each other.
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How We Handle a Detroit PIP Coverage Dispute
Every file starts with the same question: what does the paperwork actually say? From there, the work splits into a few clear stages.
Getting the file in order
We pull the policy, the declarations page, the application for benefits, every explanation of benefits, and the full claim correspondence. Very often, the coverage level on the declarations page does not match what the adjuster has been telling the claimant.
Building the medical record
Reasonable necessity is proved through treating physicians, not through argument. We work with your doctors at Detroit Receiving, Henry Ford, or wherever you are being treated to document the care plan, the functional limits, and the need for attendant care or replacement services.
Filing suit for unpaid benefits
When an insurer will not move, a first-party lawsuit puts the dispute in front of a Wayne County judge. Filing also stops the one-year-back window from eating further into what you can recover.
These stages overlap in practice, and the wage loss and household help pieces usually move faster than the medical fight.
FAQs Answered by a Detroit PIP Car Accident Lawyer
Possibly, yes. If a spouse or a relative living in your household carries a Michigan no-fault policy, that policy may cover you under the priority rules. When no household policy exists, the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan may be the route, and there are deadlines attached to that path as well.
For medical bills and wage loss, generally yes. Michigan’s no-fault system sends those first-party benefits through your own policy, no matter who was responsible. The at-fault driver comes into the picture through a separate third-party claim for the losses PIP does not reach.
Rating practices vary by carrier, and a claim where you were not at fault is treated differently from one where you were. This is a question worth asking your agent directly, and it should not be the reason you leave benefits unclaimed.
A mid-treatment cutoff is common, and it is contestable. Ask for the denial in writing, keep attending appointments, and keep submitting bills, because gaps in treatment become the insurer’s argument later. Then call a lawyer, since the one-year-back rule is already running.
Yes, and the priority analysis is the same one that applies to drivers. Your own policy usually comes first, followed by a spouse’s or a resident relative’s policy, with the Assigned Claims Plan as the fallback when no household coverage applies.
No. PIP covers people, not property. Vehicle damage runs through your collision coverage or, in limited circumstances, through Michigan’s mini tort provision, which allows a capped recovery against the at-fault driver for damage insurance did not pay.
Talk With a Detroit PIP Car Accident Lawyer
A denied or delayed no-fault claim is not something you have to argue about on your own, and the deadlines involved reward acting early. We will look at your policy, your denial letter, and your medical record, and we will tell you what we think is achievable.
Call Christensen Law at (248) 900-9000 or reach us through our contact page. We represent injured people across the state, from Detroit and Wayne County to every corner of Michigan.
