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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Is Michigan's No Fault Auto Insurance Different?

By Norma Hollenbeck


There are some things about Michigan auto insurance that you might not be familiar with if you've only registered cars in other areas in the US. This insurance is legally required in this state, and made up of three major segments. These are residual liability for bodily injury and property damage to others, personal injury insurance and property protection insurance. When registering a car in Michigan, it's important to be able to prove you possess this insurance, since driving without it is illegal.

Michigan no fault insurance policies reimburse drivers for medical costs and lost income for up to three years. Lost income reimbursement is currently around four and a half thousand dollars, and applies when an insured driver is killed as well as injured. In the case of a death, the money is paid to the family of the insured person.

If someone is in an accident and his or her injury prevents basic family services from being provided, such as housekeeping, up to twenty dollars per day to hire others to do this for them is also available. You can choose to synchronize your coverage to any existing health or disability policy if you'd like to reduce your premium, as long as it's not a Medicare or Medicaid policy (these cannot be synchronized). That makes the synchronized policy the primary payer, and the your Michigan auto insurance is responsible for covering what's left.

If you have Michigan no fault insurance, your policy will pay up to a million dollars in damage done by your car to other people's property, such as fences, buildings, lamp posts and other objects. If you do damage to someone else's vehicle, and that car is properly parked, this policy will also pay for that damage.

The no fault law for Michigan auto insurance also protects people who are insured under this policy from being sued outside of particular situations. If you cause an accident in which someone else is seriously injured or killed, are involved in an accident with a car not registered in that state, or you're involved in an accident outside of state, you may be sued.

In addition, if you were more than fifty percent at fault in an accident, you may be sued for up to five hundred dollars in damage to the other car. However, in situations where you're sued or are legally responsible for damages, your Michigan no fault insurance will pay up to your coverage limits.

There's a minimum requirement of twenty thousand dollars worth of coverage for property damage and bodily injury coverage to handle situations where a person is injured or killed in an accident. For accidents where several people are injured or killed, up to forty thousand dollars of coverage is required. To cover property damage that happens outside of Michigan, you'll need to have up to ten thousand dollars of Michigan auto insurance coverage. Just remember that if the court awards more than this, you'll be responsible for the excess you need to pay.

Michigan no fault insurance doesn't cover everything, either. For instance, you don't have to have insurance available to cover fixing your own car in an accident or when flood damage, theft, vandalism, or other types of non accident damage occur, or for covering uninsured motorist damage. However, this kind of coverage is available as part of Michigan auto insurance, even if not required by law.




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