Michigan Personal Injury Attorneys Find Value in Auto Accident Lawsuits
Posted Under: Personal Injury
Helping Michigan Personal Injury Attorneys Find Value in Auto Accident Lawsuits
Steven M. Gursten will be speaking about McCormick v. Carrier to other personal injury attorneys throughout Michigan. He will be presenting at the State Bar of Michigan 2010 Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids: “Representing Injured Personal Injury Victims and Finding Value in Car Accident Claims After McCormick v. Carrier.”
“Understanding how to handle car accident cases has become more important than ever before for Michigan lawyers,” said Gursten, head of Michigan Auto Law, the state’s largest law firm exclusively handling auto accidents and No-Fault insurance litigation.
This is because, Gursten says, potentially thousands of auto accident victims who were seriously injured in Michigan – yet were told they had no case under the state’s harsh auto accident law – now have a second chance to bring pain and suffering lawsuits. The August 1, 2010 Michigan Supreme Court ruling in McCormick v. Carrier has overturned Michigan’s previous (and the nation’s harshest) auto accident threshold law Kreiner v. Fischer, opening the door for more fair lawsuits by people seeking compensation after being injured in auto accidents, he added.
“Over the past month, nearly every personal injury lawyer, insurance claims adjuster, and trial judge has been scrambling trying to figure out what McCormick v. Carrier, weighing in at more than 100 pages, really means for people injured in car accidents in Michigan,” Gursten said. “My presentation will help fellow personal injury attorneys better understand this important case.”
Gursten writes and speaks extensively about Michigan’s auto accident laws and No-Fault law, and is available for comment on McCormick v. Carrier and personal injury cases.
“Under McCormick v. Carrier, people who seek compensation for injuries and pain and suffering have a better chance at a fair recovery. McCormick says a person can qualify for pain and suffering damages if his or her normal life is affected – not completely altered by a car accident as Kreiner required,” Gursten explained.
For those who will not be at the Michigan legal seminar, take a look at Steve Gursten’s McCormick v Carrier outline. The McCormick v. Carrier decision reestablishes the proper interpretation of the clear and unambiguous language in the Michigan No-Fault Act, Gursten says. Here, he lays out the test anyone in Michigan who has been injured in a car accident must meet to recover pain and suffering damages.
Gursten also will cover what’s gone after Kreiner v. Fischer. “Kreiner was responsible for the worst possible public policy in Michigan. What made the old law under Kreiner so frustrating for lawyers was that the focus on duration and temporal factors meant that people who suffered very serious injuries of near total incapacitation but shorter duration were punished, as were good people who tried, despite the pain and medical restrictions of their injuries, to gut it out and try to get back to work as quickly as possible,” Gursten said.
“Thankfully, the Michigan Supreme Court restored common sense to the state’s auto accident law with its ruling on McCormick v. Carrier.”
About Steven M. Gursten: Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top personal injury attorneys handling serious car and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance litigation. He is co-chair of the Michigan Association for Justice Auto Accident No-Fault Committee, and holds leadership in several other local and national legal organizations aimed at helping car and truck accident lawyers and attorneys handling traumatic brain injury cases. Gursten received the top-reported auto accident settlement in 2008 and 2009, according to published reports from Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
About Michigan Auto Law: Michigan Auto Law is a third-generation law firm with 19 lawyers practicing exclusively in automobile accident and No-Fault insurance litigation throughout the state. The firm has offices in Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. Please call (800) 777-0028 to speak with one of our personal injury attorneys.
