Grand Prairie insurance lawyers and those in Garland, Mesquite, Richardson and other places in Dallas County need to know the insurance laws in Texas. But they also need to know what is going on in other states.
The Detroit Free Press published an article on January 2, 2013, that an insurance attorney should find interesting. The article tells us that a judge has ruled that the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association is subject to the Freedom of Information Act and must disclose how it calculates the annual fee assessed to each Michigan vehicle under the state’s no-fault auto insurance system.
Ingham County Circuit Judge Clinton Canady III issued the ruling late last week in a lawsuit brought by the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault and the Brain Injury Association of Michigan.
There was no immediate word on whether the ruling will be appealed.
The fee, currently assessed at $175 per vehicle, is paid to the MCCA, which helps reimburse insurers for costs above $500,000 for the care and treatment of seriously injured automobile accident survivors. The fee has increased each year since 2000.
“Lawmakers, the press and the public will finally have the opportunity to get the full truth regarding the MCCA and the premium increases it routinely levies,” John Cornack, the president of the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, said in a news release.
Michael Dabbs, president of the brain injury association, said that until now “there has been no way to verify whether drivers were being charged appropriate rates to sustain the MCCA or whether Michigan insurance companies were properly managing the more than $13 billion held in MCCA funds.”
Gloria Freeland, executive director of the MCCA, said the association is still reviewing the case, but she believes all the information the judge identified is already publicly available.
Beyond that, “We would have to review the case and get with our counsel,” she said.
No-fault auto insurance is mandatory in Michigan and intended to reduce litigation.
Cases, rulings, statutes, and laws in other states are often times predictions of changes that will come to Texas. Being aware of the trends going on all over the United States assists an attorney in providing good advice to clients.
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