Koussan Law

10/19/2026

New Center, lit. Our Detroit office at 821 W Milwaukee St has a brand-new front: an illuminated sign, tall wall lights, a warm wood door, uplit planters and a stacked-stone base. Trying to do our part in keeping New Center looking beautiful.

Stop by and see it in person!

Call (313) 800-0000 or visit k-law.com.

10/19/2026

Lower back pain after a Michigan car accident? A clean MRI does not end your claim.

To recover pain and suffering from the at-fault driver, Michigan's no-fault law (MCL 500.3135) asks whether your impairment is objectively manifested, not whether a scan shows something dramatic. Lost range of motion, muscle spasm, changes in how you walk or measured strength loss can all count.

Why it matters: insurers routinely blame crash back pain on old degeneration. Michigan law allows recovery when the crash triggered symptoms from a condition you already had. Your own no-fault insurer still pays your treatment and lost wages either way.

Our new guide explains what the medical record has to show:
https://www.k-law.com/blogs/lower-back-pain-after-car-accident-michigan?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=lower-back-pain-after-car-accident-michigan

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

Michigan insurers blame crash back pain on old degeneration. What the no-fault threshold really requires, and why a normal MRI does not end a claim.

10/19/2026

Hit by a truck, bus, delivery van, rideshare, ambulance or police car in Michigan? Two different systems pay.

Your own household no-fault policy pays the medical bills and lost wages first, whoever caused the crash (MCL 500.3114). The money for the injury itself comes from the company or public body behind the vehicle: a motor carrier, a rideshare company, a delivery company, or a city or transit agency under the motor-vehicle exception to governmental immunity (MCL 691.1405).

Why it matters: not every deadline is three years. A tort claim against SMART needs written notice within 60 days. A claim against the State needs a verified notice within 6 months. And truck logs, dashcam loops and onboard bus video do not last forever, so a written preservation demand in the first days matters.

Our new guide goes vehicle by vehicle:
https://www.k-law.com/blogs/who-pays-catastrophic-commercial-vehicle-crash-michigan?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=commercial-vehicle&utm_content=who-pays-catastrophic-commercial-vehicle-crash-michigan

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

Your own no-fault policy pays the bills first. The money for the injury itself comes from the company or agency behind the vehicle. Here is each layer.

10/14/2026

Magnus was just doing his usual office patrol… then things got a little strange. 🦇 Happy Halloween from all of us at Koussan Law!

10/13/2026

Deer season is open in Michigan, and the next eight weeks are when most of these crashes happen.

If you hit a deer, your own insurance pays for your injuries and you do not have to prove anyone was at fault. A deer strike still counts as an accident arising out of the use of a motor vehicle, so no-fault PIP benefits cover medical care and wage loss. The damage to the car is a comprehensive claim rather than collision, and there is no mini-tort against a deer.

Why the timing matters: 40.9 percent of Michigan's deer crashes happen in October, November and December, and the single worst window is the 6 to 9 a.m. commute, which accounts for nearly a quarter of them.

The mistake that costs people is the one that feels responsible at the time. The car took the hit, you feel shaken but fine, and nobody is at fault anyway, so there is nothing worth reporting. Then a neck or a back problem shows up three months later and the file has nothing in it. Michigan gives you one year to put your insurer on written notice.

Riders: hit a deer with no car involved and there is generally no no-fault claim at all. What you bought on the motorcycle policy is what you have.

https://www.k-law.com/blogs/hit-a-deer-in-michigan-who-pays?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=evergreen

Koussan Law. Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette. English, Spanish and Arabic. (313) 800-0000.

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

10/13/2026

The driver who hit you had no insurance. That is not the end of your claim.

It feels like the end, because the person responsible has nothing to pay with. But in Michigan the first place your medical bills go was never the other driver's policy.

MCL 500.3105 is the reason. Personal protection insurance benefits are due under this chapter without regard to fault. Your own no-fault coverage pays your medical care and your wage loss whether the other driver was insured, uninsured, or never identified at all. Under the no-fault act you look first to a policy in your own household, which means your policy or that of a spouse or a relative you live with.

If there is no policy anywhere in your household, Michigan still has a backstop. Under MCL 500.3172 a person injured in a motor vehicle accident in this state may claim no-fault benefits through the Assigned Claims Plan when no personal protection insurance is applicable to the injury. It carries its own filing deadline, and it is shorter than most people expect.

What an uninsured driver does cost you is the target for pain and suffering, because there is no liability policy sitting behind them. That is the gap uninsured motorist coverage is built for. Michigan does not require you to carry it, so whether you have it depends on what you chose at renewal. That is worth checking on your declaration page before you need it rather than after.

Vehicle damage is a separate question again. Michigan's mini-tort claim runs against the at-fault driver personally, which is only ever as good as what that driver actually has.

If you were told you have no case because the other driver was uninsured, that is worth a second look.

https://www.k-law.com/services/uninsured-underinsured-motorist?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=evergreen

Koussan Law. Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette. English, Spanish and Arabic. (313) 800-0000.

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

If the driver who hit you was high, Michigan does not pay you extra for it.

There are no punitive damages in an ordinary Michigan negligence case. Your no-fault medical care and wage loss are paid without regard to anyone's fault, and your right to sue for pain and suffering runs through the same serious impairment threshold as any other crash.

What impairment really changes is the fight over fault. Under MCL 500.3135(2)(b), a person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers no noneconomic damages at all. That is a cliff, not a discount, and proof that the other driver's reactions were impaired undercuts the insurer's story that you caused it.

Cannabis cases are harder to prove than drunk driving cases because there is no 0.08 equivalent for THC, which is why these claims get settled cheaply by people who never develop the evidence. Our new article covers what the criminal file actually gives you, the one Michigan intoxication statute that can be used against an injured person, and which deadline is closest.

Free consultation: (313) 800-0000.

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

Michigan pays nothing extra because the other driver was high. Here is what impairment actually changes in your injury claim, and what it does not.

10/06/2026

Three years. That is how long Michigan gives you to sue the driver who hit you.

MCL 600.5805 sets a three-year limitations period for actions to recover damages for injury to a person or property. For a crash the clock generally starts on the date of the injury, not the date you finished treatment, and not the date the insurance company stopped returning calls.

Two things people get wrong about it.

First, three years is the outside edge, not a plan. Evidence goes stale long before then. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped, security footage is overwritten within weeks at most businesses, and witnesses move and forget.

Second, it is not the only clock. Your own no-fault benefits run on a much shorter written notice deadline, and a claim involving a city, a county, a bus or a road authority carries its own short notice period that can expire in a matter of months. Different claim, different calendar.

If your crash was inside the last three years and nothing has been filed, the date is worth confirming rather than assuming.

https://www.k-law.com/contact?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=evergreen

Koussan Law. Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette. English, Spanish and Arabic. (313) 800-0000.

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.

10/06/2026

A motorcycle is not a motor vehicle. In Michigan that one sentence decides who pays your medical bills.

Michigan's no-fault act draws a line most riders have never been told about. Both are vehicles. Only one is a motor vehicle, and PIP benefits are built around motor vehicles. The Court of Appeals put it plainly in Auto-Owners Insurance v Hoadley: while both motorcycles and motor vehicles are vehicles, a motorcycle is not a motor vehicle.

Two consequences, and riders are usually surprised by both.

If a motor vehicle was involved in your crash, you do have PIP benefits, and MCL 500.3114(5) sets the order of who pays them. It starts with the insurer of the owner or registrant of the motor vehicle involved, then the insurer of that vehicle's operator, then your own motor vehicle insurer, then the motor vehicle insurer of the motorcycle's owner. Notice what is not on that list at all: the motorcycle's own policy.

If no motor vehicle was involved, going down on gravel, a deer, a pothole, a single-bike crash, there is generally no no-fault PIP claim at all. That gap is the one that catches riders, and it is why what sits on a motorcycle policy matters more than most riders assume.

Riding season is closing in Michigan. Worth an honest look at your coverage before it does.

https://www.k-law.com/services/motorcycle-accidents?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=evergreen

Koussan Law. Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette. English, Spanish and Arabic. (313) 800-0000.

Educational only, not legal advice. Attorney advertising.