The pain wakes you up at night. Your car sits in a storage lot, racking up fees; you cannot drive yourself to your own appointments, and an adjuster keeps calling to ask how you are really feeling.
Crashes on I-696, the Lodge, Telegraph, and Woodward send people to Corewell Health William Beaumont in Royal Oak and to Henry Ford hospitals every week.
Our Michigan car accident lawyers represent the drivers, passengers, and pedestrians injured on those roads and on highways across the state, from Wayne and Oakland counties to Grand Rapids and the Thumb.
We open the no-fault claim with the correct insurer, prove who caused the crash, document what your injuries cost, and file suit when an insurance company pays less than your records support.
Our office is in Southfield, and we meet clients at home or in the hospital when travel is difficult. Call 248-702-6641 or contact us online for a free case review.
Table of contents
- Why Do I Need a Michigan Car Accident Lawyer?
- What Does Michigan No-Fault Insurance Pay After a Crash?
- When Can You Sue the Driver Who Hit You in Michigan?
- What Compensation Can You Recover After a Michigan Car Accident?
- How Long Do You Have to File a Michigan Car Accident Claim?
- What Should I Do After a Car Accident in Michigan?
- What Types of Accident Cases Does Kajy Law Handle in Michigan?
- Why Michigan Drivers Choose Kajy Law Firm
- Answers to Your Michigan Car Accident Questions
- Talk to a Michigan Car Accident Lawyer Today
Why Do I Need a Michigan Car Accident Lawyer?
A Michigan car accident lawyer identifies which insurer owes your benefits, proves the other driver caused the crash, calculates what the injury will cost over time, and files suit when the offer falls short. You treat your injuries while your attorney handles the deadlines, the coverage disputes, and the adjusters, while also working toward a fair car accident settlement in Michigan.
Research shows that seeking help after a car accident in Michigan can significantly affect how a case is handled. Forbes reports that 91% of represented crash victims recovered money, compared with 51% of those who filed alone, and that represented claimants kept close to three times as much even after paying a lawyer.
The work behind that difference looks like this:
- Pulling the crash report, scene photographs, and business video before it is overwritten
- Reading every policy in your household for no-fault, uninsured, and underinsured coverage
- Tracking wage loss, mileage, replacement services, and household help you can claim
- Building the medical record that ties each diagnosis to the collision
- Filing a lawsuit and preparing for trial when the insurer's offer ignores your medical records and wage losses
Insurance companies raise their offers when they believe a case is ready for a jury. We prepare every file as though it will be tried, even though most of them settle.
What Does Michigan No-Fault Insurance Pay After a Crash?
Michigan no-fault benefits pay for your medical treatment, a portion of your lost income for up to three years, mileage to appointments, and replacement services such as help with cleaning or childcare. These benefits apply regardless of which driver caused the collision.
How much medical coverage you have depends on the level your household selected when the policy was written. The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services publishes the current coverage choices, which run from unlimited care down to limited amounts and, for some drivers, an opt-out.
Three problems send people to a lawyer at this stage:
- The insurer denies treatment a doctor ordered, calling it unnecessary
- Wage-loss checks stop while the person is still under work restrictions
- Your insurer and the insurer on the car you were riding in each point at the other, and your treatment bills sit unpaid while they argue
We read the actual policies rather than assuming the insurer for the damaged car owes everything, and we take a stalled benefits claim to court when the company refuses to pay a bill it owes.
When Can You Sue the Driver Who Hit You in Michigan?
You can sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering when the crash caused permanent serious disfigurement, a serious impairment of an important body function, or death. Michigan's serious-injury threshold does not require total disability.
A serious impairment must be objectively verifiable, affect an important body function, and change your general ability to live your normal life. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, paralysis, amputations, and severe fractures may qualify when they meet those requirements, particularly when considering the long-term effects of car accident injuries.
Courts compare your life before the crash to your life after it. They look at the work you can no longer do, the sleep you lose, whether you can drive, whether you can lift your own children, and the activities you gave up.
Blame affects the payout. Michigan's comparative fault rule reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility, and it bars payment for pain and suffering entirely when you are found more than 50% at fault. Your medical benefits continue either way.
Insurers assign blame early and cheaply, often from a single line in a police report. We answer that with signal timing, vehicle damage patterns, witness statements, and the speed and braking data stored in the vehicles themselves. Our aim is always to protect your rights and the full, fair value of your claim.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Michigan Car Accident?
Most serious crashes produce two claims that pay different losses, and one does not replace the other. A Michigan auto accident attorney pursues both at the same time.
| Source of recovery | What it pays | Where it goes wrong without a lawyer |
|---|---|---|
| No-fault benefits (PIP) | Medical care up to your coverage level, wage loss, mileage, replacement services | The wrong insurer gets billed, or benefits stop mid-treatment |
| Claim against the at-fault driver | Pain and suffering, medical costs above your PIP limit, lost earning capacity | Your injuries must meet the threshold, and blame gets shifted onto you |
| Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage | Losses caused by a driver with no policy or limits too low to cover them | The coverage is optional, and the policy sets its own notice deadlines |
| Wrongful death claim | Funeral costs, lost financial support, and the loss of companionship | A personal representative must bring the claim, and the court must approve how proceeds are distributed |
We prove every dollar in the demand with the treating surgeon's opinion, your pay stubs and tax returns, and testimony from the people who watch you struggle with stairs, sleep, or lifting your own child.
Future costs should be included in that number too. A surgeon's opinion that you will need a second procedure in five years, or a vocational report showing you cannot return to the job you held, converts an expense that has not happened yet into a damage the insurer must account for.
How Long Do You Have to File a Michigan Car Accident Claim?
Two deadlines run at once, and the shorter one catches many people off guard. Written notice of injury generally must reach your no-fault insurer within one year of the crash, and Michigan also limits how far back unpaid benefits can be recovered.
A lawsuit against the driver who caused the collision generally must be filed within three years. Different deadline rules can apply when the injured person is a minor, a government vehicle is involved, or the crash causes a death. Depending on the circumstances, those rules may shorten or extend the time available, so the deadline should be checked early.
A Michigan accident lawyer calendars every applicable date at intake. Waiting costs money even inside the deadlines, because witnesses move, businesses record over their video, and vehicles get repaired or sold.
What Should I Do After a Car Accident in Michigan?
By the time most people call us, the emergency room has already discharged them, and they are working through follow-up visits with an orthopedist or a physical therapist. What protects the claim from that point forward may have little to do with the crash scene.
Here are some small steps that can make a big impact on your claim:
- Hire a car accident lawyer before you speak with any adjuster. Working with a trial-ready lawyer gives your case legal weight and leverage to settle fairly and for more than you might otherwise obtain on your own.
- Keep every medical appointment, because a three-week gap in physical therapy becomes the insurer's argument that you had already recovered.
- Refrain from negotiating with the insurance company yourself and from giving a recorded statement, since an offhand answer about how you slept last night could be twisted against you or get quoted back at a deposition.
- Journal your recovery in writing or on video a few times a week, noting what hurts, which tasks you could not finish, and every way the injuries impact your quality of life.
- Follow the work restrictions your doctor writes, because returning to full duty early undercuts a wage-loss claim you are otherwise owed.
These measures help produce the two things a claim is built on: a medical record with no unexplained gaps, and a day-by-day account of what the injury cost you. Insurance companies read both closely, and so does a jury.
What Types of Accident Cases Does Kajy Law Handle in Michigan?
Kajy Law Firm handles car, truck, and motorcycle accidents. That is the entire practice, and it is why our attorneys spend their days on Michigan no-fault coverage fights rather than learning a new area of law each week.
Car and passenger vehicle crashes
We represent people hurt in rear-end, intersection, head-on, hit-and-run, rideshare, and multi-vehicle collisions, including passengers with no auto policy of their own and pedestrians struck by a driver.
Commercial truck collisions
A semi-truck brings federal record-keeping rules, multiple companies, and far larger policies into the case. Our truck accident claims team sends preservation letters within days so driver logs and onboard data survive long enough to be used.
Motorcycle crashes
Michigan does not require motorcycles to carry the same PIP coverage as cars. When a motorcycle crash involves a motor vehicle, state law establishes a specific order for determining which insurer must pay PIP benefits, beginning with the insurer of the owner or registrant of the involved motor vehicle. Understanding how the no-fault law cover motorcycle accidents can help clarify which insurer may be responsible for PIP benefits.
Car, truck, and motorcycle crashes all share the same principle: insurance policies fund injury claims, and identifying every applicable policy determines the true value of a case.
Michigan logs hundreds of thousands of crashes a year in state traffic data, and many of those that reach our office are the ones where someone was seriously injured and an insurer is refusing to pay fairly for it.
Why Michigan Drivers Choose Kajy Law Firm
Kajy Law Firm has recovered more than $100 million for injured people across more than 5,000 Michigan cases, with over 150 years of combined experience among its attorneys.
Lawrence Kajy started the firm because he watched other offices treat accident victims as file numbers and settle claims cheaply rather than push for their maximum value.
He studied Michigan's no-fault system closely enough to publish a law review article on it at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. The National Trial Lawyers named him to its Top 40 Under 40, and he has been selected to Super Lawyers.
Recent results include:
- $2,517,178.28 for a T-bone collision that caused emergency labor
- $2,200,000 for a driver rear-ended by a semi-truck
- $1,250,000 for a red-light collision causing shin and ankle injuries
- $635,000 for an intersection crash causing ankle fractures and pregnancy complications
- $457,308 for injuries caused by a driver making a U-turn
Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes in other cases, but they do demonstrate the dedication we bring to every client we represent.
Clients who need help beyond a motor vehicle claim can ask about our Southfield personal injury representation, handled by the same attorneys.
"Fantastic lawyers and staff. Helped me settle for more than I thought and great to work with through the entire thing." — A. C.
Call 248-702-6641 or contact us online to start your case today.
Answers to Your Michigan Car Accident Questions
How much does it cost to hire a car accident lawyer?
We work on a contingency basis, so you pay us nothing unless we win your case. This approach gives everyone access to quality legal representation regardless of their financial situation, and we explain every case expense in writing before you sign.
Can I still file a claim if I was not wearing a seat belt?
You can still pursue a claim if you were not wearing a seat belt. When Michigan's seat-belt law applies, failure to wear one may be considered evidence of negligence, but the resulting reduction in damages is capped at 5%.
What if the person who hit me was driving a company vehicle?
The employer's insurance policy often applies alongside the driver's, and those policies usually carry much higher limits. We identify the vehicle's owner, the employer, and every policy covering the trip before filing anything.
My accident happened outside the Detroit area. Can you still take my case?
We handle motor vehicle claims across Michigan, from Grand Rapids and Lansing to the Thumb and up I-75. Records, witnesses, and court filings can be managed remotely, and our attorneys travel for depositions and hearings.
What happens if the insurance company already denied my claim?
A denial is a position, not a final answer. We request it in writing, review the policy language it relies on, and sue the insurer when the stated reason does not hold up against your medical records. Insurers reverse denials regularly once a treating doctor's opinion lands on the adjuster's desk.
Should I accept the insurance company's first settlement offer?
An early offer usually arrives before anyone knows whether you need surgery or long-term care, and signing a release can permanently close the claims covered by it. Have the offer measured against your future treatment costs and lost earnings before you decide.
Talk to a Michigan Car Accident Lawyer Today
Every week that passes after a crash costs you something. Gas station and business cameras overwrite their footage, witnesses forget which light was green, and the one-year notice deadline approaches while you are still in treatment.
One conversation tells you which insurance company owes your benefits, whether your injuries support a claim against the other driver, and what your case realistically looks like. We will tell you plainly if you do not need us.
Kajy Law Firm, PLLC is at 18000 W Nine Mile Rd, Suite 1400, Southfield, MI 48075. Call 248-702-6641 day or night, or contact us online. There is no fee unless we win.