Michigan Car Accident Claims: How PIP Benefits and a Lawsuit Work Together

You were hurt in a car crash in Michigan, and now there are medical bills, missed work and insurance companies asking questions. Here is the plain answer: you probably have two claims, and they work together. Your own auto insurer owes you personal injury protection (PIP) benefits for medical care, much of your lost income and help at home, no matter who was at fault. Separately, you may have a claim against the driver who caused the crash: for pain and suffering if your injury meets Michigan’s legal threshold, for losses PIP doesn’t cover, and for up to $3,000 in vehicle damage your insurance doesn’t pay. Each claim has its own deadline.

This guide takes you through both claims, with the Michigan law behind each rule. For most people, the first deadline is written notice to your own insurer within one year of the crash.

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How do the two Michigan car accident claims fit together?

Michigan is a no-fault state. Your own auto policy pays your basic injury costs, whoever caused the crash. In exchange, the law limits when you can sue the driver who did (MCL 500.3135). Here is how the two claims compare.

The two claims don’t overlap. PIP pays your medical bills and lost income up to its limits. The claim against the other driver covers what PIP never pays, such as pain and suffering, and losses beyond PIP’s limits. PIP usually comes first, and the second claim takes shape as your recovery becomes clearer.

What does PIP pay after a Michigan car accident?

PIP is the injury coverage in every Michigan auto policy. Your insurer owes PIP benefits “without regard to fault” (MCL 500.3105(2)), so you can claim them even if the crash was partly or entirely your fault. Under MCL 500.3107, PIP pays for three kinds of loss.

Medical care and recovery

PIP pays “allowable expenses”: reasonable charges for reasonably necessary products, services and accommodations for your care, recovery or rehabilitation (MCL 500.3107(1)(a)). Besides hospital, doctor and therapy bills, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) lists items like attendant care, rides to and from medical appointments, and vehicle modifications. If someone dies, PIP also pays funeral and burial costs up to the amount in the policy, which must be between $1,750 and $5,000.

How much PIP pays for medical care depends on the coverage level on the policy. For policies issued or renewed after July 1, 2020, drivers choose unlimited coverage, $500,000 or $250,000 per person per accident, or, if they qualify, $50,000 (some Medicaid enrollees) or no PIP medical coverage (people with Medicare Parts A and B) (MCL 500.3107c, 500.3107d; DIFS). Your policy’s declarations page shows which level you have. Opting out of PIP medical coverage doesn’t remove the other PIP benefits, such as wage loss and help at home (DIFS). If your care costs more than your limit, you can claim the rest from the at-fault driver, as explained below. Our guide to Michigan no-fault benefits after the 2019 reform explains each option.

Lost income

Work loss benefits replace income you would have earned during the first three years after the crash (MCL 500.3107(1)(b)). Because PIP wage benefits aren’t taxed, the law reduces them by 15% unless you show that your tax advantage is smaller. They are also capped for each 30-day period, and the cap changes every October 1 for crashes after that date. As of September 2026, the cap is $7,201 for crashes from October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, and $7,455 for crashes from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 (DIFS Bulletin 2026-20-INS). Income above the cap, and income you lose after the three years end, can be part of your claim against the at-fault driver.

Help at home

If your injuries keep you from doing ordinary household tasks you would have done yourself, such as cleaning, cooking or yard work, PIP pays up to $20 a day for someone else to do them, for up to three years after the crash (MCL 500.3107(1)(c)). These are often called replacement services. Keep a log of who helps, what they do and what you pay.

What PIP doesn’t pay

PIP doesn’t pay for pain and suffering, and it doesn’t pay to fix your car. Your own collision coverage pays for repairs, if you have it. The one exception is a properly parked car: if another car hits it, that driver’s no-fault insurance pays for the damage (DIFS).

A few people can’t get PIP at all. They include the owner of an uninsured vehicle involved in the crash and anyone willingly using a vehicle they knew or should have known was taken unlawfully (MCL 500.3113).

Which insurer pays your PIP?

Usually your own. A Michigan PIP policy covers the person named in it, their spouse and relatives who live in the same household (MCL 500.3114(1)). According to DIFS, that coverage applies even when you’re a passenger in someone else’s car or a pedestrian. Different rules can apply if you were on a motorcycle, in a vehicle your employer owns, or in a bus, taxi or rideshare vehicle (MCL 500.3114).

If no policy covers you, you may be able to claim through the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan. In most cases it pays up to $250,000 for medical care, and you must notify it within one year of the crash (MCL 500.3172, 500.3174).

How fast does the insurer have to pay?

Once your insurer learns of the loss, it has 30 days to tell you what information it needs to handle your claim (DIFS). PIP benefits are overdue if they aren’t paid within 30 days after the insurer gets reasonable proof of the fact and amount of the loss, and overdue benefits earn 12% simple interest a year (MCL 500.3142). But if a medical bill reaches the insurer more than 90 days after the care, the insurer gets another 60 days to pay it (MCL 500.3142(3)).

If a court finds your insurer unreasonably refused or delayed payment, it can order the insurer to pay your lawyer’s fee on top of the benefits (MCL 500.3148(1)). You can also file a complaint with DIFS. If benefits are being denied or cut off, read our guide to a denied or cut-off Michigan PIP claim.

When can you sue the at-fault driver in Michigan?

No-fault takes away most lawsuits over car crashes, but not all of them. Besides claims for harm caused on purpose, the law keeps three kinds of claims against an at-fault driver (MCL 500.3135(1) and (3)).

Pain and suffering, if your injury meets the threshold

Pain, emotional distress and the loss of things you used to enjoy are called noneconomic damages, because they aren’t bills or lost pay. In Michigan, you can recover them from the at-fault driver only if the crash caused death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement (MCL 500.3135(1)). This is called the threshold.

Without a death or a permanent serious disfigurement, the case turns on “serious impairment of body function.” The statute defines it with three requirements, and all three must be met (MCL 500.3135(5)). In plain terms, the impairment must:

1. Be objectively manifested: someone other than you can observe or perceive it from actual symptoms or conditions.
2. Affect an important body function, meaning one of great value, significance or consequence to you.
3. Affect your general ability to lead your normal life, meaning it has had an influence on some of your capacity to live the way you normally did.

There is no minimum time the impairment has to last. The question is decided case by case, by comparing your life before and after the crash (MCL 500.3135(5)(c)). The Legislature amended this section in 2019 to codify the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision in McCormick v Carrier, 487 Mich 180 (2010), as the enacting sections quoted in the compiler’s notes to MCL 500.3135 state.

When there’s no dispute about the nature and extent of your injuries, or none that matters to the answer, a judge, not a jury, decides whether you meet the threshold (MCL 500.3135(2)(a)). Our guide to Michigan’s serious impairment threshold covers the proof, and a special rule for closed-head injuries.

Money losses beyond your PIP benefits

You can also claim economic losses above PIP’s limits, often called excess economic loss (MCL 500.3135(3)(c)). For Michigan residents, this part of the claim doesn’t depend on the injury threshold; people who don’t live in Michigan must meet it (MCL 500.3135(3)(d)). It includes:

• medical and care costs above your PIP medical limit, or all of them if you opted out of PIP medical coverage or were excluded from it
• lost income above the monthly work-loss cap, and income you lose after PIP’s three years end, including future losses

For example, if your policy has a $250,000 PIP medical limit and your care costs $400,000, you can claim the other $150,000 from the at-fault driver. Lost-income damages are reduced by the taxes you would have paid on that income (MCL 500.3135(3)(c)).

Vehicle damage: the mini-tort

For crashes after July 1, 2020, you can claim up to $3,000 from the at-fault driver for damage to your vehicle that insurance doesn’t cover (MCL 500.3135(3)(e)). This is called the mini-tort. If you have collision coverage, that means your deductible. If you don’t, it means the damage itself, up to $3,000 (DIFS). The mini-tort isn’t part of the liability coverage the law requires every driver to carry (MCL 500.3135(4)(b)), so the at-fault driver’s insurer pays it only if the driver bought optional coverage for it; otherwise you collect from the driver.

A mini-tort case must be filed in small claims court whenever legally possible (MCL 500.3135(4)(c)). Lawyers can’t represent anyone there (MCL 600.8408(1)), so you present the case yourself unless either side moves it to the regular civil division before trial (MCL 600.8408(4)). The small claims decision doesn’t settle any other claim from the same crash (MCL 500.3135(4)(d)).

If your car was properly parked when it was hit, your claim is instead for the other driver’s no-fault property protection benefits, and a lawsuit for those benefits must start within one year of the crash (MCL 500.3145(5)).

Where does the money come from?

Usually from the at-fault driver’s bodily injury liability insurance. For policies issued or renewed after July 1, 2020, that coverage is at least $250,000 per person and $500,000 per crash, unless the policyholder signed a form choosing lower limits. The lowest allowed are $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash (MCL 500.3009; DIFS).

If the at-fault driver had no insurance or too little, look at your own policy. Michigan requires only three coverages: PIP, property protection, and liability for harm you cause to others (DIFS). Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is extra, so check whether you bought it. If your claim does become a lawsuit, our car accident lawsuit guide walks through the steps.

Not sure your injury meets the threshold, or whether your PIP limit will last? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What are the deadlines for a Michigan car accident claim?

Two clocks start on the day of the crash, and they run at very different speeds.

PIP: written notice within one year

You can’t sue for PIP benefits more than one year after the crash unless, within that year, you gave your insurer written notice of the injury, or the insurer had already paid PIP benefits for it (MCL 500.3145(1)). You or someone acting for you can send the notice. It must give your name and address and say, in ordinary language, who was hurt and the time, place and nature of the injury (MCL 500.3145(4)). Send it early, keep a copy, and keep proof of when it went out.

Notice is only the first step. If the insurer doesn’t pay, you can sue for the unpaid benefits at any time within one year after your most recent expense or loss, but you can’t recover any loss incurred more than one year before the day you sue (MCL 500.3145(2)). This is often called the one-year-back rule. The clock pauses from the date you make a specific claim for payment until the insurer formally denies it, as long as you pursue the claim with reasonable diligence (MCL 500.3145(3)). So don’t let an unpaid bill sit for months.

The lawsuit against the at-fault driver: three years

Most injury lawsuits in Michigan, including claims against an at-fault driver, must be filed within three years after the injury (MCL 600.5805(2)). The same three-year period covers claims for damage to property, such as a mini-tort case. Miss it, and you generally lose the right to sue (MCL 600.5805(1)). Special rules can extend the deadline for someone who was under 18 when hurt (MCL 600.5851), so ask a lawyer before you count on one.

If a defective road or a state vehicle played a part, much shorter notice deadlines can apply, as the last two rows of this table show.

For every Michigan injury deadline in one place, see our guide to Michigan’s personal injury statutes of limitations.

What if you were partly at fault?

For PIP, fault doesn’t matter: benefits are paid without regard to fault (MCL 500.3105(2)). For claims against the other driver, it does. Michigan uses comparative fault, which means the court reduces your damages by your percentage of fault (MCL 600.2959). In a car crash case, being more than 50% at fault has bigger consequences.

For example, if you’re found 20% at fault, your damages from the other driver are cut by 20%. If you’re found 60% at fault, you get no pain-and-suffering or mini-tort damages, although excess economic damages are still awarded, cut by 60%. If you don’t live in Michigan, being more than 50% at fault bars your economic damages too (MCL 500.3135(2)(b), (3)(d)).

Two more rules can shrink a claim:

• Seat belts. If you weren’t wearing a seat belt when the law required one, that can be treated as evidence of negligence and reduce what you recover in damages, but by no more than 5% (MCL 257.710e(8)).
• Driving your own uninsured car. If you were driving your own vehicle without the required no-fault insurance, you can’t recover pain-and-suffering damages (MCL 500.3135(2)(c)) or mini-tort damages for that vehicle (MCL 500.3135(4)(e)).

Our guides to Michigan comparative fault and to how fault is decided in injury cases explain how the percentages get set.

Do you have to report a car accident to the police in Michigan?

Yes, if anyone was hurt or killed, or if the property damage appears to total $1,000 or more. The driver must report the crash immediately at the nearest or most convenient police station, or to the nearest or most convenient police officer (MCL 257.622). Drivers must also stop and stay at the scene until they’ve given their name, address and vehicle registration, shown their driver’s license, and given reasonable help getting medical care for anyone injured (MCL 257.617a, 257.619). In an emergency, call 911.

What is a UD-10 crash report?

The officer records the crash on the State of Michigan Traffic Crash Report, known as the UD-10. Police agencies complete it for every reportable crash and send it to the Michigan State Police. The State Police instruction manual has officers record each driver and vehicle, each vehicle’s insurance company and policy number, any tickets issued, which drivers’ actions the officer believes contributed to the crash, and a diagram and short narrative. A diagram is required for every injury crash.

If you didn’t report the crash right away, the police agency decides whether it will still take a report (Michigan State Police). That’s one more reason to call the police from the scene.

How do you get a copy?

You buy it online through the State Police’s Traffic Crash Purchasing System, which uses a MiLogin account. As of September 2026, a copy costs $15. To find your report, you need a driver’s license number or the police case number, plus a date of birth and the date of the crash. Reports usually appear within 3 to 30 days, depending on the police agency, and can be bought for up to 10 years after the crash (Michigan State Police).

What if the report is wrong?

Read it closely, including the names, insurance details, diagram and narrative. Only the police agency that wrote the report can change it, and whether it does is up to that agency. The State Police crash reporting unit can’t make changes (Michigan State Police). The agency’s name is at the top of the report under “Department Name.” Contact it promptly, and bring photos or other proof of what’s wrong.

Do you need a lawyer for a Michigan car accident claim?

Not always. If you weren’t seriously hurt, your PIP benefits are being paid on time and your only other loss is a deductible, you may be able to handle things yourself, including a mini-tort case in small claims court. Talking to a lawyer makes more sense when:

• your injury might meet the serious impairment threshold, or you aren’t sure
• your care may cost more than your PIP medical limit, or you opted out of PIP medical coverage
• your PIP insurer is delaying, denying or cutting off benefits
• fault is disputed, or the at-fault driver had little or no insurance
• someone died in the crash (our wrongful death guide explains those claims)

Before you hire anyone, ask how the lawyer is paid, what share of your recovery the fee would be and who pays case costs, and get the agreement in writing. Our guide to how personal injury lawyers get paid explains the details, and these questions to ask an injury attorney can help you compare. For help with the decision itself, see when you need a personal injury lawyer. To see who practices near you, browse Michigan personal injury lawyers by city, with their ratings and the results they report.

What to do next

1. Get medical care, and keep every record. See a doctor as soon as you can, and describe every symptom, even ones that seem minor. Whether you can recover pain and suffering depends partly on an impairment that others can observe or perceive, so your medical records matter. Keep a folder of bills, work notes and mileage to appointments, and a short daily log of what you can’t do.
2. Give your insurer written notice now. Notify your auto insurer in writing with the details MCL 500.3145(4) requires, and keep a copy. Don’t wait for the one-year deadline. Ask your doctors and therapists to send their bills to the insurer promptly.
3. Report the crash and get the UD-10. If the police didn’t come to the scene, report the crash to the local police or a Michigan State Police post. Buy the report when it’s ready and check it for mistakes. Our checklist of 10 things to do after a car accident has more first steps.
4. Be careful with the other driver’s insurer. You don’t have to give the other driver’s insurance company a recorded statement, and it’s safer not to until you’ve had advice. Don’t sign a release or accept a settlement until you know how badly you’re hurt, because a signed release generally ends the claim. Our guide to how insurance companies evaluate injury claims explains what adjusters look at.
5. Get a free case review before the deadlines get close. A lawyer can check your PIP limit, whether your injury may meet the threshold and every deadline that applies to you. Get a free case review, or compare Michigan injury lawyers near you.

What waiting can cost

• Your PIP benefits. Without written notice or a payment within one year of the crash, you can lose the right to sue for PIP benefits (MCL 500.3145(1)). The at-fault driver owes only economic losses above PIP’s limits, so PIP benefits you lose by waiting generally can’t be recovered from them instead (MCL 500.3135(3)(c)).
• Older bills. In a lawsuit over unpaid PIP benefits, losses incurred more than one year before you file generally can’t be recovered, unless the clock was paused while a specific claim awaited a formal denial (MCL 500.3145(2), (3)).
• Your lawsuit. Three years after the injury, a claim against the at-fault driver is generally too late (MCL 600.5805(2)). A defective road or a state vehicle can cut that to months.
• Evidence. A late crash report is up to the police agency to accept, damaged cars get repaired or scrapped, and witnesses become harder to find.

What a good outcome looks like

Your PIP insurer pays your medical bills and wage benefits on time, so your care isn’t interrupted and the bills don’t pile up at home. If your injury meets the threshold, the at-fault driver’s insurer pays fair compensation for your pain and suffering and for the losses beyond your PIP limits. Your deductible comes back through the mini-tort. And each decision, from what to sign to whether to settle, is made with the facts and the deadlines in view, not under pressure.

For the rest of Michigan’s injury rules, see our plain-English guide to Michigan personal injury law. For more on crashes, browse our car, truck and motorcycle accident guides.

Updated September 24, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.