Michigan Personal-Injury Practice

Michigan Personal-Injury Practice

NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Michigan tort practice is deadline-sensitive and has unusual structural gates — the no-fault auto regime, the medical-malpractice Notice of Intent and Affidavit of Merit, and governmental immunity. Statute numbers, dollar caps, and day counts change (several Michigan caps are inflation-adjusted annually) — verify every SOL, cap, threshold, and predicate-notice clock against the current MCL before relying, and consult a licensed Michigan attorney about your specific case.

Use this subject-matter bundle for Michigan personal-injury and tort actions — auto / no-fault accidents, premises (slip-and-fall), product and general negligence, medical malpractice, wrongful death, and claims against governmental entities.

At a glance — the eight things that move every MI case

1. 3-year personal-injury SOL at MCL 600.5805. Med-mal runs on a separate 2-year / 6-month-discovery clock (MCL 600.5838a). Calendar at intake.
2. No-fault auto regime at MCL 500.3101 et seq. A car-accident bodily-injury claim is first a PIP / first-party question; a third-party tort suit exists only if the MCL 500.3135 tort threshold is met.
3. MCL 500.3135 tort threshold — death, permanent serious disfigurement, or "serious impairment of body function" as construed in McCormick v Carrier, 487 Mich 180 (2010). The single most-litigated issue in Michigan auto cases.
4. Modified comparative fault with a 51% bar on non-economic damages under MCL 600.2959 — a plaintiff more than 50% at fault recovers no non-economic damages (economic damages are merely reduced by fault share).
5. Several (not joint) liability under the 1995 tort reform, MCL 600.6304(4). Identify all at-fault parties and non- parties for allocation; the defense may file notice of non-party fault under MCR 2.112(K).
6. Med-mal pre-suit gates: the 182-day Notice of Intent (MCL 600.2912b) and the Affidavit of Merit (MCL 600.2912d), with expert qualification under MCL 600.2169. The two most common case-killers in Michigan health-care litigation.
7. Med-mal non-economic caps at MCL 600.1483 (lower and higher "catastrophic" tiers; both inflation-adjusted annually — confirm the current figures in corpus).
8. Governmental immunity under the GTLA, MCL 691.1401 et seq. Immunity is the default; work the claim into a statutory exception (highway, motor-vehicle, public-building, etc.) or it fails.

Statute-of-limitations catalog

Notes:

• The med-mal 6-month-from-discovery extension and the 6-year statute of repose (MCL 600.5838a) are independent of the 2-year clock. Confirm both — the repose can bar a claim the discovery rule would otherwise save.
• No-fault PIP benefits carry their own short 1-year clock and a one-year-back rule (MCL 500.3145) that limits recoverable expenses to the year preceding suit — distinct from the 3-year tort clock for the bodily-injury suit.
• The wrongful-death saving statute (MCL 600.5852) gives a personal representative additional time to bring a survived claim; it interacts with the underlying SOL — confirm the calculation.

Comparative fault — the 51% bar and several liability

Michigan follows modified comparative fault with a 1995-tort- reform structure that treats economic and non-economic damages differently:

• MCL 600.2959 — a plaintiff who is more than 50% at fault is barred from recovering NON-economic damages entirely. Economic damages are not barred at 51% — they are merely reduced by the plaintiff's percentage of fault.
• MCL 600.6304(1)–(2) — the trier of fact allocates fault among all persons who contributed to the injury, including the plaintiff and any non-parties.
• MCL 600.6304(4) — several liability: each defendant is liable only for its allocated share of damages. The 1995 reforms abolished joint-and-several liability for most tort actions (a narrow exception survives for certain medical- malpractice and environmental contexts — confirm in corpus).

Identification of all at-fault actors (parties and non-parties) is the central strategic concern. A defendant gives notice of non-party fault under MCR 2.112(K) (generally within 91 days of filing its first responsive pleading), which lets the jury allocate fault to an absent actor. The plaintiff may then move to add the named non-party as a defendant.

No-fault automobile insurance — MCL 500.3101 et seq.

Michigan's no-fault system replaces most tort liability arising from auto accidents with first-party Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits, payable regardless of fault.

First-party PIP benefits (MCL 500.3105–3107)

• Allowable expenses — reasonably necessary medical care, recovery, and rehabilitation.
• Work loss — up to a statutory monthly maximum (inflation- adjusted; confirm the current cap in corpus).
• Replacement services — up to a per-day cap.
• Survivor's loss for fatal accidents.

The 2019 no-fault reforms

The 2019 amendments (effective in stages from 2019–2020) made sweeping structural changes:

• PIP medical coverage-level choice (MCL 500.3107c) — insureds may elect coverage tiers (e.g., $50k / $250k / $500k / unlimited), ending mandatory unlimited PIP. Verify the current election menu and the conditions for opting below unlimited.
• A medical fee schedule (MCL 500.3157) capping provider reimbursement.
• Attendant-care limits and other cost-containment provisions.

These reforms changed the value and structure of first-party claims substantially — date-of-accident matters because policy elections and fee schedules differ over time.

The tort threshold — MCL 500.3135

A third-party suit for non-economic damages (pain and suffering) against an at-fault driver is permitted only where the injured person suffered:

1. Death;
2. Permanent serious disfigurement; or
3. Serious impairment of body function.

"Serious impairment of body function" is the dominant battleground. McCormick v Carrier, 487 Mich 180 (2010), overruled the more restrictive Kreiner v Fischer framework and set the governing test: (a) an objectively manifested impairment (observable or perceivable from actual symptoms or conditions); (b) of an important body function (one of value, significance, or consequence to the injured person); that (c) affects the person's general ability to lead his or her normal life (an influence on some of the person's capacity to live in his or her normal manner of living) — no temporal requirement and no requirement that the impairment be permanent. The 2019 reforms codified a McCormick-aligned definition into MCL 500.3135 — confirm the current statutory text in corpus.

Excess economic loss (e.g., work loss above the PIP cap) is also recoverable in third-party tort under MCL 500.3135(3)(c) without meeting the non-economic threshold.

Products liability — MCL 600.2945–2949a

Michigan's 1995 product-liability reforms govern claims that a product caused injury:

• MCL 600.2945 — definitions ("product liability action," "production," "manufacturer," "seller").
• MCL 600.2946 — the plaintiff must prove a defect and causation; the state-of-the-art / practical-alternative-design framing for design-defect claims. Subsection (4) carries the FDA / government-regulation compliance defense — a rebuttable presumption that the manufacturer or seller is not liable where the aspect of the product that allegedly caused the harm complied with, or was approved under, a federal or state agency's standards.
• MCL 600.2946a — caps on non-economic damages in product cases (lower and higher tiers; inflation-adjusted — confirm in corpus), with an exception removing the cap where the defendant acted with the requisite culpability (e.g., gross negligence / intentional conduct under the statute).
• MCL 600.2947(6) — liability limits, including the non-manufacturer-seller protection (a seller other than a manufacturer is not liable unless it failed to exercise reasonable care, or made an express warranty that the product failed to conform to, that was a proximate cause of the harm).
• MCL 600.2948 — adequate-warning / failure-to-warn provisions, including the obvious-risk limitation.
• MCL 600.2949a — the knowledge-of-defect exception: where the defendant had actual knowledge the product was defective and that the defect was substantially likely to cause the injury, and willfully disregarded that knowledge, the MCL 600.2946(4) / 600.2946a / 600.2947 / 600.2948 protections do not apply.

Medical malpractice — the pre-suit gates

Michigan imposes two pre-suit procedural prerequisites that are the most common bases for dismissal.

Notice of Intent — 182 days (MCL 600.2912b)

A claimant may not commence a medical-malpractice action until 182 days after giving the prospective defendant a written Notice of Intent (NOI). (A 154-day window applies in narrow circumstances — confirm.) The NOI must contain the statutory elements at MCL 600.2912b(4):

• The factual basis for the claim;
• The applicable standard of practice or care alleged;
• The manner in which the standard was breached;
• The action that should have been taken to comply;
• The manner in which the breach was the proximate cause of injury;
• The names of all health professionals and facilities notified.

A defective NOI does not toll the SOL and can be fatal. Bush v Shabahang, 484 Mich 156 (2009), permits good-faith amendment of a defective NOI in some circumstances — but do not rely on cure.

Affidavit of Merit — MCL 600.2912d

The plaintiff must file an Affidavit of Merit (AOM) signed by a qualifying health professional with the complaint (a single 28-day extension is available for good cause). The AOM must state the standard of care, the breach, the actions that should have been taken, and the manner in which the breach caused injury.

• Failure to file an AOM with the complaint generally means the complaint does not toll the SOL and is subject to dismissal. Scarsella v Pollak, 461 Mich 547 (2000).

Expert qualifications — MCL 600.2169

The standard-of-care expert (for the AOM and at trial) must satisfy the matching-specialty rule — same board certification / same specialty as the defendant, and (the year before the alleged malpractice) devoted a majority of professional time to active clinical practice or instruction in the relevant specialty.

Non-economic damages caps — MCL 600.1483

Medical-malpractice non-economic damages are capped:

• A lower (standard) cap and a higher (catastrophic) cap — the higher cap applies to enumerated catastrophic injuries (e.g., hemiplegia/paraplegia/quadriplegia from brain or spinal- cord injury, permanent loss of cognitive capacity, permanent loss of a reproductive organ).
• Both caps are adjusted for inflation annually. Do not hardcode a dollar figure — point to corpus / the State Court Administrative Office's current-year table for the operative amount on the date of judgment.

Economic damages (medical expenses, wage loss, lost earning capacity) are not capped.

Wrongful death — MCL 600.2922

Michigan consolidates wrongful-death and survival claims into a single wrongful-death action (the "wrongful-death saving statute"):

• The action is brought by the personal representative of the decedent's estate.
• It runs on the SOL of the underlying claim (e.g., 3-year negligence, or the med-mal clock for a malpractice death), with the MCL 600.5852 saving statute giving the personal representative additional time to bring a survived claim — confirm the interaction with the underlying SOL.
• Damages include conscious pain and suffering of the decedent before death, loss of financial support, and the loss of society and companionship of surviving family members under MCL 600.2922(6).
• A wrongful-death settlement requires probate-court approval and distribution among statutory beneficiaries.

Governmental immunity — the GTLA, MCL 691.1401 et seq.

Claims against the State, counties, municipalities, school districts, and other governmental agencies are governed by the Governmental Tort Liability Act.

Critical mechanics:

• Broad immunity is the default. MCL 691.1407(1) immunizes a governmental agency engaged in the exercise or discharge of a governmental function. The claim must fit a statutory exception or it fails. The exceptions:
  • Highway exception — MCL 691.1402 (failure to keep highways in reasonable repair), with a strict pre-suit notice requirement under MCL 691.1404 (typically 120 days).
  • Motor-vehicle exception — MCL 691.1405 (negligent operation of a government-owned vehicle).
  • Public-building exception — MCL 691.1406 (dangerous / defective public building).
  • Proprietary-function, governmental-hospital, and sewage-disposal exceptions also exist — confirm scope in corpus.
• Individual employees — MCL 691.1407(2) immunizes employees unless their conduct amounted to gross negligence that was "the proximate cause" of the injury. Robinson v City of Detroit, 462 Mich 439 (2000), construes "the proximate cause" as the one most immediate cause — a demanding standard.
• Notice and timing traps — several exceptions carry their own short pre-suit notice clocks (the highway exception's 120-day notice under MCL 691.1404 is the classic). Calendar these separately from the underlying SOL.

High-yield Michigan PI checks

1. What's the SOL? General PI 3 years (MCL 600.5805); med-mal 2-year / 6-month-discovery / 6-year repose (MCL 600.5838a); PIP 1 year + one-year-back (MCL 500.3145).
2. Auto case? Is it first-party PIP, third-party tort, or both? Does the injury meet the MCL 500.3135 threshold (death, permanent serious disfigurement, or serious impairment of body function under McCormick)? Date-of-accident PIP election tier and fee schedule (2019 reforms)?
3. Comparative fault? Plaintiff more than 50% at fault → no non-economic recovery (MCL 600.2959). Non-parties at fault identified? Several-liability allocation (MCL 600.6304(4))? Defense MCR 2.112(K) non-party notice?
4. Medical malpractice? 182-day NOI (MCL 600.2912b) + AOM filed with complaint (MCL 600.2912d) + matching-specialty expert (MCL 600.2169) + non-economic cap (MCL 600.1483, current- year inflation figure)?
5. Governmental defendant? Does the claim fit a GTLA exception (highway / motor-vehicle / public-building)? Pre-suit notice clock (e.g., 120 days under MCL 691.1404)? Gross-negligence / "the proximate cause" standard for individual employees?
6. Products case? Defect + causation (MCL 600.2946); FDA / government-regulation compliance presumption (MCL 600.2946(4)); non-manufacturer-seller protection (MCL 600.2947(6)); knowledge-of-defect exception that defeats those defenses (MCL 600.2949a); cap under MCL 600.2946a (current figure)?
7. Wrongful death? Personal representative appointed? Underlying SOL + MCL 600.5852 saving statute? Loss-of-society damages (MCL 600.2922(6))? Probate approval of any settlement?

Drafting checklist

• Confirm the 3-year SOL (or the med-mal / PIP clock) is not running out within 30 days.
• In an auto case, plead the MCL 500.3135 threshold with specificity — objectively manifested, important body function, effect on general ability to lead a normal life (McCormick).
• Plead comparative fault awareness — non-economic recovery is barred above 50% fault (MCL 600.2959); address any defense MCR 2.112(K) non-party notice and move to add necessary defendants.
• For medical malpractice, send the 182-day NOI with all MCL 600.2912b(4) elements before filing; file the AOM with the complaint under MCL 600.2912d; confirm the expert satisfies MCL 600.2169.
• In the damages prayer, point to the current-year MCL 600.1483 / 600.2946a cap figure rather than hardcoding an amount; separate economic (uncapped) from non-economic (capped).
• For a governmental defendant, draft to a GTLA exception and serve any required pre-suit notice (e.g., MCL 691.1404) on its own clock.
• For a products case, name the manufacturer and assess the non-manufacturer-seller protection (MCL 600.2947(6)) and the FDA / government-regulation compliance presumption (MCL 600.2946(4)).
• For wrongful death, confirm a personal representative is appointed and plead under MCL 600.2922 with loss-of-society damages.

Composition

• For statewide format and caption: mi-statewide-format
• For Circuit Court venue: mi-wayne, mi-oakland, mi-circuit-courts
• For District Court (≤ $25k) venue: mi-district-courts, mi-36th-district
• For first responsive pleading: mi-first-30-days
• For drafting motions / declarations / orders: mi-draft-motion, mi-draft-declaration, mi-draft-order
• For SOL / NOI / notice-of-claim clocks: mi-deadlines
• For discovery: mi-discovery
• For QC: mi-quality-check, mi-fact-check

References

• mi-law-references — MCL, MCR, MRE, and federal symlinks
• MCL 600.5805 — general 3-year personal-injury / property SOL
• MCL 600.5838a — medical-malpractice SOL + 6-year repose
• MCL 600.2959 — modified comparative fault (51% non-economic bar)
• MCL 600.6304 — allocation of fault + several liability
• MCL 500.3101 et seq. — no-fault automobile insurance regime
• MCL 500.3105–3107 / 3107c / 3157 — PIP benefits + 2019 reforms
• MCL 500.3135 — third-party tort threshold
• MCL 500.3145 — PIP 1-year SOL + one-year-back rule
• MCL 600.2945–2949a — products liability
• MCL 600.2912b — 182-day Notice of Intent (med-mal)
• MCL 600.2912d — Affidavit of Merit (med-mal)
• MCL 600.2169 — expert qualifications (med-mal)
• MCL 600.1483 — medical-malpractice non-economic caps (inflation- adjusted; see current-year figure in corpus)
• MCL 600.2922 / 600.5852 — wrongful death + saving statute
• MCL 691.1401 et seq. — Governmental Tort Liability Act
• MCL 691.1402 / 691.1404 / 691.1405 / 691.1406 / 691.1407 — GTLA exceptions + highway notice + employee immunity
• MCR 2.112(K) — notice of non-party fault
• McCormick v Carrier, 487 Mich 180 (2010) — serious impairment of body function
• Robinson v City of Detroit, 462 Mich 439 (2000) — GTLA "the proximate cause" standard
• Scarsella v Pollak, 461 Mich 547 (2000) — AOM filing requirement
• Bush v Shabahang, 484 Mich 156 (2009) — NOI amendment