Michigan auto insurance has a number of differences from car insurance in other locations in the US. No fault insurance is required by law in Michigan, and comes in three major parts: property protection insurance, personal injury insurance, and residual liability, covering property damage and bodily injury. If you need to register your car in this state, you must buy auto insurance in advance and prove you have coverage. Driving without insurance is against the law.
Policies under Michigan's no fault insurance provide for reimbursement of medical costs plus lost income from your injury for up to three years. The amount you can receive for this was around four and a half thousand dollars as of 2007. This amount also applies when someone who has died in an accident and who has Michigan auto insurance. His or her family will receive up to that amount every month for three years to make up for the lost income.
In addition, if someone is injured and can't provide housekeeping or other services for their family, they may be entitled to up to twenty dollars per day to hire other people to do this for them. It's possible to synchronize this kind of coverage to any disability or health policy you currently have to reduce your premium. However, Medicaid and Medicare policies cannot be synchronized. Synchronized policies then become the primary payer, with your Michigan auto insurance covering remaining expenses.
If you use Michigan no fault insurance, the policy will pay up to one million dollars for damage you do to fences, railing, buildings, and other types of property belonging to someone else. This policy also pays for damage you do to properly parked cars that belong to other people.
The no fault law in Michigan is also useful for protecting people covered by Michigan auto insurance from lawsuits, though there are situations where you can still be sued. If you caused an accident where someone else was seriously hurt or killed, you were involved in an accident with an out of state car, or your accident occurred outside of Michigan, you may still be sued.
In addition, if you were more than fifty percent at fault in an accident, you may be sued for up to five hundred dollars in damage to the other car. However, in situations where you're sued or are legally responsible for damages, your Michigan no fault insurance will pay up to your coverage limits.
Michigan requires a minimum of twenty thousand dollars in bodily injury and property damage residual coverage for every person who is hurt or killed in an accident, as well as up to forty thousand for each accident where several people are hurt or killed. Up to ten thousand dollars of coverage for property damage in another state is also required for Michigan auto insurance. Be aware, however, that the court might award more than this, and you would be responsible for the excess.
There are some things that aren't covered by Michigan no fault insurance, too. For instance, there's no requirement for insurance to cover repairs to your car, for comprehensive coverage (which handles flood, animal, fire, vandalism and theft damages) or for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. You have to buy coverage for this to have it dealt with as part of your Michigan auto insurance.
