Michigan court affirms critical benefits for thousands badly hurt in car wrecks

By ED WHITE
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court is out with a decision that provides critical relief for thousands of people who were badly injured in car wrecks. The court says people getting care for catastrophic crashes before summer 2019 won’t lose their lifetime insurance benefits. For decades, people injured in crashes were entitled to lifetime payment for “all reasonable charges” related to care and rehabilitation. But a new state law that kicked in in 2019 set a fee schedule and a cap on reimbursements. Suddenly, 18,000 people were in at risk. The Supreme Court says a “vested contractual right” to ongoing benefits “cannot be stripped away or diminished.”