LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – In a critical victory for Michigan’s auto crash survivors, the Michigan Court of Claims ruled on Friday February 21st that the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS), the state agency responsible for regulating insurance companies, misinterpreted the state Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 decision in Andary v. USAA.
According to CPAN (The Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault), “In the Andary case, the Supreme Court ruled that two fee schedule provisions contained in the 2019 No-Fault Reform Legislation reducing insurance benefits, could not be retroactively applied to accident victims injured prior to the passage of the new law.” DIFS disagreed in their interpretation of the case.
Judge Christopher Yates said that DIFS had clearly misread the Andary decision and said that none of the fee schedule reductions from the 2019 Auto No-Fault Reform Legislation could be applied retroactively to victims injured before the law changed. The ruling effectively strikes down DIFS’s attempt to limit the Andary decision’s protections, restoring stability for thousands of accident victims.
Court calls out DIFS for misinterpretation.
“It is perplexing and indeed troubling why DIFS would attempt to dilute the protections of the Andary case for that large population of patients,” said Tim Hoste, President of CPAN. “DIFS has proven time and again that they care more about insurance company profits than the consumers they are supposed to protect.” About the court decision, Hoste said that the ruling was a “big relief for thousands of catastrophically injured accident victims throughout Michigan.”
Insurance companies and advocates push back.
DIFS’s actions sparked confusion among auto insurers, many of whom had correctly interpreted Andary to prohibit retroactive benefit cuts to auto crash survivors. However, when some insurers refused to follow DIFS’s directive, the agency threatened legal action. In response, 13 insurance companies sued DIFS in the Michigan Court of Claims, arguing its interpretation of Andary was incorrect.
CPAN quickly joined the fight, filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the insurers’ position, making a strong case for preserving benefits for crash victims.
A victory for Michigan’s legacy patients.
The Court of Claims ruling is a significant win for approximately 17,000 severely injured Michiganders who rely on pre-2019 no-fault insurance benefits. Without this decision, these survivors could have faced drastic cuts to their care.
