I was hurt in an auto accident about a year ago. My auto insurance company paid some of my medical bills but did not pay others, saying that they were not related to the accident. I know that all of the bills were related to the auto accident. What should I do?
You should contact an attorney immediately as you will probably need to file a lawsuit as soon as possible to protect your rights. Under the no-fault act, there is a one year statute of limitation, and, more importantly in your case, something known as the one year back rule. The statute states, “An action for recovery of personal protection insurance benefits payable under this chapter for accidental bodily injury may not be commenced later than 1 year after the date of the accident causing the injury unless written notice of injury as provided herein has been given to the insurer within 1 year after the accident or unless the insurer has previously made a payment of personal protection insurance benefits for the injury. If the notice has been given or a payment has been made, the action may be commenced at any time within 1 year after the most recent allowable expense, work loss or survivor’s loss has been incurred. However, the claimant may not recover benefits for any portion of the loss incurred more than 1 year before the date on which the action was commenced.”
What does all of this mean? This means that if you gave your insurance company written notice of the accident or your insurance company made a payment within one year, you can start a lawsuit within one year of the most recent expense incurred. However, you are barred from recovering no-fault benefits (your medical bills) for any portion of the loss incurred more than one year before the date the lawsuit was commenced. This is known as the one-year-back rule.
This is tricky stuff. If you think that your insurance company has failed to pay for your benefits, contact me immediately. I can help you.