{"id":2165,"date":"2011-05-25T12:49:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T18:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bgs.com\/?p=2165"},"modified":"2011-05-25T12:49:28","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T18:49:28","slug":"the-minnesota-no-fault-act-long-overdue-changes-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/25\/the-minnesota-no-fault-act-long-overdue-changes-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Minnesota No-Fault Act: Long Overdue Changes Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota passed the \u201cNo-Fault Act\u201d<\/a> in 1974 and it became effective on January 1, 1975.\u00a0 The purpose of the Act was, among other things, to insure prompt payment of certain types of benefits to replace lost wages and to pay for medical care.\u00a0 Minn. Stat. 65B.42.\u00a0 One of the goals was to reduce public funds being used to help uncompensated victims of car crashes who could not afford medical care or could not work because of injuries suffered in a car crash.\u00a0 Another goal was to eliminate small value lawsuits and reduce the drain on judicial resources.\u00a0 In return, injured people gave up certain rights too, namely that they must satisfy a tort \u201cthreshold\u201d to recover any non-economic losses from the party causing the collision.\u00a0 One of the main \u201cthresholds\u201d is whether or not the person suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury.\u00a0 At trial, injured people lose approximately 40-50{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of the time and recover nothing because a jury finds that they have not suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury.
\nOne of the no-fault benefits is reimbursement for lost wages.\u00a0 Initially, the legislature indicated that a person could obtain 85{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of their lost wages subject to a maximum of $200 per week.\u00a0 In 1979 the maximum wage loss amount was increased to $250 per week.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in the following 32 years, the $250 weekly maximum has not changed.\u00a0 As a result, injured people are finding that they cannot survive economically if they suffer a serious injury that keeps them out of work for several weeks.\u00a0 Certainly, costs for gasoline, food, mortgage payments and medical expenses have not stayed at their 1979 levels.
\nAdditionally, the funeral benefit was set at $2,000 in 1975 and has not been changed since.\u00a0 The average funeral now costs well in excess of $10,000.\u00a0 Thus, families that have lost a loved one through the carelessness of another driver are disappointed to learn that they can only obtain $2,000 from their own car insurance carrier.\u00a0 The at-fault driver\u2019s insurer almost never offers or pays any money to make up the difference until the case is settled, which may take another year or two.
\nAlso, the No-Fault Act set survivor\u2019s economic loss benefits subject to a $200 per week maximum.\u00a0 Thus, if a wage-earning spouse with young children dies and had earned $65,000 each year, that lost salary is replaced with $10,400 in benefits.\u00a0 Again, the at-fault driver\u2019s insurance company does not make any advance payments and it can often take months or years to resolve the claim against the at-fault driver.
\nThe Minnesota Association for Justice, an organization to which I belong, has tried for several years now to raise these limits the victim\u2019s maximum amounts have not been raised to account for inflation in more than 30 years.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the insurance company lobbyists and some legislators have prevented these bills from passing.
\nWhat can you do?\u00a0 You can contact your insurance agent and ask them to increase your wage loss benefits to $500 a week at a nominal cost of $20 or less for every six months.\u00a0 However, this doesn\u2019t do anything about the low funeral expense benefit.\u00a0 Additionally, you can contact your legislators during the next legislative session and urge them to support bills offered by MNAJ regarding no-fault insurance to raise these unfairly low limits.
\nIf you you\u2019ve any questions, you can e-mail me at jbuchman@bgs.com<\/a> or call me at 763-783-5121.
\n~ Jon T. Buchman<\/a>
\nPersonal Injury Attorney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota passed the \u201cNo-Fault Act\u201d in 1974 and it became effective on January 1, 1975.\u00a0 The purpose of the Act was, among other things, to insure prompt payment of certain types of benefits to replace lost wages and to pay for medical care.\u00a0 Minn. Stat. 65B.42.\u00a0 One of the goals was to reduce public funds being used to help uncompensated victims of car crashes who could not afford medical care or could not work because of injuries suffered in a car crash.\u00a0 Another goal was to eliminate small value lawsuits and reduce the drain on judicial resources.\u00a0 In return, injured people gave up certain rights too, namely that they must satisfy a tort \u201cthreshold\u201d to recover any non-economic losses from the party causing the collision.\u00a0 One of the main \u201cthresholds\u201d is whether or not the person suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury.\u00a0 At trial, injured people lose approximately 40-50{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of the time and recover nothing because a jury finds that they have not suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury. One of the no-fault benefits is reimbursement for lost wages.\u00a0 Initially, the legislature indicated that a person could obtain 85{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of their lost wages subject to a maximum of $200 per week.\u00a0 In 1979 the maximum wage loss amount was increased to $250 per week.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Minnesota No-Fault Act: Long Overdue Changes Needed - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/25\/the-minnesota-no-fault-act-long-overdue-changes-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Minnesota No-Fault Act: Long Overdue Changes Needed - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minnesota passed the \u201cNo-Fault Act\u201d in 1974 and it became effective on January 1, 1975.\u00a0 The purpose of the Act was, among other things, to insure prompt payment of certain types of benefits to replace lost wages and to pay for medical care.\u00a0 Minn. Stat. 65B.42.\u00a0 One of the goals was to reduce public funds being used to help uncompensated victims of car crashes who could not afford medical care or could not work because of injuries suffered in a car crash.\u00a0 Another goal was to eliminate small value lawsuits and reduce the drain on judicial resources.\u00a0 In return, injured people gave up certain rights too, namely that they must satisfy a tort \u201cthreshold\u201d to recover any non-economic losses from the party causing the collision.\u00a0 One of the main \u201cthresholds\u201d is whether or not the person suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury.\u00a0 At trial, injured people lose approximately 40-50{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of the time and recover nothing because a jury finds that they have not suffered a \u201cpermanent\u201d injury. One of the no-fault benefits is reimbursement for lost wages.\u00a0 Initially, the legislature indicated that a person could obtain 85{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of their lost wages subject to a maximum of $200 per week.\u00a0 In 1979 the maximum wage loss amount was increased to $250 per week.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/25\/the-minnesota-no-fault-act-long-overdue-changes-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-25T18:49:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John T. Buchman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John T. 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