Michigan Anti-Auto No-Fault Legislation to be Voted on Tuesday, Time Contact your House Representative

Anti-No-Fault HB 5854 passed out of committee and is going to be voted on by the House of Representatives. 

I ask that you contact your own House member asking them to vote NO on HB 5854.  This will be especially important if you are represented by a Republican caucus member. Please make every effort to make the contact no later than Tuesday afternoon.  Here is a link, phone is better than email regardless contact them please it is the future of No-Fault.  Link to contact state representative.

A quick update on the past week’s activities and expected action in the House and Senate.

As expected, HB 5854 (Assigned Claims bill) was reported out of the House Insurance Committee on Dec 3^rd on a strict party line basis.  All the democratic amendments offered in committee were defeated.  The bill  was immediately scheduled on the House calendar to move from  Second to Third Reading yesterday.  CPAN, along with its members, worked the House members securing No votes on the bill.  We should have most of the House Democratic Caucus (other than Santana and Olumba) and the following solid no votes from the Republican side:  Graves, Hooker, Callton, Foster, Crawford, Haines, Howrylak, McCready, MacGregor, Zorn. 

Representatives Jacobson, Schmidt, Somerville and Johnson were leaning no but were still working thru the issue.  Others including Kesto, Muxlow and Kowall were undecided.

In the Senate, the Senate Insurance Committee took up SB 1140 (Senator Virgil Smith) which would disqualify a passenger injured in an accident from PIP benefits if that passenger had knowledge that the car was unlawfully taken. The bill goes further to disqualify a driver injured in an accident if that driver had been excluded from that policy covering the auto.  While CPAN testified in opposition to the bill as introduced, the committee was only open to modification to address a situation if the passenger in the auto was a minor. CPAN is drafting an amendment to clarify and hopefully cover minors in these situations. There was no traction by our testimony to amend the ineligibility of the excluded driver.  If our amendment is accepted by Senator Smith and the insurance industry, CPAN will likely take a neutral position. The bill is going to move on the Senate floor next Tuesday.

Finally, SB 1148 (Sen. Arlan Meekhof) which would address fraud, family provided attendant care and establish a new catastrophic claims fund is still being pushed by certain segments of the insurance industry(MIC) for movement in lame. While many stakeholders, including some of the insurance interests have advised Sen. Meekhof  to not push this controversial and complex bill in lame duck, he has yet to back down. We will keep you posted if we learn that the bill has picked up any momentum in the next few days.

KAM