Introduced
by
To allow limited “joint and several liability” in certain auto no-fault insurance tort cases, which means a party to the lawsuit pays in proportion to their degree of fault; and to revise the definition of "serious impairment of body function" in the no fault insurance law. A person who causes a "serious impairment of body function” injury may be subject to a lawsuit for “pain and suffering” damages otherwise barred by the no fault law. Under the bill the new definition for such “serious impairment” would be an injury that “affected the person's life in a manner, and for a time, that was not clearly frivolous,” rather than that the current law’s “affected the person’s general ability to lead his or her normal life.” This would reverse recent controversial Supreme Court decisions in Kreiner v. Fischer and Straub v. Collette, which held that serious impairment must exist for an extended period.
Referred to the Committee on Insurance
