Tarshish ILR Minnesota No Fault Insurance
From LegalLanding
Contents |
Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act
No-Fault Automobile Insurance is required by law in Minnesota. In contrast to its name, no-fault coverage does not mean that nobody is responsible for the damages resulting from an automobile accident. No-Fault coverage plans cover the Insured’s medical expenses up to the limits of the no-fault policy in the event that injuries are sustained in an automobile accident. Included in this mandatory coverage are liability limits which must be met. Minnesota residents cannot register a vehicle unless they have a policy with $30,000 for bodily injury liability for one person, $60,000 for two people or more, and $10,000 to cover damages to another person’s property. Further, an insured must also have Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist protection equaling $25,000 for injuries sustained by one person, and $50,000 per occurrence.
Minn. Stat. 65B.41-65B.71 comprise the Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act. Policies of automobile insurance must comply with the requirements of the statute. A policy may, however, extend benefits beyond the mandates of the statute. Pavel v. Norseman Motorcycle Club, Inc., 362 N.W.2d 5(Minn. Ct. App. 1985).
Minn. Stat. 65B.46 provides the basic description of when a claim to no-fault benefits will arise. Generally, a person suffering injuries arising out of the maintenance or use of a "motor vehicle" has a right to benefits. Also, a pedestrian struck by a motorcycle has a right to no-fault benefits.
Purpose for Minnesota's No-Fault Act
The requirements of Minnesota's No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act were enacted to serve multiple purposes.
(1) to relieve the severe economic distress of uncompensated victims of automobile accidents within this state by requiring automobile insurers to offer and automobile owners to maintain automobile insurance policies or other pledges of indemnity which will provide prompt payment of specified basic economic loss benefits to victims of automobile accidents without regard to whose fault caused the accident;
(2) to prevent the overcompensation of those automobile accident victims suffering minor injuries by restricting the right to recover general damages to cases of serious injury;
(3) to encourage appropriate medical and rehabilitation treatment of the automobile accident victim by assuring prompt payment for such treatment;
(4) to speed the administration of justice, to ease the burden of litigation on the courts of this state, and to create a system of small claims arbitration to decrease the expense of and to simplify litigation, and to create a system of mandatory intercompany arbitration to assure a prompt and proper allocation of the costs of insurance benefits between motor vehicle insurers;
(5) to correct imbalances and abuses in the operation of the automobile accident tort liability system, to provide offsets to avoid duplicate recovery, to require medical examination and disclosure, and to govern the effect of advance payments prior to final settlement of liability.
- See Minn. Stat. 65B.42 at Minnesota's Office of the Revisor of Statutes Website
No-Fault Questions
Other No-Fault Topics
Important Sections from Minnesota's No-Fault Act
- 65B.43. Definitions
- 65B.44. Basic Economic Loss Benefits
- 65B.51. DEDUCTION OF COLLATERAL BENEFITS FROM TORT RECOVERY; LIMITATION ON RIGHT TO RECOVER DAMAGES (Internal Link)
- 65B.51 DEDUCTION OF COLLATERAL BENEFITS FROM TORT RECOVERY; LIMITATION ON RIGHT TO RECOVER DAMAGES.
- 65B.46 RIGHT TO BENEFITS.
Additional Sources
- Minnesota's Office of the Revisor of Statutes, specifically statutes dealing with the No Fault Insurance Act.
- LawMoose, providing important cases in no fault insurance.
- Minnesota Automobile Assigned Claims Bureau
- Stacking Minnesota No-Fault Insurance Coverage, authored by Matthew Brenengen, Esq.
- Google Scholar, useful for looking up many of the relevant cases referenced in this No Fault Wiki.
- Minnesota State Law Library
- Hein Online, displaying No-Fault Tort Thresholds: The Plaintiff's Perspective; Weiner, Michael L., 24 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 985 (1998).
- Prof. Paul McEllistrem is the expert source who has been the inspiration for this wiki and provided the knowledge basis for this wiki author's understanding of no fault insurance.