A: Minnesota law requires that all licensed drivers are covered by automobile insurance. Additionally, Minnesota is a modified no-fault insurance state. This means that you must have Personal Injury Protection (PIP) that covers injuries you sustain in an accident. PIP only covers medical bills and other monetary costs related to injuries or death, such as lost wages, funeral costs up to $2,000, and replacement services. It does not include coverage for your vehicle. Minnesota law requires each driver to have $40,000 of PIP coverage, half of which can be used for medical expenses and the other half for non-medical expenses.

 

PIP does not cover non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, or emotional distress. If you are severely or permanently injured, or if a loved one dies in an accident, you can recover these non-economic losses by suing. You can also sue if your medical expenses exceed $4,000.

 

 

A: Most likely, yes. Under Minnesota’s statutes, you can recover even if you have also done something negligent, as long as you were not more negligent than the other person involved. Your recovery will be reduced by the percentage of negligence attributable to you. This means that if you were 45% negligent and the other person was 55% negligent, you will only recover 55% of what you would recover if you had not been negligent at all. If you are more than 50% negligent, you cannot recover at all.

 

A: It is common for you to not feel an injury until some time after a personal injury accident. For vehicle accidents, Minnesota law allows you to file a lawsuit up to six years after the accident occurred. For products liability matters where your injury was caused by a dangerous or defective product, you may bring a lawsuit within four years of the injury. For medical malpractice claims, you have two years from when you discovered or should have discovered the injury to file a lawsuit. If you are feeling even minor discomfort after an incident, it could be the sign of a more serious injury, and you should seek medical treatment to document the problem. You should also seek experienced legal representation to discuss the incident as soon as possible. Although you have two to six years to file a claim, you should discuss it with your lawyer sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to collect evidence, find witnesses, figure out exactly what happened, and prove that it really was the incident in question that caused your injury.

 

 

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured or killed in an accident, an experienced personal injury attorney in Minnesota can inform you of all of your options and help you get the recovery to which you are entitled. Contact the Kosieradzki Smith Law Firm today for a free consultation regarding your case.