Answers · Michigan crash law
Hurt in a Michigan Crash With Out-of-State Insurance? The Denial May Be Wrong
You live in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. Your car is registered and insured in your home state. You came to Michigan for work, for family, or for an extended stay, and a Michigan driver crashed into you. Now the insurance company says Michigan law bars your claim entirely because you did not carry Michigan no-fault insurance.
That position is often wrong, and a published Michigan Court of Appeals decision explains why.
Michigan’s bar on recovery for uninsured drivers
Michigan imposes one of the harshest penalties in the country on uninsured driving. Under MCL 500.3135(2)(c), a person who was operating his or her own vehicle without the security required by MCL 500.3101(1) cannot recover damages from an at-fault driver. That includes noneconomic damages, what most people call pain and suffering, and it can reach certain economic damages as well.
Section 3101(1) requires the owner of a motor vehicle “required to be registered in this state” to maintain Michigan no-fault coverage. The statute is aimed at Michigan vehicles and the people obligated to register them here.
The 30-day argument insurance companies make
A different statute, MCL 500.3102(1), says a nonresident may not operate a vehicle registered in another state in Michigan for more than 30 days in a calendar year without maintaining Michigan no-fault security.
Insurers and defense lawyers routinely stack these two statutes together. The argument goes like this: you were in Michigan more than 30 days, so you violated section 3102(1), so you were uninsured under Michigan law, so section 3135(2)(c) wipes out your claim. It does not matter, they say, that you carried full coverage in your home state the entire time.
What the Court of Appeals actually held
In Goings v Giacomantonio-Snow, a published 2024 decision, the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected that argument. The court held that the bar in MCL 500.3135(2)(c) is triggered by one statute and one statute only: MCL 500.3101(1). The Legislature referenced a single statutory section, and courts may not read a second one into it.
A violation of the 30-day nonresident provision does not, by itself, strip an insured out-of-state driver of the right to recover. If your vehicle was properly registered and insured in your home state, spending more than 30 days in Michigan does not automatically make your claim worthless.
The real question: were you required to register in Michigan?
Because only section 3101(1) triggers the bar, these cases usually come down to whether your vehicle was required to be registered in Michigan at all. That turns on residency, and residency is rarely as simple as the insurance company claims.
Michigan’s Vehicle Code generally exempts nonresidents whose vehicles are properly registered in their home state. MCL 257.243. People who split time between two states, keep a permanent address elsewhere, travel back and forth for work, or stay in Michigan on a temporary basis often present genuine questions of fact that a court cannot resolve on a defense motion. Michigan courts have denied summary disposition on exactly these grounds where the evidence showed a driver maintained residences in two states and moved between them.
The constitutional challenge I am litigating
There is a second front in these cases, and it is one I am litigating directly.
Michigan rewrote its no-fault act in 2019. Whether the statute can constitutionally strip every form of tort recovery from a motorist who was fully insured, just not with Michigan-specific coverage, is a question courts are treating as open.
I currently have several constitutional challenges to MCL 500.3135(2)(c) pending in circuit courts across Michigan, including on behalf of out-of-state drivers who carried valid home-state insurance. In May 2026, the Macomb County judge presiding over one of those cases denied the insurer-backed motion for summary disposition and allowed the constitutional claim to move forward, finding it was not legally insufficient on its face. Courts in other counties have since issued substantive rulings engaging the question, and it is headed toward Michigan’s appellate courts.
I have written separately about how this challenge applies to uninsured Michigan drivers. The short version is the same in both settings. Judges are treating this as a serious, unresolved question of Michigan law. The courthouse door is not closed.
What to do if you were hurt in Michigan as an out-of-state resident
Do not accept the denial as the final word. The “you needed Michigan insurance” argument fails more often than adjusters admit.
Preserve proof of your home-state ties. Your policy declarations, registration, driver’s license, lease or mortgage, tax filings, and travel records all matter.
Act quickly. Michigan negligence claims generally carry a three-year limitations period, and no-fault benefit claims are governed by a one-year rule with traps of its own.
Talk to a lawyer who has litigated this exact issue. This is a narrow, technical corner of Michigan no-fault law, and outcomes turn on how the residency and registration questions are framed from the start.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sue after a Michigan crash if my car is insured in another state?
Often, yes. Under Goings, an out-of-state driver with valid home-state registration and insurance is not automatically barred from recovery, even after more than 30 days in Michigan.
Does spending more than 30 days in Michigan void my claim?
No. The 30-day provision in MCL 500.3102(1) does not trigger the recovery bar in MCL 500.3135(2)(c). Only a violation of MCL 500.3101(1) does, and that requires proof your vehicle had to be registered in Michigan.
The insurance company already denied my claim. Is it over?
No. Denials built on the 30-day argument rest on a reading of the statute the Court of Appeals has rejected. Have the denial reviewed before you walk away.
Talk to someone about your case
I am a Michigan and Ohio trial attorney handling auto negligence and no-fault cases, and I am actively litigating constitutional challenges to Michigan’s damages bar on behalf of out-of-state and uninsured motorists. If you were hurt in a Michigan collision while your vehicle was registered and insured in another state, and you have been told you have no case, it costs nothing to have the question looked at properly.
This article discusses Michigan law as of July 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts, and the law in this area is actively developing. Results in past cases do not guarantee a particular outcome in any other case. Attorney advertising. Gary Safir is a trial lawyer at Morgan & Morgan’s Detroit office.