MCL 500.3145: Michigan No-Fault Deadlines and One-Year-Back Rule

The Michigan no-fault statute of limitations, set out in MCL 500.3145, gives you one year from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit for personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. That hard deadline softens considerably if you send the insurer written notice of injury within the first year or if the insurer has already paid any PIP benefit on the claim. Either event converts the fixed deadline into a rolling one-year window tied to your most recent covered loss. Separate rules pause the clock during claim review, cap how far back you can recover, and treat property damage claims more strictly.

The One-Year Default Deadline

MCL 500.3145(1) bars any PIP lawsuit started more than one year after the accident unless something has happened to extend that deadline.¹ This is the version of the rule that catches people off guard. Talking with an adjuster, submitting bills, and arguing over coverage do not, by themselves, preserve the right to sue. Only two things do: proper written notice of injury, or a PIP payment the insurer has already made on the claim.

Two Ways to Preserve the Claim Past Year One

Written Notice of Injury

Under MCL 500.3145(4), written notice of the injury sent to the insurer or an authorized agent within one year of the accident preserves the right to sue.¹ The notice is not a lawsuit and does not need legal formatting. It must identify the person claiming benefits by name and address, name the injured person (who can be someone else), and describe the time, place, and nature of the injury in plain language. Anyone can send it on the injured person’s behalf. Certified mail with a return receipt is the safest delivery because it creates dated proof the insurer received it.

A PIP Payment Already Made

If the insurer paid any PIP benefit on the injury before the one-year mark, the default deadline no longer applies. No separate written notice is required.¹ This matters often, because insurers routinely pay some initial medical bills or wage loss and then deny later treatment. Keep records of every payment with dates. Those records are what prove the deadline was extended.

The Rolling One-Year Window

Once the claim is preserved, the deadline stops being fixed to the accident date and starts moving with your losses. MCL 500.3145(2) allows a lawsuit to be filed within one year after the most recent allowable expense, work-loss payment, or survivor’s loss you incurred.¹ Allowable expenses include charges for reasonably necessary medical products, services, and accommodations tied to care, recovery, or rehabilitation.²

Serious injuries rarely finish producing costs in the first twelve months. Someone who undergoes surgery eighteen months after the crash still has one year from that surgery date to file, as long as notice was given or a payment was made during the first year. Each new covered loss restarts the one-year clock. When treatment and wage losses finally stop, however, the final one-year window begins running, and missing it ends the claim permanently.

The One-Year-Back Rule on Recovery

Filing on time is not the same as recovering everything you are owed. MCL 500.3145(2) separately caps recovery: you cannot collect benefits for any loss incurred more than one year before the date you filed the lawsuit.¹ This is the one-year-back rule, and it runs on its own clock, independent of the filing deadline.

The Michigan Court of Appeals applied it directly in a case where a provider filed suit on November 4, 2019; the court barred recovery for every expense incurred before November 4, 2018, regardless of whether the bills were legitimate and unpaid.³ Each month of delay erases a month of recoverable benefits from the back end. If you have $40,000 in unpaid bills spread across two years, filing six months late means the oldest six months of bills are gone. The filing deadline decides whether you can sue. The one-year-back rule decides how much you can collect.

Tolling While the Insurer Reviews a Claim

MCL 500.3145(3), added by the 2019 no-fault reforms, pauses the limitations period while the insurer evaluates a specific claim. The clock stops when you submit the claim and stays stopped until the insurer formally denies it.¹ When the denial arrives, the clock resumes where it left off. Seven months remaining before submission means seven months remaining after denial.

One condition applies: tolling is lost if you fail to pursue the claim with reasonable diligence.¹ Submitting the claim and then ignoring the insurer’s requests for records can cost you the tolling benefit. Respond promptly and document every exchange.

What Counts as a Formal Denial

Not every piece of paper from the insurer restarts the clock. Michigan courts have required an explicit and unequivocal expression of finality. An Explanation of Review form that labels an amount “allowed” or “reduced” without clearly stating the claim is denied does not qualify.⁴ The denial has to use direct denial-of-coverage language that puts you on notice the claim is closed. If a communication is ambiguous, the cautious move is to treat the clock as running again and act accordingly. Assuming you have more time is the riskier bet.

Minors and Incapacitated Claimants

Michigan’s general tolling statute, MCL 600.5851, adds protection for people who were under eighteen or mentally incapacitated when their claim arose. If either condition existed at the time of the accident, the claimant has one year after the disability ends to file suit, even if the usual deadline has already passed.⁵

Three limits shape how this works:

The disability must exist at the time of the accident. Becoming incapacitated afterward does not qualify.
Disabilities do not stack. If a minor was also incapacitated when the accident happened, the one-year grace period runs from whichever disability ends last.
Mental incapacity does not require a court declaration. The statute defines it as a condition that prevents understanding of legal rights.

For a child injured in a car accident, the one-year deadline effectively does not begin running until the child turns eighteen, at which point they have one year to file. A parent or guardian can file earlier on the child’s behalf, but the clock does not expire during minority.⁵

Property Damage Claims Follow Stricter Rules

MCL 500.3145(5) governs property damage under Michigan’s Property Protection Insurance, and the rules are harsher. A lawsuit must be filed within one year of the accident.¹ There is no written-notice extension. No rolling deadline. No tolling for insurer review. Twelve months from the accident date is a hard wall. Property owners negotiating slow repairs or disputed estimates should treat the date as immovable.

Medical Providers Suing Directly

These deadlines apply to medical providers as well as injured individuals. MCL 500.3112 allows providers to assert a direct claim against the insurer for overdue benefits tied to products, services, or accommodations they provided.⁶ MCL 500.3145 refers to “the claimant” without separating patients from providers, so the same filing deadline and one-year-back cap apply. A provider that treats a patient for two years and waits until the end to sue for unpaid bills will lose everything outside the one-year-back window. Tracking denial dates and filing promptly is the only way to protect older charges.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3145 – Limitation of Actions for Recovery of Personal or Property Protection Insurance Benefits
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3107 – Personal Protection Insurance Benefits
3
Michigan Courts. Encompass Healthcare PLLC v Citizens Insurance Company
4
Michigan Courts. Encompass Healthcare PLLC v Citizens Insurance Company – MSC Brief
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 600.5851 – Disabilities of Infancy or Insanity
6
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3112 – Claims by Health Care Providers