The Minnesota No-Fault Act: Long Overdue Changes Needed

Minnesota passed the “No-Fault Act” in 1974 and it became effective on January 1, 1975.  The purpose of the Act was, among other things, to insure prompt payment of certain types of benefits to replace lost wages and to pay for medical care.  Minn. Stat. 65B.42.  One of the goals was to reduce public funds being used to help uncompensated victims of car crashes who could not afford medical care or could not work because of injuries suffered in a car crash.  Another goal was to eliminate small value lawsuits and reduce the drain on judicial resources.  In return, injured people gave up certain rights too, namely that they must satisfy a tort “threshold” to recover any non-economic losses from the party causing the collision.  One of the main “thresholds” is whether or not the person suffered a “permanent” injury.  At trial, injured people lose approximately 40-50{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of the time and recover nothing because a jury finds that they have not suffered a “permanent” injury. One of the no-fault benefits is reimbursement for lost wages.  Initially, the legislature indicated that a person could obtain 85{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} of their lost wages subject to a maximum of $200 per week.  In 1979 the maximum wage loss amount was increased to $250 per week.  Unfortunately, in the…