Ingham County Circuit Court, Docket No. 77-20081-CR; Unpublished
Judge James R. Giddings
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: Not Applicable; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Standards for Deductibility of State and Federal Governmental Benefits [§3109(1)]
State Workers Compensation Benefits [§3109(1)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Legislative Purpose and Intent
CASE SUMMARY:
In a written Opinion dealing with §3109(1) of the no-fault act, Judge Giddings ruled that the language permitting the no-fault carrier to offset "benefits provided or required to be provided" by governmental sources only permit an insurance company to deduct governmental benefits actually received by the injured person as long as the injured person has made a good faith effort to pursue available governmental benefits.
Judge Giddings held that the language "provided or required to be provided" would permit a setoff where an injured person has not bothered to file a claim for collateral governmental benefits or has unreasonably delayed in making a claim for such benefits in order to ease or maximize an award of no-fault benefits. However, where the injured person takes reasonable steps to collect his collateral governmental benefits and is only successful in obtaining part of those benefits, then the no-fault carrier is only permitted to claim an offset to the extent of the benefits received by the injured person.
This particular case dealt with a situation where the plaintiff had received a workers compensation award which totaled approximately $21,000. However, due to the fact that plaintiff’s employer had violated the law and had not obtained worker's compensation coverage, plaintiff had great difficulty in collecting his award. Finally, after numerous efforts, plaintiff entered into a settlement with his employer and redeemed his workers' compensation claim for approximately $5,400. By the time attorney fees were deducted, plaintiff had only received about $4,000 in workers' compensation benefits.
Judge Giddings ruled that this is the only amount the no-fault insurer could claim as an offset, and in so holding, rejected the attempts of the no-fault carrier to offset the entire $21,000 award.
