Armed with your smartphone, you can download apps like Bird, Lime, or Spin, and in minutes begin cruising down city blocks at speeds up to 20 mph on an e-scooter. One critical element about grabbing a scooter you should be aware of is the e-scooter rental agreement’s Terms and Conditions.

We’re all familiar with “terms and conditions.” Typically, it’s “boilerplate” language that most people never bother to read and instead scroll blindly until they see “accept,” and then the “reward” becomes available. But e-scooter riders should be aware that important language exists buried within these lengthy terms and conditions that may significantly impact your rights in the event of an accident or injury while using the e-scooter.

E-Scooter Liability Waiver

Buried in most e-scooter rental agreements is a liability waiver, which, in most cases, waives a rider’s right to pursue a claim against the e-scooter company for injury or property damage.

Liability waivers are common and, in many instances, make perfect sense. Conceptually, the waivers are simple: a company provides you with a good or service but does not want to be held responsible if you injure yourself or others while using said good or service. In the context of e-scooters, this would logically mean riders are assuming the risk of injury or property damage that may occur from the inherent risks associated with riding a scooter.

However, many riders may not realize that these waivers’ language is much broader. In fact, not only do the terms and conditions waive the rider’s ability to sue the company in the event they are injured due to the risks associated with riding an electric scooter, but riders are also agreeing to waive their right to sue the company if they are injured as a result of the e-scooter company’s negligence.

Riders aren’t the only ones responsible for causing e-scooter crashes. In some instances, crashes and injuries result from the e-scooter rental company’s or manufacturer’s negligence. This negligence can include “vehicle or component malfunction” or the failure to maintain or repair equipment.  Given that numerous injuries have allegedly resulted from scooter malfunctions such as sudden acceleration or loss of brake function, riders need to be aware that they are assuming these risks and may not be able to seek compensation if they are seriously injured as a result of a malfunctioning or improperly maintained e-scooter.

E-Scooter Rental Agreements

If you’re considering signing an e-scooter rental agreement, here’s what you need to know:

You may also be releasing other parties from liability, Riders should be aware that these waivers also cover more parties than just the “rider” and the “e-scooter company.” These waivers apply to the e-scooter companies, their parent companies (e.g. Uber, Lyft, and Ford Motor Company), and also extend to the manufacturers of the scooters — and even the cities in which the e-scooter service operates.

Bird, Lime, and Spin’s e-scooter rental agreements all contain language that defines the municipalities which authorize the companies to operate as “released parties.” Under this term and condition, riders injured as a result of a defect in a sidewalk or roadway the municipality is responsible for maintaining may have waived their ability to pursue a claim against the municipality for the sidewalk or roadway defect.

Time Limits? Truncating the Statute of Limitations

Assuming you can even bring a claim against a company, certain language in e-scooter rental agreements often includes time limitations for bringing a claim. While liability waivers are generally enforceable in most instances, they are not insurmountable and cannot absolve a company from liability for acts that amount to “gross negligence,” or “willful and wanton conduct.” (However, those legal terms also require a significantly higher burden for an injured person to meet.)

In Michigan, injured parties generally have three years following an injury to bring a negligence claim against another party – call the statute of limitations. With few exceptions, an injured person’s claim against another party is forever barred as soon as the statute of limitations period expires.

However, riders should understand that signing an e-scooter rental agreement may include agreeing to a shorter statute of limitations. For example, the terms and conditions for Spin contain language where the user agrees to shorten the statute of limitations period for bringing claims against Spin to just one year. After that time, users cannot bring a claim against the e-scooter company.

In short, you want to take the time to read whatever you agree to, and if you were injured in an e-scooter accident, don’t assume their waivers are iron-clad; contact the experts at Turner & Turner for a free consultation.

Call us today at (248) 355-1727.

To learn about requesting an accident report, click here.

To see a sample accident report, click here.

Your accident report might be confusing to read and understand. Most people aren’t familiar with these documents and find it challenging to determine what all of the information means. Below is an outline of what you might find in your accident report so you can decipher every detail correctly.

Basic Information

Most accident reports have a box at the top of the first page with basic details about the accident, such as:

• Date and time of the collision
• Crash report number
• Name of the investigating officer
• Street, road, intersections, city or town, and state the accident happened
• Vehicle Driver Information

Details about every driver involved in the collision are in the next section. If there’s more than one driver, the report should include information for each one. The details in this section might show:

• Driver’s name, address, and phone number
• Name of the vehicle owner
• Vehicle owner’s address and phone number
• Year, color, make, and model of the car
• License plate number and vehicle identification number
• Motorist’s driver’s license number and the state of issuance
• Auto insurance company, policy number, and policyholder’s name
• Vehicle Occupants and Non-Motorists

Anyone else involved in the accident, including bicyclists, pedestrians, and passengers in the cars, will be in this section. The information provided can include:

• Name of the passengers and where they sat in the vehicle
• Name of bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and other non-motorists
• Address and phone number of each person
• Accident Details

Another section provides information regarding the accident, such as:

• Events related to the collision, such as an impact with a pedestrian, another vehicle, or a stationary object, such as a wall or telephone pole
• The directions all involved vehicles were traveling when the crash occurred
• Road conditions
• Weather conditions
• Point of the impact, such as side, front, or rear
• Actions taken by pedestrians involved in the collision
• Whether the crash happened during the day or at night and the light conditions
• Defects each vehicle contains, such as malfunctioning brakes, worn-out tires, or broken tail lights
• Traffic citations issued for the accident
• Cause of the crash
• Additional Information

You might find additional details associated with the accident in other sections of the police report. Common information includes:

• Whether an ambulance arrived at the accident scene and transported anyone to the hospital
• Name of the EMS and hospital
• Type of damage and location on the vehicles
• Road debris, skid marks, and other details about the collision
• Injuries sustained in the crash
• The estimated cost of damage to each car involved

Diagram and Narrative

Most accident reports include a section the officer can use to describe how the accident happened. The information can consist of the events leading up to the crash, such as each driver’s actions and who the officer believes is at fault.

Typically, law enforcement can determine the cause of the crash by speaking to witnesses and the drivers, passengers, and non-motorists involved in the collision. They can reconstruct the accident using a diagram to show each motorist’s direction of travel and other movements made before and after the crash.

Why You Need an Accident Report

Most people are in shock in the immediate aftermath of a car accident. You likely feel scared and confused about what happened. It’s overwhelming when you’re faced with doctor’s appointments, medical bills, and an insurance claim. Handling all of those responsibilities yourself can seem impossible.

You should absolutely consider hiring an attorney after the accident. Your attorney can help gather the evidence you need to prove another driver’s actions caused the crash, irrespective of Michigan’s No-Fault insurance laws.

One vital piece of evidence is the accident report. If law enforcement indicated someone else was at fault, you could use the report to show the insurance company you deserve compensation for your injuries.

For more information on how to obtain, understand, and use an accident report to help prove your case, contact the attorneys at Turner & Turner PC for a free consultation by calling (248) 355-1727.

With the end of the year in sight, Turner Law thought it would be appropriate to go over one of the biggest elements to consider when deciding whether to file legal action when you have been injured — statute of limitations laws.

In all cases, an injured or wronged person has only a limited time in which to file legal action, so if you have a claim you must act quickly or your chance may be lost.

Prior to tort “reforms” in Michigan, these rules were liberally construed and fairly reasonable. Since the Michigan legislature undertook tort reform, and with the blessing of the state Supreme Court, limitations as short as one year have been upheld as “reasonable.” The Court has also enforced “notice” provisions that may require action within months.

Any seriously injured person must seek expert advice about the statutes of limitation from an experienced professional as soon as possible. Some of these statutory provisions are very complicated. The following synopsis is just a thumbnail educator and no summary should be relied upon as legal advice. Contact Turner Law at (248) 355-1727 for your free consultation to discuss the specifics of your case.

Statutes of Limitation

Whenever the law grants a right to seek recovery for wrongdoing, it also places restrictions on how long the victim has to take legal action. If the victim delays too long in seeking compensation, they are said to have “slept on his rights,” and the claim will not be heard. These limits are called “statutes of limitations” and they vary depending on the nature of the wrong that was committed. In many cases, there are other limitations on taking legal action, as well.

Other limitations include “notice” periods. In many circumstances, the injured victim is required to give notice of his injury within a time period that is even shorter than the specific statute relevant to a case. While we can’t laundry list all of the various notices codified in law, we have offered some of the most common examples for your edification.

No-Fault Auto

If you are injured in a car accident, you normally have the right to collect Personal Injury Protection (“PIP”) benefits from your own insurance carrier. The insurer must receive written notice of the injury within one calendar year, even if no benefits are currently payable. No-fault PIP benefits also have a unique limitation called the “one-year-back rule.”

Under this rule, a lawsuit must be brought within one year of incurring any expense, even if the no-fault carrier has been considering the expense and has not denied liability. No-fault law in Michigan is also unique in that the longstanding rules allowing infants and disabled people additional time to file suit sue cannot be applied to no-fault benefits.

The right to make a claim against the person who caused auto-related injuries normally carries a three-year statute of limitations. This can create problems in several situations. First, the victim can only sue if his injury is “serious,” and the courts often err on a definition of “serious” to mean “life-altering.”

If the injury is not “life-altering” within three years but becomes life-altering after three years, the victim’s right to sue is not extended. Furthermore, many insurers sell Underinsured Motorist Coverage with a statute of limitations of only one year: under these policies, an injury victim who is not aware of the wrong-doers uninsured or underinsured status, or who cannot prove a life-altering injury within 12 months, may lose his right to recover under the purchased policy.

There is also a short, one-year statute of limitations for taking action for damage to property resulting from a motor vehicle collision.

Insurance

Many insurance policies have a limited time allotted for notice or suit, and if the benefits are not mandated by the government the Michigan Supreme Court has held an insurer is free to incorporate any time limitations that it desires.

It is not uncommon for property damage provisions, fire insurance, and auto insurance policies to require a notice of loss that requires action while the victim is still reeling from the loss-causing incident.

The Supreme Court also held that it would not consider whether such limitations are “reasonable,” which and is contrary to the insurance law of many other states. All consumers are presumed by the court to have read and understood their insurance policies, despite the fact that most policies are incomprehensible — even to jurists. Thus, any claim that seeks compensation from an insurance policy must be examined immediately to assess how long you have to take action.

Medical Malpractice

Physicians and other medical professionals have always benefitted from a shorter (normally two-year) statute of limitations. When the suit is brought, it also must be accompanied by an Affidavit of Merit signed by one or more specialists with highly-specific qualifications, which leaves even less time to investigate a potential claim. (Click here for more on “highly-specific qualifications.”)

In addition, the Legislature created a mandatory notice-period in medical malpractice that prevents the filing of suit for 154 or 180 days, depending upon the wrong-doers response to the formal Notice of Intent to Sue.

Because the mandatory Notice of Intent is strictly construed and may be given undue importance, both legal and medical expertise must be incorporated in to that document.

In the case of medical malpractice injuries, there are exceptions to the statute of limitations where the injury was not “discovered” within the statutory period, or where it was fraudulently concealed.

The “discovery” provision allows only six months to take action, which means that a late-discovered claim must be explored by the victim immediately. There is also a Statute of Repose in medicine and in some other professional claims that places an outside limit within which any claim may be pursued.

Finally, there is a special limitation for children in the medical malpractice reform statute. Whereas children injured in many other contexts have until one year after reaching the age of majority in which to take legal action, children injured as a result of malpractice must normally sue by age 10, or within two years of the injury, whichever is later, even if they have not attained the age of majority when the statute of limitations expires.

Product Liability Claims

If a product liability claim alleges a personal injury, these claims must normally be pursued within three years; there is a three-year discovery period after any injury is identified in which late-identified claims may be pursued. If a product claim relates to damaged property or other non-injury losses, it is probably covered by the Uniform Commercial Code and carries a short, one-year statute of limitations. Check with Turner Law for applicability.

Standard Limitations

The basic Michigan statute of limitations for negligence is three years. However, there are so many exceptions that this limitation period cannot be taken for granted. For example, actions for slander, false imprisonment, and many other wrongs must be undertaken within one or two years of the injury suffered.

In essence, every injury should be analyzed carefully within a matter of months to determine the pertinent time for legal action. If action is delayed until the “11th hour,” a claim may be lost, or the ability to negotiate a reasonable settlement without filing suit may be squandered.

Statutes of Repose

In some settings, such as medical malpractice and building construction or design defects, the state Legislature has assigned an “outside date” after which no action will be allowed. In the case of the building, this time runs from the date of occupancy. In the case of malpractice, it runs from the date of injury.

There is a lot to digest here, and this is why representation by an experienced attorney is your best plan of action for obtaining the justice and compensation you deserve. For more information, and to discuss the specifics of your situation, contact Turner & Turner at (248) 355-1727 today for your free consultation.