Personal injury lawyer help in Shiawassee County, Michigan

Shiawassee County, Michigan includes 12 named communities, the largest being Owosso, Corunna, Durand. Whether an accident happened on a county road, in a small town or in one of the larger communities, the same Michigan rules apply: a 3-year filing deadline for most injury claims, modified comparative negligence (51% bar), and lawsuits filed in the Shiawassee County Circuit Court. This page is the county-wide guide, with links to a page for each community.

You describe what happened anywhere in Shiawassee County using the free claim review form, and your request may be shared with participating attorneys or legal services partners who handle that type of matter in Michigan. Submitting a request does not hire an attorney, and everything below is general legal information, not legal advice about your specific situation.

Federal crash records list 38 fatal crashes in Shiawassee County from 2019 through 2023, in which 41 people died. The yearly count was 8 in 2019, 8 in 2020, 5 in 2021, 8 in 2022 and 9 in 2023; 47% of them happened after dark.

Of the 9 fatal crashes in Shiawassee County in 2023, 3 involved a pedestrian and 3 happened at or near an intersection. Roads with more than one fatal crash in Shiawassee County in 2023: Main St (State Route 21) had 2.

A high share of the fatal crashes in Shiawassee County involve pedestrians. Pedestrian claims often turn on where the person was crossing, the lighting and whether the driver should have seen them, so photos taken at the same time of day and any nearby camera footage matter.

Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), final data for 2019 to 2023. FARS counts every crash on a public road in which someone died within 30 days; a crash counts for Shiawassee County when the reporting agency coded it there. Counts for one place are small and swing from year to year, so read them as a picture of local risk, not a forecast.

Communities in the county with the most fatal crashes coded to them:

• Perry, MI4 fatal crashes · 4 deaths, 2019-2023
• Owosso, MI2 fatal crashes · 2 deaths, 2019-2023

Each community below has its own guide with the local court, insurance rules and every type of injury claim.

• Owosso, MIpop. 14,699
• Corunna, MIpop. 3,404
• Durand, MIpop. 3,338
• Perry, MIpop. 2,100
• Laingsburg, MIpop. 1,277

Smaller communities in Shiawassee County include Bancroft, Byron, Henderson, Morrice, New Lothrop, Shaftsburg, Vernon. Residents of these areas follow the same Michigan rules, use the same Shiawassee County Circuit Court, and can request a free claim review from anywhere in the county.

Michigan generally gives an injured person three years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (MCL 600.5805(2)); medical malpractice is different (two years). Wrongful death claims follow their own deadline, which can differ from the one above. Claims against a city, county, school district or state agency follow separate and often much shorter deadlines. Once the deadline passes, the Shiawassee County Circuit Court will dismiss the case regardless of how clear the fault was, so the practical rule in Shiawassee County is to get legal advice early.

Michigan follows modified comparative negligence (51% bar). In plain terms, you can recover as long as you were not more than 50% at fault, and your award is reduced by your share of fault. In Michigan the 51% bar applies to non-economic damages such as pain and suffering; economic damages are reduced by your share of fault but not barred (MCL 600.2959). Insurance adjusters apply this rule from the first phone call, which is why the way an accident is described and documented in the days after it happens in Shiawassee County has a direct effect on what a claim is worth.

After a car accident in Shiawassee County, your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage pays initial medical bills and a portion of lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. A lawsuit against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering is available only when injuries meet Michigan's serious-injury threshold or costs exceed PIP limits. Minimum required coverage in Michigan is 50/100/10.

Lawsuits arising from accidents in Shiawassee County are typically filed in the Shiawassee County Circuit Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction for Shiawassee County, although cases can sometimes be filed where the defendant resides or does business, and claims against out-of-state trucking companies or manufacturers may end up in federal court. Most claims settle before trial, but the credible ability to try a case in Shiawassee County is what moves insurers to pay fair value.

Employees injured on the job in Shiawassee County are generally covered by Michigan workers' compensation, administered through the Michigan Workers' Disability Compensation Agency. Report the injury to your employer within 90 days (MCL 418.381) — that notice deadline is short and missing it can end the claim before it starts — then file the formal claim within two years. Workers' compensation does not pay for pain and suffering, so when a third party such as a subcontractor, driver or equipment manufacturer caused the injury, a separate personal injury claim is often worth pursuing alongside it.

• Clinton County, MI
• Ingham County, MI
• Genesee County, MI
• Livingston County, MI

See the Michigan personal injury guide for every county in the state.