Personal Injury Lawyers in Ann Arbor, MI

Ann Arbor’s population sits around 122,000, but that number understates how many people actually move through the city on a given day. The University of Michigan alone employs roughly 30,000 workers, enrolls more than 50,000 students, and draws over 2.4 million outpatient and emergency visits a year through Michigan Medicine, and most of that traffic converges on a compact downtown and campus core built for walking, not for the volume of cars, bikes, and buses now sharing it. That mismatch, layered on top of Michigan’s no-fault insurance system, shapes nearly every personal injury claim that comes out of Ann Arbor.

The State Street and Ellsworth Road Roundabout

The roundabout where State Street meets Ellsworth Road, straddling the line between Ann Arbor and Pittsfield Township, recorded 85 crashes and 5 injuries in 2024 — a real drop from the 126 crashes logged there in 2023, but still enough to rank among Washtenaw County’s most dangerous intersections for a second straight year. Two other corridors round out the local list: Huron Parkway at Washtenaw Avenue saw 35 crashes and 15 injuries in 2024, and Packard Street at Platt Road added 31 crashes and 6 injuries. Countywide, Washtenaw logged roughly 9,844 crashes, 2,231 injuries, and 35 fatalities that same year.

Pedestrians, Cyclists, and a Campus Built for Walking

A share of Ann Arbor’s injury claims never involve two cars at all. With tens of thousands of students crossing State Street, South University Avenue, and the Diag on foot and by bike between classes, and hospital visitors funneling in and out of Michigan Medicine’s campus, pedestrian and cyclist collisions make up a disproportionate share of the city’s serious injury cases relative to its size. These claims often hinge on right-of-way disputes at crosswalks and unmarked intersections, and on whether a driver — or in some cases a property owner responsible for a poorly maintained sidewalk or crosswalk — failed to exercise reasonable care.

No-Fault Insurance Comes First, Every Time

Because Michigan runs a no-fault auto insurance system, an Ann Arbor driver hurt in a crash — at the State/Ellsworth roundabout or anywhere else — typically files first with their own insurer for Personal Injury Protection benefits, which are supposed to cover medical bills and a share of lost wages regardless of fault. Since the 2020 no-fault reform, the amount of PIP coverage available depends on which tier the driver selected when buying the policy, and coverage disputes are common once treatment extends past an initial emergency room visit.

A separate claim against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering only becomes available once the injury clears Michigan’s “serious impairment of body function” threshold under MCL 500.3135 — a standard that leans heavily on consistent medical documentation, which matters even more in a city where the region’s largest hospital system is also its largest employer.

The University, Michigan Medicine, and Workers’ Compensation

The University of Michigan is Ann Arbor’s dominant employer by a wide margin, accounting for close to 30,000 jobs, including roughly 12,000 within Michigan Medicine’s three hospitals and 40 outpatient clinics. Google, Cisco, and KLA also maintain offices in the city’s tech corridor. Injuries to employees at any of these workplaces generally route through workers’ compensation rather than a personal injury lawsuit against the employer. A personal injury claim still applies when someone outside the employment relationship causes the harm — a delivery contractor on hospital grounds, a subcontractor’s defective equipment, or an injury to a patient or visitor rather than a staff member.

The 51% Rule and Sharing Fault

Outside the no-fault threshold, Michigan applies modified comparative fault under MCL 600.2959. An Ann Arbor claimant found 50% or less at fault has damages reduced by that percentage — someone found 25% at fault for a $40,000 loss recovers $30,000 — but a claimant found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing at all. Multi-vehicle roundabout crashes and disputed pedestrian right-of-way cases are exactly the kind of claim where insurers push fault findings toward that line.

Filing a Claim in Washtenaw County

• Most personal injury lawsuits must be filed within three years under MCL 600.5805(2); no-fault PIP claims run on a separate one-year clock.
• Michigan’s 51% rule bars recovery once a claimant is found half or more at fault, under MCL 600.2959.
• Pain-and-suffering claims after a car accident require meeting the serious impairment threshold under MCL 500.3135.
• Most lawsuits arising in Ann Arbor are filed in the 22nd Circuit Court at the Washtenaw County Trial Court, 101 E. Huron Street.

Choosing an Ann Arbor Personal Injury Lawyer

The Lawyer Atlas is a directory, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice about your specific situation. Because Ann Arbor’s claims mix campus pedestrian cases, hospital-adjacent premises issues, and standard no-fault crashes, ask any attorney you’re considering how often they’ve handled pedestrian or cyclist injury claims and serious impairment determinations in Washtenaw County. Free consultations are the norm in Ann Arbor, and most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, so there’s little downside to getting an early opinion on your case.

See the Michigan overview above for the statewide no-fault and comparative fault rules that apply to every claim filed out of Ann Arbor, or check the Detroit and Warren pages for how the same rules play out elsewhere in the state.