Hit by a Drunk Driver in Michigan? The Criminal Case Won’t Pay Your Bills

When police arrest the driver who hit you and charges get filed, a lot of people assume the system will take it from there. The driver gets prosecuted, they get punished, and somewhere in that process, the person they hurt gets taken care of.

That’s not how it works. The prosecutor represents the State of Michigan, not you. The criminal case exists to punish the driver and protect the public. Court-ordered restitution, when it happens at all, is narrow and rarely comes close to covering what a serious injury actually costs. If you want your medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering addressed, that happens in a separate civil claim — one that nobody files for you.

Two Cases, Two Very Different Standards

The criminal case and your injury claim run on parallel tracks, and they answer to different rules. To convict someone of operating while intoxicated under MCL 257.625, a prosecutor has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your civil claim only requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence — meaning it’s more likely than not that the driver’s negligence caused your injuries. That’s a much lower bar. So even when a criminal case gets pled down or falls apart on a technicality, your civil claim can still succeed.

It also cuts the other way, in your favor. If the driver is convicted or pleads guilty, that outcome can become powerful evidence in your civil case. And in Michigan, violating a traffic safety statute generally creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence under the rule of Zeni v Anderson. A driver who ran a light while intoxicated has a very hard time explaining that away to a jury. One caveat: drivers in OWI cases sometimes plead no contest instead of guilty — a plea that generally cannot be used against them in a later civil case under Michigan’s evidence rules (MRE 410). That is one more reason your claim needs its own evidence, gathered on its own track.

Why Drunk Driving Evidence Changes Everything

Insurance companies evaluate claims based on what they think a jury will do with them. And adjusters know exactly how juries feel about impaired drivers. Drunk driving crashes also tend to generate a paper trail that ordinary crashes don’t: breath or blood test results, field sobriety observations, open containers photographed in the vehicle, and police bodycam footage. Drivers say remarkable things at crash scenes and in the back of patrol cars, and the camera catches all of it. Later, if the driver testifies in the criminal matter, those statements are made under oath and can follow them into the civil case.

Here’s the catch — much of that evidence doesn’t preserve itself. Under Michigan’s body-worn camera law (MCL 780.316), police agencies are required to keep routine bodycam footage for as little as 30 days, and access through a Freedom of Information Act request is qualified — recordings made in private places are generally available only to crime victims, the people who appear in them, and their attorneys. A formal preservation letter from an attorney, sent early, is the more reliable way to make sure that footage still exists when your claim needs it.

What Michigan’s No-Fault System Means for Your Bills

Michigan handles car crash injuries differently than most states, and it surprises people. Your own auto insurance — your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage under Michigan’s no-fault insurance system — pays your medical bills up to the coverage level you selected on your policy, plus a portion of your lost wages, regardless of who caused the crash. That’s true even when the other driver was intoxicated. Our guide to what PIP benefits cover explains those coverage levels and deadlines.

The claim against the drunk driver is for something different: pain and suffering, and economic losses that exceed what no-fault covers. To recover those damages, your injuries generally need to meet Michigan’s threshold under MCL 500.3135 — death, permanent serious disfigurement, or a serious impairment of body function. Serious crashes caused by impaired drivers frequently clear that threshold, but proving it takes consistent medical treatment and thorough documentation from day one.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Drunk Drivers and Insurance

People who make the choice to drive drunk are not always people who bought generous insurance. It’s common for a catastrophically injured victim to discover the at-fault driver carries minimum coverage that won’t come close to covering a hospital stay, let alone a lifetime of consequences. That’s where your own underinsured motorist coverage can rescue a case — if you have it, and if the claim is handled correctly from the start.

And in some situations, Michigan’s dram shop law (MCL 436.1801) allows a claim against a bar or retailer that served a visibly intoxicated person before the crash. Those claims carry strict requirements — written notice to the defendants within 120 days of retaining an attorney, and a rule that the drunk driver must be named and kept in the lawsuit — so they need to be evaluated early, not as an afterthought.

What to Do This Week

If you or someone in your family was hit by an impaired driver, a few steps matter more than the rest. Our full checklist on what to do after a Michigan car accident covers the scene, the paperwork, and the insurance calls — these are the drunk-driving specifics:

• Get medical care and follow through on it. Gaps in treatment become the insurance company’s favorite exhibit.
• Don’t give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurer. You’re not required to, and it rarely helps you.
• Write down everything you remember, including witness names and what officers said at the scene.
• Get the police report, and act quickly to preserve bodycam and dashcam footage.
• Talk to a lawyer before you talk numbers with any adjuster.

When to Contact an Attorney

Baldori Law represents people injured by negligent and impaired drivers statewide from our office in Okemos. Consultations are free, and there’s no pressure — just straight answers about where your case stands. Contact Baldori Law to talk it through.

Further reading: our companion piece on third-party claims against at-fault drivers explains the serious impairment threshold — and what you can recover once you clear it — in depth.