The Metro Times has a piece on Joumana Kayrouz, star of DOT, SMART and road-side signage -- a quite remarkable woman and very interesting history.

The "50" that's casually mentioned -- going after for a client -- is the per-person-per-incident max liability collectible on an insurance policy, the number at the top of your policy, as in, 50/100/50. Limits differ, such as, 100/300/100, etc.

The MI no-fault laws were meant to limit lawsuits, and that figure was intended to be collectible only in incidents of great injury and of gross negligence.

The 2004 ruling noted above lowered the threshold for such lawsuits, and the exploitation of that ruling is one of the major factors pushing rates higher, along with increasing medical and disability claims [[per MCCA, linked above).

The new rating models used by insurance companies may be dubious, and likely, unfairly impact some people, but without major insurance law reform, the rates will continue to run away for everyone.