Michigan Accidents Dictionary

Legal and insurance terms explained plainly

How fast is too fast if the sign says 55? Under an absolute speed limit, anything over the posted number is a violation by itself. A driver does not get to argue that the road...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-03

attendant care

Help with a person's daily needs because injury or illness has reduced independent function. "Attendant" means a human helper, paid or unpaid. "Care" means hands-on assistance...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-22

benzene exposure

You just got a letter that says testing found benzene in the air, soil, water, or at your job site. That means you may have come into contact with benzene, a colorless, highly...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-29

biomonitoring

It can directly affect the value of an injury claim because it may show that a chemical actually entered a person's body, not just that the person was near a spill, workplace...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-27

cancer cluster

Why are several people in one place getting the same cancer? A cancer cluster is a higher-than-expected number of cancer cases occurring within a specific group of people,...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-26

dose-response relationship

Not a guarantee that more exposure always causes more harm in a neat, straight line. Sometimes a tiny dose does little, sometimes effects build over time, and sometimes the...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-26

environmental contamination

The presence of harmful substances in air, water, soil, buildings, or food at levels that can damage health, property, or the environment is known as environmental...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-31

event data recorder

Three years can pass quickly after a semi crash on I-75 near Flint, but the most useful evidence may be captured in the first few seconds before impact. An event data recorder...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-21

exhibition of speed

Insurance companies and defense lawyers like to throw this phrase around because it sounds worse than ordinary speeding. They use it to suggest a driver was showing off, acting...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-03

failure to maintain lane

You just got a letter that says you were cited for "failure to maintain lane" after a crash or traffic stop. That usually means an officer, insurer, or court believes your...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-04

latency period

What trips people up most is that harm can be real long before symptoms show up. A latency period is the span of time between an exposure, event, or harmful condition and the...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-26

life care plan

A lot of money can ride on this document, because it can shape how much is set aside for future treatment, equipment, home help, and lost independence after a serious injury....

DICTIONARY 2026-03-22

Material Safety Data Sheet

A chemical spill, burn, or breathing emergency can turn serious fast if no one knows what was in the product, what symptoms to watch for, or what treatment is unsafe. A...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-28

mesothelioma

Like smoke trapped behind a wall, the damage can stay hidden for years before anyone realizes how serious it is. Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that forms in the...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-28

occupational disease

It can decide whether medical bills, wage loss, and long-term care get paid - or denied. When an illness is tied to the conditions of a job rather than a single accident,...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-24

occupational therapy

Not the same as physical therapy, which focuses mainly on strength, movement, and pain control. Occupational therapy is treatment that helps a person regain the ability to do...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-22

permissible exposure limit

Not a promise that a chemical, dust, fume, or vapor is "safe" below a certain number. A permissible exposure limit is a legal maximum amount of a hazardous substance a worker...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-24

PFAS contamination

You may have seen it in a water test report, a landlord notice, an employer memo, or a letter from a state agency warning that PFAS were found above a safety limit. In plain...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-31

prima facie speed limit

You'll usually see it on a ticket, in a police report, or hear it from a lawyer or judge in a sentence like, "The posted speed was a prima facie limit." That means the speed...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-01

Provocation Defense

This is the argument that a dog owner may avoid liability by claiming the injured person caused the dog to react. In Michigan, dog bites are usually handled under a strict...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-21

residual functional capacity

A person's residual functional capacity is the most they can still do in a work setting, on a regular and sustained basis, despite physical or mental limits caused by injury,...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-22

road rage charge

You just got a letter that says your traffic stop or arrest involved a "road rage" charge, and now you are trying to figure out whether that is a ticket, a crime, or just the...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-02

silicosis

Not a one-time lung irritation from breathing dust on a jobsite or after a single cleanup, silicosis is a serious, long-developing lung disease caused by inhaling very small...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-29

strict liability traffic violation

You'll usually see this wording on a ticket, a court notice, or hear something close to it from an officer or clerk: you can be found responsible even if you did not mean to...

DICTIONARY 2026-04-02

Summary Disposition

If you do not understand this term, your case can be thrown out before a jury ever hears what happened. After a crash on I-94, a fall in a snowy parking lot, or a pedestrian...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-21

Superfund site

Not just any dirty property, old factory lot, or place with a scary rumor about chemicals. A Superfund site is a contaminated location the federal government has identified as...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-26

toxic tort

A toxic tort is a civil claim alleging that exposure to a harmful substance - such as chemicals, dust, fumes, asbestos, lead, pesticides, or contaminated water - caused...

DICTIONARY 2026-03-25