Case returned to trial court to assess "serious impairment"

Hadieh Katip sued Ali Nasri Sayed, after Sayed rear-ended her vehicle while she was waiting to make a left turn.  Police and ER personnel noted a contusion on Katip's head, and over the next year she made 58 visits to her physician, related to "concussion head injury, cervical disc herniation compression of the cord, lumbar disc herniation L5 with compression right S1, cauda equina sydrome at L4-L5 and carpal tunnel syndrome."  Both the treater and another physician concluded that she was disabled from work and household activities." Nevertheless, under the Engler-era revised Kreiner standard, the trial court dismissed Katip's claim, finding that she had not proved a "serious impairment of bodily function."  The Court of Appeals returned the case to the lower court to evaluate Katip's claims under the McCormick standard of serious impairment (which is likely not to survive the election of an insurance-friendly majority to the Michigan Supreme Court in November of 2010).