Bill Text: MI SB0535 | 2019-2020 | 100th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Crime victims; compensation; payment for towing and storage fee for stolen automobile; provide compensation for victim and insurer. Amends title & secs. 1, 4, 10 & 11 of 1976 PA 223 (MCL 18.351 et seq.) & adds sec. 5b.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-17 - Referred To Committee Of The Whole With Substitute (s-2) [SB0535 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2019-SB0535-Introduced.html
SENATE BILL NO. 535
September 24, 2019, Introduced by Senator
LUCIDO and referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
A bill to amend 1976 PA 223, entitled
"An act to create an agency concerned with crime victim services; to prescribe its powers and duties; to provide compensation to certain victims of crimes; to provide for the promulgation of rules; and to provide for penalties,"
by amending the title and sections 1, 4, 10, and 11 (MCL 18.351, 18.354, 18.360, and 18.361), the title and section 1 as amended by 1996 PA 519, sections 4 and 10 as amended by 2008 PA 390, and section 11 as amended by 2010 PA 282, and by adding section 5b.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
An act to create an agency concerned with crime victim services; to prescribe its powers and duties; to provide compensation to certain victims of crimes and other entities; to provide for the promulgation of rules; and to provide for penalties.
(a) "Claimant" means a victim or intervenor who is injured, or any other person eligible for an award under section 4(1) or 5(1), who files a claim under this act.
(b) "Commission" means the crime victim services commission.
(c) "Crime" means an act that is 1 of the following:
(i) A crime under the laws of this state or the United States that causes an injury within this state.
(ii) An act committed in another state that if committed in this state would constitute a crime under the laws of this state or the United States, that causes an injury within this state or that causes an injury to a resident of this state within a state that does not have a victim compensation program eligible for funding from the victims of crime act of 1984, chapter XIV of title II of the comprehensive crime control act of 1984, Public Law 98-473. , 98 Stat. 2170.
(iii) An act of international terrorism as that term is defined in section 2331 of title 18 of the United States code, 18 U.S.C. USC 2331, committed outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States that causes an injury to a resident of this state.
(d) "Financial injury" means the payment of towing fees or storage fees to recover an automobile.
(e) (d) "Intervenor" means a person who goes to the aid of one who has become a victim of a crime and who suffers personal physical injury.
(f) (e) "Out-of-pocket loss" means the unreimbursed and unreimbursable expenses or indebtedness reasonably incurred for medical care, psychological counseling, replacement services, any nonmedical remedial treatment rendered in accordance with a recognized religious method of healing, or other services necessary as a result of the injury upon which a claim is based.
(g) (f) "Personal physical injury" means actual bodily harm and includes pregnancy.
(h) (g) "Replacement services" means homemaking tasks, child care, transportation, and other services previously performed by the victim that, because of the victim's injury, must temporarily or permanently be performed by a person other than the victim.
(i) (h) "Support" means actual monetary payments made by a victim or intervenor to or for a person principally dependent on the victim or intervenor.
(j) (i) "Victim" means a person an individual who suffers a personal physical injury as a direct result of a crime or a person that suffers a financial injury as a result of a crime involving automobile theft.
Sec. 4. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), the following persons are eligible for awards:
(a) A victim or an intervenor of a crime.
(b) A surviving spouse, parent, grandparent, child, sibling, or grandchild of a victim of a crime who died as a direct result of the crime.
(c) A surviving person related to the victim by blood or affinity, a guardian, personal representative, or member of the same household as the victim.
(d) A health care provider seeking payment under section 5a.
(e) An insurer seeking payment under section 5b.
(2) A person is not eligible to receive an award if the person is either of the following:
(a) Criminally responsible for the crime.
(b) An accomplice to the crime.
(3) An award shall must not be made on a claim unless the claimant has incurred a minimum out-of-pocket loss of $200.00 or has lost at least 2 continuous weeks' earnings or support, but the commission may waive the limitations of this subsection in the case of a claimant retired by reason of age or disability. If the claimant is a victim of criminal sexual conduct in the first, second, or third degree, the commission may waive the limitations of this subsection. The commission shall waive this limitation for health care providers seeking payment under section 5a, a victim seeking payment for a financial injury, or an insurer seeking payment under section 5b.
Sec. 5b. An insurer is eligible to be paid for the actual cost of towing fees and storage fees paid for a victim to recover his or her stolen automobile.
Sec. 10. An award shall must not be made unless the investigation of the claim verifies the following facts:
(a) A crime was committed.
(b) The crime directly resulted in personal physical injury or financial injury to, or death of, the victim.
(c) Police records show that the crime was reported promptly to the proper authorities. An award shall must not be made if the police records show that the report was made more than 48 hours after the occurrence of the crime unless any of the following circumstances apply:
(i) The crime was criminal sexual conduct committed against a victim who was less than 18 years of age at the time of the occurrence and the crime was reported before the victim attained 19 years of age.
(ii) The commission, for good cause shown, finds the delay was justified.
(iii) The commission is making a payment under section 5a.
(d) That the crime did not occur while the victim was confined in a federal, state, or local correctional facility.
Sec. 11. (1) Except for a claim for payment of a financial injury, or under section 5a or 5b, an award made under this act shall must be an amount not more than an out-of-pocket loss, including indebtedness reasonably incurred for medical or other services necessary as a result of the injury upon which the claim is based, together with loss of earnings or support resulting from the injury. The aggregate award under this act shall must not exceed $25,000.00 per claimant.
(2) Unless reduced under this act, an award made for loss of earnings or support shall must be in an amount equal to the actual loss sustained. An award shall must not exceed $350.00 for each week of lost earnings or support.
(3) An award made for funeral expenses, including burial expenses, shall must not exceed $5,000.00 for each victim. An award under this subsection shall must not exceed an additional $500.00 for each of the following services:
(a) Grief counseling for the victim's spouse, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren.
(b) Crime scene cleanup services after crime scene cleanup is permitted by the investigating law enforcement agency, if the crime scene is located at the residence of the victim or of a person eligible for an award under section 4(1)(b).
(4) An award for psychological counseling shall must not exceed 35 hourly sessions per victim or intervenor. The award may include not more than 8 family sessions that include any of the victim's or intervenor's spouse, children, parents, or siblings who are not criminally responsible for or an accomplice to the crime. The maximum hourly reimbursement rate shall must not exceed $80.00 per hourly session for a therapist or counselor licensed or registered to practice in this state, except that the maximum hourly reimbursement rate shall must not exceed $125.00 per hourly session for a psychologist or physician licensed to practice in this state.
(5) An award shall must be reduced by the amount of 1 or more of the following payments received or to be received as a result of the injury:
(a) From or on behalf of the person who committed the crime.
(b) From insurance, but not including disability or death benefits paid or to be paid to a peace officer or a corrections officer on account of injuries sustained in the course of employment.
(c) From public funds, but not including disability or death benefits paid or to be paid to a peace officer or a corrections officer on account of injuries sustained in the course of employment.
(d) From an emergency award under section 9.
(6) In making a determination on a claim filed by a person listed in section 4(1)(a), (b), or (c), the commission shall determine whether the victim's misconduct contributed to his or her injury and shall reduce the amount of the award or reject the claim altogether, in accordance with the determination. The commission may disregard for this purpose the victim's responsibility for his or her own injury if the record shows that the injury was attributable to the victim's efforts to prevent a crime or an attempted crime from occurring in his or her presence or to apprehend a person who had committed a crime in his or her presence. As used in this subsection, "misconduct" includes but is not limited to provocation of or participation in a crime contemporaneous with or immediately preceding the injury.
(7) Except for a claim for payment of a financial injury, or under section 5a or 5b, if the commission finds that the claimant will not suffer serious financial hardship as a result of the loss of earnings or support and the out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of the injury if he or she is not granted financial assistance, the commission shall deny the award. In determining the serious financial hardship, the commission shall consider all of the financial resources of the claimant.
(8) If the commission determines that the payment of an award will cause substantial unjust enrichment and economic benefit to a person criminally responsible for the crime, the commission shall deny the payment.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days after the date it is enacted into law.
