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Let Us Put Our Experience & Expertise
to Work For You

pic-firm profile3.jpgThe mission of our firm MacDonald & MacDonald PLLC is to represent and assist injured and disabled workers and their families throughout Michigan.

The MacDonald family has represented injured and disabled workers in Michigan for over 80 years and three generations.

The father and grandfather of the attorneys of MacDonald & MacDonald PLLC, Attorney Robert James MacDonald, served as a Democratic Representative and Senator from Flint in the Michigan Legislature, chaired the Workers’ Compensation Section of the State Bar of Michigan and was appointed by two Governors to their Advisory Commissions on Workers’ Compensation. While serving in the Legislature in 1943, he helped pass legislation that required most employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance and legislation that ensured that workers suffering from any type of occupational disease would be covered under the workers’ compensation law.  He is a member of the Michigan Workers’ Compensation Hall of Fame. His son, the late Attorney R. Duncan MacDonald continued to fight zealously for over four decades to secure benefits for injured workers, including benefits for  thousands of General Motors’ employees in the Flint area in Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Personal Injury & Product Liability claims. Attorney Robert J. MacDonald has continued the tradition for over twenty years of fighting to secure benefits, rights, remedies and damages for clients suffering from injury or disability.

The firm fights for clients by offering legal advice and by representing our clients in Litigation, Trials, Appellate Practice and Negotiations. The firm is licensed to General Practice in the District, Circuit, and Appellate Courts of the State of Michigan, its Administrative Agencies, and in the Federal Courts.

The firm assists clients by fighting to secure Workers’ Compensation Weekly Benefits, Medical Care, Vocational Retraining and Tuition, Specific Loss Benefits and Lump Sum Settlements.

The firm assists injured and disabled clients when they face Disability Discrimination or suffer Retaliatory Discharge.

The firm assists clients in securing Social Security Disability, SSI, Short and Long Term Disability Benefits and Disability Pensions for our disabled clients.

The firm represents clients injured on, and off, the job in Personal Injury and Negligence claims against those responsible for the injuries. We fight for those injured in Work Accidents, Automobile Accidents, Motorcycle Accidents, Trucking Accidents, Construction Site Accidents, Aviation Accidents, Boating Accidents, Slip and Fall Accidents and those injured by Defective Products.


PUBLISHED WORKS

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Workers’ Compensation in Michigan: Law and Practice, 6th Edition, Edward M. Welch, Jr., Daryl C. Royal and Robert J. MacDonald, Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 2020-present.

To view or purchase, click here

“Workers’ Compensation Cases” in Michigan Basic Practice Handbook, Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Robert J. MacDonald, 2006-present

To view or purchase, click here
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“Workers Comp: A Few Facts Worth Knowing for the Non-Practitioner” Genesee County Bar Association, BarBeat, July/August 2007.

“Can Delphi Void its Collective Bargaining Agreements?” “Can Concentra Make me Quit and Find a New Job?” “Compensation Benefit Increases with New Injuries,” “Do I Have to Treat with the Company Doctor?” “What is Social Security and When Do GM Workers Have to Apply?”   “How long Can My Workers’ Compensation Benefits Last?” “How Long Will My Case Take?” “I am permanently disabled; what benefits can I obtain?” “My Husband was Killed on the Job, can I get any Support?” “John Engler’s Supreme Court,” “If I Try to Go Back to Work or to Work on my Own Business, will it Affect my Workers’ Comp?” “How Low Wage Earners Can Get a Compensation Rate Raise,”  “How Retirement Affects Workers’ Comp Benefits,” “Retiree Healthcare Rights, Collective Bargaining Agreements and Bankruptcy,” “Should I Hire a Lawyer?” “Should I Take an early buyout?” “What the UAW does for the Injured Worker,”  “How Workers’ Compensation Benefits Can Effect Social Security Disability” Should I begin drawing Social Security Retirement Early? “Why the Disabled GM worker should not sign up for Early Social Security Retirement.”

–Included in past issues (2001–____) of the Eye Opener, UAW Local 598, Flint and certain issues of The Sparkler, UAW Local 651, Flint; Headlight, UAW Local 599, Flint; Impressions, UAW Local 1292, Grand Blanc; The Champ, UAW Local 594, Pontiac

“Workers’ Compensation,” Ask the Lawyer, ABC12, WJRT.

“Workers’ Compensation,” ” Disability” Ask the Attorney, The Flint Journal.


REPRESENTATIVE CASES

pic-home.jpg Hilton v General Motors, 81 Mich App 21 (1978); Carlisle v General Motors, 126 Mich App 127 (1983); Martin v Secretary of Health & Human Services, 735 F2d. (6 CA, 1984); Dwyer v General Motors, Chevrolet Assembly, 1990 MIWCLR LEXIS 1085;  Gilroy v General Motors 438 Mich 330 (1991); Kelly v Flint Board of Education, 1992 MIWCLR LEXIS 1439; Rodriguez v Insituform Mid-America Inc. and Liberty Mutual, 1997 MIWCLR LEXIS 635; Horton v Advantage Services Inc., 2002 MIWCLR LEXIS 305; Harr v R.T. Framing, Auto Owners & Second Injury Fund, 2002 MIWCLR LEXIS 52;  Bostwick v General Motors, 2003 MIWCLR LEXIS 226; Giffen v Fenton Memorials and Cincinnati Casualty, 2003 MIWCLR 221;  Love v General Motors, 2004 MIWCLR LEXIS 354; Streeter v GMAC Rochester, 2005 MIWCLR LEXIS 53; Ocenacek v Ridan Party Store, 2006 ACO #319; Schnittker v AI Flint, 2009 ACO #132, lv app den, Court of Appeals, No. 293217; Savage et al. v General Motors (E.D. Mich, 2010); Yoder v Commissioner of Social Security, 2011 US Dist LEXIS 144879; Brown v Commissioner of Social Security, 2012 US Dist LEXIS 96257; Elde v Castle Brothers, 2013 Mich App LEXIS 976, lv app den 495 Mich 890; Younkin v Zimmer, 304 Mich App 719 (2014); Wilcox v Commissioner of Social Security, 2014 US Dist LEXIS 114830; Arbuckle v General Motors, Mich App (No. 310611, February 10, 2015); Foster v Michigan Bell, 2017 ACO #7, lv app den, Supreme Court No. 156787; Kelly v Flint Board of Education, 2018 ACO#31, lv app den Supreme Court No. 159297 (July 29, 2019); Estate of Trask Simpson v General Motors, LLC, 2020 Mich App LEXIS 12; Salazar v Commissioner of Social Security, 18-10628; Thomas v Commissioner of Social Security, 18-11635; Chappell v Commissioner of Social Security, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 150879; Barbara Childs v Commissioner of Social Security, 19-11485.


REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS

    1. The firm represents injured and disabled workers throughout Michigan.
    2. The firm has clients in Genesee, Oakland, Lapeer, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Macomb, Livingston, Bay, Wayne and Ingham Counties. If  you are outside Michigan, in western Michigan or in the Upper Peninsula, and we can’t help you directly, we will help refer you to top rated law firms that can.
    3. Many of the firm’s clients are UAW members.  The firm’s clients have belonged to a number of UAW locals, including UAW Local 140, 594, 598, 599, 651, 653, 659, 699, 1292 and 5960.  The firm represents other union members, including those belonging to AFSCME Locals 875,1600 and 2650, SEIU Local 517M, Teamsters Local 332, IBEW Local 948,–and injured people struggling and fighting without a union.
    4. The firm has regular weekly office hours for UAW members in Genesee County.


CLASSES/SEMINARS TAUGHT

Disability Law Seminars, Michigan State University, School of Labor
Classes on Workers’ Compensation, UAW Locals in Michigan Regions 1C, 1D.
Workers’ Compensation in Michigan, Lorman Education Service
Michigan Association for Justice


RECENT HONORS AND AWARDS

  • Democratic Party Andrew Jackson Transue Award, R. Duncan MacDonald, 1999
  • Ten Leaders in Michigan Injury Law, Age 45 & Under, Robert J. MacDonald, 2010-2014.
  • Selected for Inclusion in Michigan Super Lawyers, Robert J. MacDonald, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
  • Recognized as Leading Lawyer in Workers’ Compensation & Social Security Disability, Robert J. MacDonald, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. 2021, 2022, 2023.
  • Recognized as a “Go To Lawyer” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, 2023.

Contact the firm to let us assist you in securing benefits and protecting your rights. Do not be afraid to exercise your rights. Most of these types of cases are handled on a “contingency fee basis” where the client pays no attorney fees unless we are able to recover  money for you.