Sweeping Tort Reforms New York State

Friday, May 26, 2026

Karl E. Daniel, Esq. | Partner

After nearly two months of delays, the New York State budget has passed with sweeping tort reforms. Governor Hochul has made it clear over the past several months that she wanted to help secure lower auto insurance rates; curb insurance fraud; and reduce inflated motor vehicle claims. Effective May 26, 2026, important changes were enacted to New York’s automobile liability law. The changes take effect immediately and will be applicable to all actions and proceedings commenced on or after May 26, 2026. The key provisions are as follows:

1. Elimination of 90/180 as a “serious injury” threshold category under New York Insurance Law Section 5102(d).

2. Imposes a narrow $100,000 pain-and-suffering cap for certain at-fault plaintiffs:

• Operating an uninsured vehicle that the driver was responsible for insuring (unless the lapse in insurance coverage was for fewer than 30 days);

• Operating while impaired and convicted of that impairment, or operating during the commission of a felony, or immediate flight from one, and convicted of that felony;

• Only applies to claims of non-economic loss and does not apply to wrongful death cases.

3. Modified Comparative Negligence (replaces pure comparative negligence) in auto personal injury cases. New York maintains a pure comparative negligence rule in negligence cases, which means that a plaintiff’s recovery is to be reduced by his or her percentage of fault; however, it does not bar recovery entirely. For auto cases there is now an exception; the statutory language is as follows: “In any action to recover damages for personal injury subject to [the No-Fault Law], the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant shall bar recovery if the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant is greater than the culpable conduct of the person against whom recovery is sought or is greater than the combined culpable conduct of the persons against whom recovery is sought.”

4. Interest Accrual is now codified that liability is not established until there is a finding of both negligence and serious injury.

The impacts of these changes will be fleshed out in the weeks and months to come. It is important to understand the actual and practical implications of these reforms. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring these topics in more detail.