Full story in northjersey.com

By Tom Stebbins

The rising cost of everything –– from basic goods to energy to insurance –– is the defining challenge for families and businesses across New York and New Jersey. Despite the clear impact of excessive lawsuits on prices and economic growth, policymakers continue to overlook the bi-state area’s notorious litigation climate as a key driver of the affordability crisis.

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You may not know it, but every day we pay for other people’s lawsuits. And we pay for those personal injury trial lawyer billboards that cover the parkways, interstates and city buses. A recent report found that excessive lawsuit costs drain more than $26 billion a year from New York’s economy and more than $15 billion from New Jersey’s. These costs get passed on through higher prices at the grocery store, rising insurance premiums, and fewer dollars available for small businesses to invest in wages or expansion. Main Street absorbs these increases until they can’t. When that happens, they are forced to raise prices or cut jobs or close entirely. The longer policymakers ignore the impact of unchecked litigation, the more it costs everyone.

As the New York legislative session lurched on in Albany, lawmakers missed the opportunity to move forward with much needed reforms to root out fraud and protect vulnerable communities from organized crime. Proposals to criminalize the felony staging of construction accidents and outlaw illegal client recruitment through “runners” never made it out of committee.

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State lawmakers should follow that example. New York, by contrast, passed a version of the Consumer Litigation Funding Act this year, but it left out disclosure requirements that would have brought basic transparency to the system. That leaves the door open for hidden financial interests to shape litigation behind the scenes, pushing for longer and more expensive cases. With the cost of living already at the top of voters’ minds, addressing these hidden legal costs will be part of the conversation as New York’s 2026 gubernatorial race takes shape.

Legal costs are rising because of fraud and a legal environment that rewards those who exploit it. In New York, staged construction accidents and illegal client recruitment schemes will remain a problem due to the legislature’s failure to act. Trial lawyers continue to profit from inflated settlements and a lack of transparency in the system. These practices make everything more expensive and continue to drive the affordability crisis.

It’s up to Hochul to once again veto trial lawyer–backed proposals and lead on real civil justice reform heading into next year’s budget.

For New Jersey, the incoming governor has the opportunity to bring these issues into a real affordability agenda. Curbing litigation abuse would restore confidence in our legal system and deliver the financial relief families and employers urgently need.

Tom Stebbins is executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York and interim president of the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute.