Hochul took on the lawsuit economy. The work isn't done yet.
Governor Hochul signed landmark legislation cracking down on the fraud, lawsuit abuse, and inflated claims that have made New York auto insurance among the most expensive in the nation. It's a real win — but the job isn't finished until the savings actually reach every New York driver.
Auto insurance has become a drag on drivers’ wallets.
New Yorkers pay roughly $4,000+ a year for full coverage, nearly $1,500 more than the national average.
In 2023, New York recorded 1,729 staged crashes — the second-highest number in the nation.
Reports estimate scams add as much as $300 to the average driver's annual insurance bill.
Across the country, insurers reported 44,361 suspected motor vehicle fraud incidents in 2024 — an all-time high and an 83% jump from 2020. New Yorkers pay more for minimum auto insurance coverage than any other state.
Three pieces of a coordinated machine.
Staged Accidents
A staged accident is a deliberately orchestrated crash or fall designed to generate a fraudulent injury claim. Organizers recruit participants, engineer the incident to look routine, and then file personal injury claims tied to the event.
These schemes are built for scale. A single staged crash can generate multiple injury claims, medical bills, and frivolous lawsuits — all of which insurers are required to absorb and spread across policyholders in the form of higher premiums. Federal prosecutors and state investigators have repeatedly identified New York as a hotspot for this activity.
Unethical Lawyers and Doctors Game the System
In New York, staged accidents are only the beginning. Prosecutors have charged lawyers and medical providers with working in tandem to recruit accident victims, steer them to specific medical clinics, and inflate the value of claims via unnecessary treatments and procedures.
According to court filings, patients were pushed into unnecessary or excessive procedures with high sticker prices — not based on medical need, but on their value in litigation. Those inflated medical bills then become leverage in settlement negotiations, driving up payouts and, ultimately, insurance costs for everyone else.
Medical Mills & High-Volume Litigation
A medical mill is a high-volume clinic that exists primarily to support lawsuits, not patient care. Once a recruited accident victim hires a lawyer, they are often steered to a specific medical clinic where unethical doctors follow a predictable playbook.
Patients receive standardized diagnoses, repetitive treatment schedules, and, in some cases, unnecessary or excessive procedures chosen for their litigation value, not medical need. Medical reports are frequently copied and reused across cases.
Those inflated medical bills become leverage in settlement negotiations. Combined with vague injury standards, tight payment deadlines, and high defense costs, insurers are often forced to settle rather than fight — even when claims are weak. The cost is passed directly to drivers, adding hundreds of dollars per year to the average New Yorker's auto insurance bill.
Personal injury lawyers are making New York unaffordable.
Fraud and lawsuit abuse raise costs. Those costs get passed on to all consumers. New Yorkers pay the price not only with higher auto rates but with prices on everything from groceries to prescription medications.
Until the incentives change, New York drivers will continue to pay more than anyone else in America for auto insurance.