{"id":105359,"date":"2026-01-20T02:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105359\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:23:12","slug":"how-hochul-is-standing-up-big-time-for-new-york-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105359\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hochul is standing up big-time for New York drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good on Gov. Kathy Hochul for pushing to lower New Yorkers\u2019 sky-high car-insurance costs<\/a> \u2014 and defying the ambulance chasers who cash in on accidents (real and fake) at the expense of everyone else.<\/p>\n

Hochul aims to crack down on the \u201ccombination of fraud, litigation, legal loopholes, and enforcement gaps\u201d that leave New Yorkers every year paying \u201cnearly $1,500 above the national average\u201d for auto insurance.<\/p>\n

Among her reforms: Cap the payout for drivers who were committing a crime (e.g., driving drunk) during an accident; prohibit drivers who were chiefly at fault from collecting damages; set \u201cobjective and fair medical standards\u201d for what legally qualifies as a \u201cserious injury\u201d to prevent outsized payouts for minor scrapes and bruises.<\/p>\n

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She\u2019d also empower prosecutors to go after scammers \u2014 such as the criminal rings that convince desperate \u201cvictims\u201d to stage accidents<\/a>, resulting in real, sometimes life-changing injuries.<\/p>\n

Her reforms mirror the laws of many other (more sane) states, and would go a long way toward making New York less of a \u201cjudicial hellhole,\u201d where litigation has become its own multibillion-dollar cottage industry that cost New Yorkers an estimated $96.3 billion in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

So, of course, the slimy trial lawyers who feed big off the Empire State\u2019s bonkers liability laws are are squealing.<\/p>\n

The state Trial Lawyers Association slammed Hochul for \u201cweakening victim protections\u201d and clamed \u201cBig Insurance\u201d won\u2019t do the \u201cright thing\u201d by lowering rates when its costs drop.<\/p>\n

Bull: The only \u201cvictims\u201d who need fear are those now milking the system; fraud, frivolous lawsuits and ludicrously large payouts are the biggest reasons New Yorkers pay some of the nation\u2019s highest auto-insurance rates. <\/p>\n

A full and rousing three cheers for the gov for putting the interests of all other New Yorkers above the trial lawyers\u2019 vile gravy train.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good on Gov. Kathy Hochul for pushing to lower New Yorkers\u2019 sky-high car-insurance costs \u2014 and defying the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2697,47848,304,426,2850,9340,9,24,55,54,56,299],"class_list":["post-105359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-auto","tag-car-insurance","tag-editorial","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-lawsuits","tag-lawyers","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}