{"id":201469,"date":"2026-04-18T01:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201469\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:24:13","slug":"ny-fire-departments-seeing-soaring-vehicle-insurance-costs-hochul-says-while-pushing-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201469\/","title":{"rendered":"NY fire departments seeing soaring vehicle insurance costs, Hochul says while pushing reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2013\u00a0First responders<\/a> like firefighters are seeing soaring costs and increased risks under New York\u2019s trial-lawyer friendly car accident liability laws, Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> charged Friday.<\/p>\n

Hochul \u2014 who has been deadlocked with the state Legislature over the issue \u2014 doubled down on her proposal being negotiated as part of New York\u2019s weeks-late budget at the Westmere Fire Department<\/a> in Albany.<\/p>\n

She said staged car accidents<\/a> are causing the insurance companies to calculate more risk, and therefore driving up rates across the board \u2014 including at any business or agency that uses vehicles, such as firefighters.<\/p>\n

First responders like firefighters are seeing soaring costs and increased risks under New York\u2019s trial-lawyer friendly car accident liability laws, Gov. Kathy Hochul charged Friday. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n

Insurance costs for the fire department spiked to $12,000 this year, from roughly $7,000 in 2023, Hochul said, adding fiscal pressure onto the long list of demands facing emergency services personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is extraordinary growth, and I don\u2019t think you\u2019ve gotten into more accident over that time,\u201d Hochul said to the firefighters standing beside her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it has nothing to do with anything that you have done, other than the cost of the liability claims and the out of control insurance situation is putting a real cost on all of you here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s proposal is also looking to change the legal definition of \u201cserious injury\u201d in order push back against fraudulent claims, some of which stem from staged crashes and bogus medical claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to drop everything and go respond, putting yourself are in danger, to a staged accident,\u201d Hochul told the firefighters.<\/p>\n

Hochul doubled down on her proposal being negotiated as part of New York\u2019s weeks-late budget at the Westmere Fire Department in Albany. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are on the front line of having deal with this spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s proposal has received support from major fire and emergency services unions as well as the State Troopers Police Benevolent Association<\/a> \u2013 all of which cite financial and safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese claims waste resources, drive up premiums, and divert emergency crews from genuine emergencies,\u201d said Donald Farrell, first vice president of the Firefighters Association of the State of New York.<\/p>\n

Insurance companies reported nearly 44,000 suspected cases of auto insurance fraud in New York to the state Department of Financial Services last year.<\/p>\n

Hochul said car accidents are being staged, which has led insurance companies to calculate more risk, resulting in increasing rates. Matt Roberts\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cStrengthening enforcement tools and targeting organized fraud networks, as the governor\u2019s proposals would do, would allow our State Troopers to focus their time and resources on protecting the public from genuine threats,\u201d PBA President Charles Murphy wrote in a letter to legislative leaders last month.<\/p>\n

One such case brought by FedEx in\u00a0federal court just last week<\/a> alleged a sophisticated crime ring led by a crooked Brooklyn lawyer wildly overstated car accident insurance claims, milling people through a network of medical providers that all got kickbacks by performing unnecessary procedures.<\/p>\n

In another case filed this week, a Brooklyn family was accused of racking up over $300 million in insurance payments from Liberty Mutual by allegedly deliberately coordinating hit-and-run accidents with Uber drivers then fraudulently claiming injuries.<\/p>\n

The ride-sharing company is pumping upwards of $8 million into a lobbying effort backing Hochul\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

Insurance costs for the FDNY rose to $12,000, a $5000 increase from its 2023 rate of $7000. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

But with budget talks heading into their third week past the April 1 deadline, Hochul has so far been unsuccessful in getting lawmakers to budge on the issue. <\/p>\n

The influential trial lawyers lobbying group is now making the case that New York\u2019s laws should err on the side of paying out to victims, even in cases where they may be at fault.<\/p>\n

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They also have demanded assurances that going along with Hochul\u2019s reforms would actually lead to lower insurance premiums for everyday New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

New York Trial Lawyers Association President Andrew Finkelstein blamed rising insurance costs on the insurance companies, alleging they make \u201crecord profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHochul\u2019s plan strips injured New Yorkers of the ability to hold wrongdoers accountable and seek justice \u2014 while allowing insurance companies to profit even more. It includes no effective mechanism to limit those profits or protect consumers,\u201d Finkelstein said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013\u00a0First responders like firefighters are seeing soaring costs and increased risks under New York\u2019s trial-lawyer friendly car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[195,544,13319,426,57,9,24,63,134,136,135,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-201469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-firefighters","9":"tag-fires","10":"tag-insurance","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-staten-island","17":"tag-staten-island-headlines","18":"tag-staten-island-news","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201469","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=201469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}