New York Traded Away Part of Your Crash Claim. The Premium Cut Is Due August 31.

If you drive in New York, Albany made a deal on your behalf this spring. You gave up part of what a car accident claim can pay you. In exchange, your premium is supposed to come down. Only one half of that has actually happened.

Here is the half that is done.

Chapter 58, signed May 26, applies to any case filed on or after that date. It killed the 90/180-day category of serious injury, the one that let you sue when a crash kept you from your normal daily activities for 90 of the following 180 days without leaving a permanent injury behind. Three months of your life wrecked by whiplash no longer clears the bar on its own. What is left are the permanent categories and significant limitation of use.

It also flipped New York from pure comparative fault to a modified standard. Before, if a jury put 70% of the blame on you, you still collected 30%. Now, if your share of fault is greater than the other driver’s, you collect nothing. And it capped non-economic damages at $100,000 for at-fault injured people who were uninsured, impaired, or committing a felony behind the wheel.

The half that is still a promise

On July 1, the Department of Financial Services issued Circular Letter No. 3. It tells insurers to work out how much the reforms cut claim frequency, claim severity, and loss adjustment expenses, then bake those savings into every pending motor vehicle rate filing by August 31. There is a new form for it, Exhibit TR-1, and carriers have to show the actuarial work.

Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow said the guidance “makes clear the Department’s expectations that insurers include expected savings from Governor Hochul’s reforms in any pending and future rate applications.” Hochul said it is “imperative that we ensure these savings are passed down to hard working families.”

Notice what neither of them said. A number. Not a percentage, not a dollar figure, not a range. The state narrowed your claim with an effective date and a statute number, and described your savings with the word “expectations.” What you lost is law. What you gain is a spreadsheet exhibit.

What to do about it

Read your next renewal like a bill, not a notice. Since August 24, a New York increase over 10% arrives with a written explanation and the primary rating factors attached. Under 10% and you can demand one in writing and get an answer inside 20 days. We covered how that law works. Use it, and ask one question: was the tort reform savings estimate applied to this policy, and how much was it?

Do not cut your own coverage because suing got harder. That is backwards. The narrower the door to suing the other driver, the more your recovery depends on your own policy. New York no-fault pays medical treatment and lost earnings regardless of who caused the crash, and it does not run through the serious injury threshold at all. Basic coverage is $50,000. Optional basic economic loss adds $25,000, and additional personal injury protection goes further. That is now the most reliable money in your policy.

Shop it after Labor Day. A filing is not your rate. Your rate moves when your carrier files and the Department approves, and carriers move at different speeds. If yours drags, somebody else’s number shows up first. Start with our insurance estimator and compare at the auto insurance hub or the best auto insurers list.

Tort reform may well lower New York premiums. The fraud provisions are overdue and staged-accident rings cost every honest driver money. But savings only reach you if somebody hands them over, and the only person watching your particular policy is you.

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