N.Y. lawmakers called on to reform courts, like Florida did

A group advocating for fairness in courts is setting its sights on New York with an advertising campaign it hopes will get the attention of lawmakers.

Rising living costs and insurance rates are the byproducts of lawsuit abuse, Protecting American Consumers Together says. Its commercial notes New York has the highest auto insurance costs in the country and declares “It’s Albany’s turn to deliver relief for New Yorkers.”

“New Yorkers are being squeezed by rising prices on everything from groceries to gas to insurance,” said Lauren Zelt, Executive Director of PACT.

“This campaign is about affordability and fairness. We’ve seen that commonsense reforms can work — Florida proved it — and now it’s time for Albany to act so New York families can finally get the relief they deserve.”

Lawmakers in the state have long resisted changes to its civil courts, which have for years ranked as a “Judicial Hellhole” in an annual report by the American Tort Reform Association. Recently, insurers have gone on the offensive, suing personal injury lawyers and a network of health care professionals they say conspire to inflate the value of claims against property owners.

Legal Newsline recently detailed the alleged scheme, in which law firms recruit poor workers, frequently illegal immigrants, to stage workplace injuries and car accidents to obtain large settlements. In those cases, insurance companies are filing lawsuits against law firms they claim are engaging in a racketeering enterprise.

PACT has campaigned for reforms in places like Georgia, which this year passed several measures to help its courts’ reputation. That tort-reform package addressed “phantom damages” for inflated medical bills, allowed car companies to tell jurors injured drivers weren’t wearing their seatbelts and strengthened defenses on negligent security claims, among other things.

PACT also points at new laws in Florida that have stabilized the auto insurance market and brought down rates for home insurance. Litigation over auto glass replacement has plummeted, said Tom Gaitens, executive director of Florida Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

Such trends have helped to attract 17 new insurers into the Florida market and reduced the policies held by the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. by hundreds of thousands, according to Gaitens.

“In Florida, lawsuit abuse reforms are lowering the cost of auto insurance,” PACT’s New York ad says.

“The state’s top five insurers are cutting rates by an average of 6.5% in 2025. Florida proved that reforms work.”

There are pending bills addressing the legal system, including one that makes it a crime to stage a workplace accident. Though the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York said it would help with the affordable housing crisis, it has sat idly in committee throughout this year.