Motor Vehicle Accident 90/180 Day Serious Injury Category Under Threat
On May 7, 2026, news broke that New York State Governor Kathy Hochul had announced a budget agreement for the upcoming fiscal year for New York State. However, there were a number of portions of this budget agreement which included issues outside of simply what money would be spent on, including potential longstanding law changes that would impact the ability of people to obtain compensation for injuries suffered in car accidents which are not their fault.
In New York State, for many years, to be able to bring an action/lawsuit for pain and suffering associated with a motor vehicle accident, one must meet what is known as the “serious injury” threshold, which is defined by Insurance Law Section 5102(d). Without the ability to seek pain and suffering compensation, frequently car accident cases are not litigated. Seeking non-economic damages is the way that folks who are injured as a result of someone else's negligence in a car accident recover funds to help compensate them for the injuries, pain, suffering, and impact on their life that they have really and truly experienced.
Under Insurance Law 5102(d), serious injuries are defined currently as follows:
“Serious injury” means a personal injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; loss of a fetus; permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or a medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person’s usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment.
The new State budget coming into effect potentially seeks to change this serious injury definition moving forward for those seeking pain and suffering damages.
I bring everyone's attention to the last current category listed above, which is commonly known as “90/180.” This is, in effect, a catch-all provision which allows for people who have been significantly injured as a result of a car accident but have not suffered either a fracture, dismemberment, loss of a fetus, disfigurement, or a permanent loss or limitation of a body part to still be compensated for their injuries. Many people are injured in car accidents and have very significant medical conditions that they must deal with, but, for instance, do not break a bone. Under the new structure that is being presented by Governor Hochul, it is possible that these people injured badly in a car accident, will not have the ability to seek compensation for pain and suffering moving forward.
The justification that the Governor Hochul administration has given for these proposed changes is because of bad actors in the State of New York, including some downright criminal cabals of folks who get into accidents purposefully with shady dealings by a tiny pool of corrupt litigants, attorneys and doctors. However, in my experience in litigating these cases for both plaintiffs and defendants, the vast majority of cases in the State of New York are legitimate and based on accidents which had no intention involved in them between the parties.
If this change to the law is finalized, many good people seriously injured may have no redress in our Court system because of political forces and these bad actors. Obviously, I do not believe this is a good policy for the State moving forward or for folks who are injured as a result of others' negligence in motor vehicle accidents, and believe that it will potentially leave a number of significantly injured folks without a remedy in the court systems moving forward.
That being said, the advice right now for folks who have been involved in a motor vehicle accident and potentially could rely on the 90/180-day threshold to have an action for pain and suffering should be considering filing their lawsuits immediately. No one knows where this law will go or how it will end up until it is passed, and those that wait may forfeit rights forever here.
If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident and are interested in discussing your rights to potentially seek compensation, please do not hesitate to contact our office at (518) 523-2441.
