Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for reforms that will crack down on personal injury lawsuits. Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul Evidence keeps piling up to back Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for reforms to slash auto-insurance rates; she’s entirely right to demand the Legislature quit siding with the special interests that feed on the fraud and sleazy lawyering that force New Yorkers to pay the through the nose.
The latest news is the explosive FedEx lawsuit exposing a massive Brooklyn fraud ring; the suit alleges that the Ikhilov Law Group and its owner, attorney Zorik Ikhilov, operate a sophisticated scam using doctors and medical providers to bilk the delivery giant through bogus liability claims.
Thanks to such schemes and other outrageous personal-injury litigation, New Yorkers pay an average insurance premium of $4,000 a year — a whopping $1,500 more than the national average.
Insurers have no choice but to boost rates to cover their legal costs — or stop offering any coverage in the Empire State.
The gov wants reforms like the Florida ones that brought a 7.4% drop in average auto-insurance rates last year, and a further 5.6% drop year-to-date in 2026.
Average NY rates grew 13.1% in 2024 and 11% last year; Hochul’s drive is a genuine bid to increase affordability for average folks.
But the Legislature is swimming in ambulance-chaser cash — and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bx.) is buddies with a lobbyist for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
That Hochul faces such dogged resistance to these common-sense reforms shows just how venal and arrogant Albany has become: Such fixes are only one small part of what’s needed to make New York more affordable for average folks.
The harder the special interests and their pet politicians fight on this single front, the more they make the case that New York needs an all-out political revolution to end its long decline.
