New Yorkers will be reaching into their pockets once again as their elected leaders continue to make special interest deals that don’t have the best interests at heart.
The latest is a gift to the trial lawyers which, naturally, have donated tons of money to the politicians, in the form of a new rule requiring every driver be enrolled in coverage that allows a person to sue their spouse for damages stemming from negligent driving. Those who aren’t married? Too bad, you have to pay for it anyway. Everyone is required to carry the coverage, which was recently approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul, at a cost of up to $84 annually.
Drivers can opt out of the extra coverage–if they they want to spend an afternoon wending their way through automated phone systems from hell to get a declination form, which they will then have to submit to their insurance company. Of course, everyone has their policy number and insurance company address handy, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
Getting aggravated already? Vent your spleen to the bill’s sponsor, state legislator Neil Breslin, a Democrat from the Albany suburb of Bethlehem, who chairs the senate’s Insurance Committee and is “Of Counsel” to the Barclay Damon law firm, which specializes in insurance matters. He is a big benefactor of campaign donations from the trial lawyers and associated groups.
Regardless of the additional costs to the public and opposition from the insurance industry, the bill sailed through the legislature and was quickly inked by Gov. Hochul. The law was opposed by the New York Insurance Association and insurance giant Geico, which already charges customers in New York among the highest rates in the nation.
The bill drew strong support from the state Trial Lawyers Association and the Academy of Trial Lawyers, whose members will benefit from the litigation allowed by the expanded coverage. They argued that the law closes a coverage gap that prevented New Yorkers from suing their spouses who had driven negligently and winning payment from their spouse’s insurance company.
According to a review by the Albany Times Union, the political action committee representing the trial lawyers has donated about $1.5 million to state politicians on both sides of the aisle since 2021, including Hochul and Breslin. In 2022, the year the supplemental insurance bill was passed, LAWPAC gave the maximum $117,300 to the Assembly Democrats’ campaign arm and nearly as much to senate Democrats, the newspaper reported.
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