Published: Jun 10, 2026
For years, a New York driver could be 99% at fault in a crash and still walk away with a settlement, that era is now over.
Audacy (WBEN) reports that as New York's state budget was enacted, sweeping new auto insurance claim rules took effect that fundamentally alter who can sue and who walks away with nothing. According to Audacy (WBEN), Attorney John Richmond confirmed the new rules introduce a hard 50% fault bar, meaning if you are found more than 50% responsible for a crash, you recover absolutely nothing. If you are a Buffalo-area driver or anywhere across New York State, this change affects you starting now.
New York just rewrote the rules for crash victims
The new rules are blunt. Attorney John Richmond explains it plainly: if you are found to be more than 50% at fault, there is "a complete bar to recovery, meaning you can recover nothing."
That is a dramatic departure from decades of New York law. The change arrived quietly inside the state budget, but its consequences for injured drivers are anything but quiet.
Two specific pillars of protection were removed at once. The first is the 50% fault threshold. The second is the elimination of a legal injury category that had shielded drivers with serious but non-permanent injuries. Both changes are now active.
The Save Max Quote Index, drawn from 3.3 million+ real quote requests, consistently shows New York as one of the most expensive states in the country for auto insurance. With claims now harder to win, the pressure on injured drivers to document their cases from the very first moment has never been higher. For a full picture of coverage costs across the state, see our New York auto insurance guide.
From pure comparative fault to a 50% bar: what the law used to say
Under the old framework, New York was a pure comparative fault state. That meant fault was shared on a sliding scale, and even a driver who was overwhelmingly responsible for a collision could still recover a reduced portion of damages.
As Attorney Richmond explained it: "Prior to the new budget, the way it worked was NYS was a pure comparative fault state, and what that meant was if you're in an accident, as long as you weren't 100% at fault, you could still recover money or settlement for your injuries, but it would just be reduced by your percentage of faults."
That system was generous by national standards. A driver found 80% at fault for rear-ending someone could still collect 20% of their claimed damages. It kept insurers at the negotiating table for almost every claim.
That is gone. The new standard creates a binary outcome above the 50% line: you either stay below it and recover something, or you cross it and recover nothing. This is the New York auto insurance fault bar that will define litigation strategy for years to come.
The 90/180 rule is gone, and that changes who can sue
The second major change may actually affect more everyday drivers than the fault bar itself.
Before the new budget, New York recognized a legal category called the 90/180 rule. Richmond described it this way: if you were injured and "in 90 of those 90 days out of those first 180 basically you're not able to live the life you normally would, or substantially perform all the duties you normally would, maybe that's things around the house, and go to work, and other things, and now that's gone."
Think about what that covered. Concussions. Soft-tissue injuries. Missed work. The ordinary, serious-but-not-permanent harm that makes up the majority of real-world crash injuries.
Those injuries no longer automatically qualify a driver to sue for damages. Richmond noted that injured people now need "doctors who will treat you the right way, who know how to properly document your injury" so an attorney can argue the injury meets one of the remaining categories under the serious injury threshold. His conclusion was direct: "It's going to be a lot tougher for people who are injured, and it's not permanent."
How New York's new fault threshold compares to other states
The New York auto insurance fault bar puts the state in a completely different category than it occupied just months ago. Here is how several states currently handle fault in auto injury claims:
| New York (new) | Modified Comparative (50% bar) | Plaintiff is more than 50% at fault |
| New Jersey | Modified Comparative (51% bar) | Plaintiff is 51% or more at fault |
| Pennsylvania | Modified Comparative (51% bar) | Plaintiff is 51% or more at fault |
| California | Pure Comparative Fault | Never fully barred (damages reduced) |
| Virginia | Contributory Negligence | Any fault by plaintiff bars recovery |
| North Carolina | Contributory Negligence | Any fault by plaintiff bars recovery |
New York has moved from the most plaintiff-friendly column, pure comparative fault, into the middle tier alongside states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Drivers in contributory negligence states like Virginia and North Carolina face an even stricter standard, but New York's shift is still a historic tightening for a state that had been a reliable venue for injury claims for decades.
Why insurers will now move faster, and what they're looking for
The insurance industry has a powerful new incentive, and they are already acting on it.
If an insurer can push a claimant's fault above 50%, they owe that person nothing. That is not a theoretical advantage, it is a complete elimination of liability. Richmond put it directly:
"Insurance companies now are going to be moving even faster. Get investigators out there to collect dash cam footage, to collect black box status, to collect footage from neighboring businesses or homes, could perhaps ring doorbells, because they're going to want to try to take drivers and push them above that 50% so they have to pay nothing."
Every second after a crash, evidence is moving. Dash cam footage can be overwritten. Black box data has retention windows. Neighbors may not remember what they saw by next week.
Richmond's warning was unambiguous: "It's really important that these cases are investigated immediately, right out the gate."
Insurers have claims teams, investigators, and legal staff ready to deploy immediately. Individual drivers typically do not. That asymmetry has always existed, but the new 50% bar gives insurers a specific, clean target to aim for.
What this means for you
If you are a New York driver, act as if every crash is a potential claim under the new rules. Photograph everything at the scene, exchange full information, and contact an attorney before you speak in detail with any insurance adjuster. Richmond stressed that seeing the right doctors immediately, those who know how to document injuries properly, can be the difference between a viable claim and no claim at all. Review your current coverage levels against the new legal landscape using the SMQI to understand where New York rates stand relative to the rest of the country.
FAQ
What is the new 50% fault bar in New York auto insurance?
Under rules enacted with the new state budget, any driver found more than 50% at fault for a crash is completely barred from recovering any damages. Attorney John Richmond confirmed this replaces New York's previous pure comparative fault system, which allowed even a mostly-at-fault driver to collect a reduced settlement.
What happened to the 90/180 rule in New York?
The 90/180 rule, which allowed drivers with serious non-permanent injuries, including concussions and injuries that prevented normal daily activities for 90 of the first 180 days, to pursue claims, has been eliminated as a legal category. Injured drivers must now qualify under the remaining serious injury threshold categories.
How will insurance companies investigate crashes differently now?
According to Attorney Richmond, insurers will deploy investigators more quickly and aggressively to gather dash cam footage, black box data, and surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses. Their goal is to establish that the injured driver was more than 50% at fault, which would eliminate any payout obligation entirely.
Should I get an attorney after a crash in New York now?
Richmond's advice is clear: getting the right medical care and legal representation immediately is now more critical than it was before. Proper injury documentation and fast evidence collection are both essential to surviving the new fault threshold.
Does this change affect how much I pay for auto insurance in New York?
The long-term effect on premiums is not yet established, but New York already ranks among the most expensive states for auto insurance. Reduced claim payouts could create downward pressure on some costs over time, but insurer behavior and litigation patterns under the new rules will take time to settle.
About Aaren Ramon
Aaren Ramon is a Senior Analyst at SaveMaxAuto and owner of Elite Shield Agency. He covers carrier moves, regional insurance markets, and consumer-impact reporting from the agency-owner perspective. Read more from Aaren Ramon →
Edited by Cassidy Richey.
Methodology
This article is grounded in the source linked above. SaveMaxAuto data points referenced here are drawn from the Save Max Quote Index (SMQI), a proprietary instrument reflecting 3,364,317 real consumer quote requests submitted to savemaxauto.com. State and carrier rankings reflect the lifetime dataset; year-over-year shifts reflect a rolling 12-month window. The index is refreshed monthly. External authority figures referenced (NAIC, NHTSA, state regulators) reflect the most recent public data releases available at time of writing.
Sources
- Primary source: Audacy (WBEN), "New state auto insurance rules in place"