Personal injury

What changed for New York car accident claims in 2026

By Michael R. Cardinale, Attorney, admitted in New York 1997 · Last updated August 23, 2026 · 6 min read · Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026

Two rules governing car accident claims changed in May 2026, and both of them make claims harder rather than easier. If you were hurt before the change and have not yet filed, they may still apply to you, which is the part most write-ups get wrong.

1. The two changes, in one paragraph

Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 removed one of the ways an injury could qualify for a pain-and-suffering claim, and added a rule that can bar recovery entirely where you were mostly at fault. Both apply to actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026.

2. A whole route to compensation was deleted

To recover for pain and suffering after a car crash in New York, your injury has to clear the serious injury threshold in Insurance Law § 5102(d). It used to have nine categories. It now has eight.

The one that went was the 90/180 category, a medically determined injury of a non-permanent nature that prevented you from performing substantially all of your usual daily activities for at least 90 of the 180 days after the crash.

That sounds technical. In practice it was the ordinary route for an injury that was genuinely disabling for months but left no fracture and no permanent finding, which describes a great many back, neck and soft-tissue injuries. Those claims now have to fit one of the eight remaining categories, or they do not proceed at all.

The eight that remain, and what each requires, are set out on our page about no-fault and the serious injury threshold.

3. Being mostly at fault now ends the claim

New York has long used comparative fault: if you were 30 percent responsible, your recovery was reduced by 30 percent. It was not a bar, and that was unusually generous to claimants compared with most states.

For motor vehicle claims that changed. Under the new CPLR § 1411(b), where your share of the fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone you are suing, you recover nothing.

At or below that line, recovery reduced by your percentage, as before.
Above it, no recovery at all, however serious the injury.

It is a cliff rather than a slope, and it makes the apportionment of fault the decisive question in cases where it used to be merely an expensive one.

4. Which version applies to you turns on the filing date

This is the detail almost everything published about these changes gets wrong.

The cutoff runs from when the action is commenced, when the court papers are filed — not from the date of the crash. An accident from 2024 or 2025, filed today, is measured against the amended rules.

If you were injured before May 2026 and have not yet filed, that is worth a conversation now rather than later. The three-year deadline under CPLR § 214(5) has not moved, but what your claim is worth when you get there has.

5. What did not change

Both changes are written for motor vehicle claims, specifically, actions subject to Insurance Law Article 51. They do not reach:

Slip and fall, premises and most other injury claims. These stay under CPLR § 1411(a), where your share of the fault reduces a recovery and never bars it, and there is no serious injury threshold at all. See slip, trip and fall.
No-fault benefits. Medical treatment and part of your lost earnings are still paid by your own insurer up to the basic economic loss limit, regardless of fault. The threshold governs non-economic damages only.
Motorcyclists, who sit outside the no-fault system entirely and are generally not restricted by the threshold — why that is.
The deadlines. Three years for personal injury, two for wrongful death, and ninety days for a notice of claim where a municipality is involved.

What to do about it

Nothing here changes what a person should do after a crash, but it raises the cost of doing it badly:

Get seen, and keep going. With the 90/180 route gone, the documentation that supports one of the eight remaining categories matters more than it did. Gaps in treatment were always the commonest argument against a claim and they are now more damaging.
Do not concede fault at the scene or on a recorded call. An apology is not a legal admission, but under a rule where crossing a line ends the claim entirely, the apportionment argument is worth far more than it used to be.
If your accident predates May 2026 and you have not filed, ask now.