The Road to Ruin: Why New York City Drivers Deserve Lower Insurance Rates
By Arthur Miller
I’m a multi-modal New York City resident. I walk, bike, and drive. I’m also an attorney. I see firsthand how drivers are often demonized, especially over liability insurance costs, and it’s becoming unsustainable. From Staten Island to the Bronx and across all five boroughs, one truth is clear: New York’s legal and insurance environment is punishing honest drivers and making life more expensive in our region. Albany must act now to control these rising insurance premiums.
The numbers are staggering. While the statewide average annual full-coverage premium in New York is around $3,100, drivers in New York City pay significantly more—often above $4,000 and even into the $5,000 to $6,000 range in some neighborhoods. For example, Queens drivers average over $4,800 per year, Brooklyn nearly $5,500, and Manhattan more than $3,600. New York City rates are roughly 80% above the state average and far, far higher than the national average.
This crisis isn’t simply the result of congestion. It stems from a deeper cultural and legal dysfunction – what some might call the lottery mentality. We’re bombarded with ads – seemingly healthy people claiming, “Lawyer X got me $10 Million.” Too often, a minor collision – one that barely dents a bumper – is treated like a jackpot. Suddenly, negligible or nonexistent injuries in the public’s view morph into lucrative opportunities.
In my law practice, we see this reality up close. We regularly encounter staged car crashes, exaggerated injuries, and manufactured claims – schemes designed not for recovery, but for profit. These abuses don’t just burden insurance companies; they directly inflate premiums for every responsible driver who follows the rules and encourage too many to cheat by registering vehicles out of state and paying lower premiums.
The harm extends well beyond the crash scene. Fraudulent medical billing feeds this spiral. After a minor bicycle accident a few years ago, I was first sent for physical therapy. The therapist’s billing accumulated even after I said the treatment wasn’t necessary and I needed no further care. That pattern repeats itself in almost every case we see today.
This environment has a devastating downstream effect. Insurance companies, wary of unpredictable “jackpot” jury awards, often choose settlement over litigation – even on suspicious claims – to avoid courtroom risk. That cost is then passed directly to every other policyholder. We all pay the price for a system that rewards opportunism over accountability.
Commercial drivers feel this acutely. Trucking companies – required by federal law to carry high insurance coverage – are constant targets for opportunistic lawsuits. These inflated costs ripple through the entire economy, raising prices on goods that working families buy every day. Worse, investors can “buy” the legal rights of victims and then maintain costly and protracted lawsuits to maximize their profits, often rejecting reasonable settlement offers. Under present law, the jury is never told that the injured party or his family were paid off long ago and that the only beneficiaries of a punishing verdict are the lawyers and their investor clients.
Additionally, New York is one of only 12 “pure comparative negligence” states. That means that someone who is 90% responsible for his own injuries can still sue for the remaining 10%. Not one of the states that border us has that!
The result is a full-blown affordability crisis.
Every dollar siphoned off by fraudulent claims, inflated medical bills, or fear-driven settlements is a dollar that New Yorkers can’t use for housing, groceries, childcare, or keeping small businesses afloat. And, as companies can no longer afford insurance, they take their business and the jobs they provide elsewhere.
New York’s legal culture too often portrays drivers as villains to support profit-driven litigation and medical practices. It’s time for a correction. We need meaningful reforms from the state government: more vigorous enforcement of anti-insurance-fraud laws, caps on excessive medical billing for minor injuries, and liability rules that discourage the destructive lottery mentality.
Florida recently enacted reforms to how its personal injury cases are handled. For example, they reduced the time required to file a negligence claim, modified their comparative negligence rules, and required that medical expenses be based on the amounts actually paid rather than billed. As a result, premiums in that state have decreased by about 6% to 10%, and the state’s largest carrier has issued $1 billion in rebates to its customers.
Hardworking New Yorkers deserve a system that protects them—not one that treats them like an ATM. It’s time to restore fairness, restore sanity, and make car insurance in New York and beyond affordable again.
Arthur Miller is an attorney at law based in Rego Park, Queens, specializing in trucking and transportation law.
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