In our last column,1 we discussed proposed legislation (S07518 and A10734) that had been introduced to the New York State Legislature in April 2010, which was aimed at improving various aspects of the No-Fault Law. We have very recently been advised that those bills are dead; the previously proposed four new statutory categories of “serious injury” and the elimination of the right of a defendant to move for summary judgment on the “serious injury” threshold issue are “off the table,” and have been replaced on the legislative agenda by a new piece of proposed legislation designed “[t]o reform the automobile no-fault insurance system.” After countless meetings and drafts of proposed language, with input from various interested groups and industries, on June 29, 2010, Bills S8414 (Breslin) and A11596 (Titone) (which are the same), titled the “Automobile Insurance Fraud Prevention Act of 2010,” were introduced to both Houses.
The new bills contain six substantive sections, which are wide-ranging and varied, covering amendments to several different sections of the Insurance Law, and aimed predominantly, albeit not exclusively, at combating fraud associated with the no-fault system.
Insurance Law §5106
