Beware the scammers and special interests fighting – Latest News
Evidence retains piling up to back Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for reforms to slash auto-insurance charges; she’s completely proper to demand the Legislature stop siding with the special interests that feed on the fraud and sleazy lawyering that power New Yorkers to pay the by means of the nostril.
The newest information is the explosive FedEx lawsuit exposing a huge Brooklyn fraud ring; the swimsuit alleges that the Ikhilov Law Group and its proprietor, lawyer Zorik Ikhilov, operate a subtle rip-off utilizing docs and medical suppliers to bilk the supply giant by means of bogus legal responsibility claims.
Thanks to such schemes and different outrageous personal-injury litigation, New Yorkers pay an average insurance coverage premium of $4,000 a yr — a whopping $1,500 more than the national average.
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Insurers have no alternative however to spice up charges to cowl their legal prices — or stop offering any protection in the Empire State.
The gov needs reforms like the Florida ones that introduced a 7.4% drop in average auto-insurance charges final yr, and a additional 5.6% drop year-to-date in 2026.
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Average NY charges grew 13.1% in 2024 and 11% final yr; Hochul’s drive is a real bid to increase affordability for average people.
But the Legislature is swimming in ambulance-chaser money — and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bx.) is buddies with a lobbyist for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
That Hochul faces such dogged resistance to those common-sense reforms exhibits simply how venal and smug Albany has turn into: Such fixes are just one small half of what’s needed to make New York more inexpensive for average people.
The more durable the special interests and their pet politicians struggle on this single entrance, the more they make the case that New York wants an all-out political revolution to finish its long decline.
