Targeted Legal Reform to Move New York Forward

New York’s Labor Law §240, known as the Scaffold Law, imposes absolute liability on property owners and contractors for gravity-related injuries — even when the worker is at fault.

Our Impact: Pushing to replace absolute liability with comparative negligence, reducing construction and insurance costs and attracting private investment.

New York is facing a surge in fraudulent insurance claims from staged construction site accidents, driving up insurance premiums for builders and increasing costs for consumers.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to classify staged construction accidents as a class E felony and advocating for regulation of lawsuit lending that enables this type of insurance fraud.

Aiming to combat insurance fraud in New York. Targets the practice of using "runners"—individuals paid to recruit patients for fraudulent medical providers who bill no-fault insurance for unnecessary or fake treatments.

Our impact: Supporting legislation to reduce fraud by criminalizing both runners and the providers who use them, with penalties ranging from a class A misdemeanor to a class D felony, depending on the financial impact or frequency of offenses.

Litigation financing companies offer upfront cash to plaintiffs in exchange for a portion of future settlements, often charging excessive fees that exploit vulnerable consumers in financial distress.

Our Impact: Supporting a ban or strict regulation of lawsuit lending under consumer protection laws to prevent exploitation and reduce incentives for abusive litigation.

New York’s proposed Grieving Families Act would expand the state’s wrongful death statute, allowing additional claimants and broader damages, significantly increasing liability for businesses, hospitals, and municipalities.

Our Impact: Advocating for the Governor’s continued veto of this legislation to prevent an unbalanced expansion of liability that would raise costs and strain public resources.

New York requires defendants to pay 9% interest on civil judgments — far above current market rates — pressuring settlements in meritless cases and inflating the cost of litigation.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to align judgment interest rates with prevailing market rates, promoting fairness and reducing undue financial pressure on defendants.

New York leads the nation in ADA website compliance lawsuits, with small businesses, wineries, art galleries, and universities frequently targeted — often without prior knowledge of violations.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation that provides a 60-day correction window before legal action, ensuring resources go toward accessibility improvements, not unnecessary legal fees.

New York is one of only two states that allow trespassers to sue property owners for injuries sustained while unlawfully on their property — undermining property rights and deterring business investment.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to bar injury claims by trespassers, with reasonable exceptions for children and attractive nuisances like playgrounds and pools, to protect property owners from unjust liability.

Under New York’s joint and several liability rule, a defendant found just 1% at fault can be forced to pay 100% of the damages — encouraging abusive lawsuits that target solvent entities like schools and businesses.

Our Impact: Supporting the repeal of joint and several liability in favor of Fair Share Liability, ensuring defendants only pay damages proportionate to their actual fault, as adopted in states like Florida and Texas.

Non-economic damages — such as pain and suffering or emotional distress — are subjective and difficult to quantify, often leading to inconsistent and excessive jury awards that inflate legal costs.

Our Impact: Supporting the rational limitation of non-economic damages to reduce excessive awards and discourage frivolous lawsuits, while preserving full compensation for measurable economic losses like medical bills and lost wages.

New York law lacks a clear timeline for expert witness disclosure, often allowing it just 30 days before trial — making it difficult for defendants to evaluate claims early and encouraging surprise tactics in court.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to require plaintiffs to disclose expert witnesses upon filing, with defendants following within 60 days, promoting fairness, reducing delays, and discouraging frivolous lawsuits.

With attorney fees often exceeding 33% of an award, injured plaintiffs are frequently left with only a fraction of their total compensation.

Our Impact: Supporting the expansion of New York’s sliding-scale contingency fee schedule—currently used in medical malpractice cases—to all tort claims, ensuring victims receive the majority of their compensation.

New York’s nearly century-old standard for scientific evidence only requires that methods be “generally accepted,” allowing questionable or outdated science to be used in court.

Our Impact: Supporting the adoption of the Daubert standard, which requires scientific evidence to be based on reliable methodology — aligning New York with the majority of states and the federal court system.

Defendants are often required to post bonds covering the full judgment, interest, and attorney’s fees to file an appeal — a cost that can reach into the millions and effectively deny access to appellate review.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to cap appeal bonds at $50 million, ensuring defendants retain their right to appeal while preventing abuse, unless there is evidence of asset liquidation or evasion.

The growing use of private contingency fee attorneys by the State lacks sufficient oversight, raising concerns about conflicts of interest, inflated fees, and diminished public accountability.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to increase transparency, cap contingency fees, and ensure the State retains control of litigation when hiring outside counsel, preventing abuse and protecting taxpayer interests.

The rising use of electronically stored information (ESI) in litigation has led to costly, time-consuming discovery processes, with broad and burdensome requests often used to pressure unfair settlements.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to clarify ESI preservation requirements and implement safeguards against abusive discovery tactics, ensuring a more efficient and balanced legal process.

New York law does not require plaintiffs in asbestos cases to disclose prior recoveries from trust funds, enabling double-dipping and even conflicting or fraudulent claims that deplete resources meant for legitimate victims.

Our Impact: Supporting legislation to increase transparency in asbestos trust claims and implement safeguards that prevent abuse and preserve funds for those truly harmed.