{"id":84,"date":"2026-04-30T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/?p=84"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:15:46","slug":"understanding-new-yorks-new-serious-injury-threshold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/understanding-new-yorks-new-serious-injury-threshold\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding New York&#8217;s New Serious Injury Threshold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York is a no-fault auto accident state, which means the personal injury protection (PIP) portion of your auto insurance policy pays for medical expenses for you and your passengers, regardless of who caused the accident. You may still be able to sue another driver for additional damages, including pain and suffering, if your injuries meet New York&rsquo;s serious injury threshold. Understanding how this threshold is applied is essential. Worthington Carroll Agency, serving Port Jervis, NY, can help you stay informed and make sure your coverage aligns with current state requirements.<\/p>\n<h2>New York No-Fault Insurance and Serious Injury Threshold Updates<\/h2>\n<p>Your own PIP coverage continues to pay up to $50,000 for medical expenses and certain related costs after a vehicle accident. While New York lawmakers and regulators have discussed reforms to reduce subjective injury claims, courts are increasingly emphasizing objective medical evidence in evaluating serious injury lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>These legal trends are intended to limit claims based solely on temporary soft-tissue injuries without clear diagnostic support, such as surgical findings or radiological imaging. One area that continues to receive close scrutiny is the 90\/180-day rule. Under this rule, an accident victim with a non-permanent injury may pursue a lawsuit if they are unable to perform all of their usual daily activities substantially for at least 90 days during the 180 days immediately following the accident. Courts now require detailed, well-documented medical evidence to support these claims.<\/p>\n<h2>How the Serious Injury Gatekeeper Rule Works<\/h2>\n<p>Under New York law, accident victims may pursue a lawsuit outside the no-fault system only if their injuries fall into one of the following categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Death<\/li>\n<li>Dismemberment<\/li>\n<li>Serious disfigurement<\/li>\n<li>Fractures<\/li>\n<li>Loss of a fetus<\/li>\n<li>Loss of an organ, member, function, or body system<\/li>\n<li>Permanent injury with significant limitations<\/li>\n<li>Non-permanent injury with significant temporary limitations<\/li>\n<li>Injuries that qualify under the 90\/180-day rule<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The insurance professionals at Worthington Carroll Agency monitor changes in New York auto insurance laws and court interpretations. If you are concerned about how these rules may affect your coverage, contact our Port Jervis, NY, office to review your auto insurance policy and discuss your options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York is a no-fault auto accident state, which means the personal injury protection (PIP) portion of your auto insurance policy pays for medical expenses for you and your passengers, regardless of who caused the accident. You may still be able to sue another driver for additional damages, including pain and suffering, if your injuries [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,24,25,17,8],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-auto-insurance","tag-auto","tag-insurance","tag-ny","tag-port-jervis","tag-worthington-carroll-agency"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcinsagency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}