June 15, 2015: Grassroots Initiative on Private Right of Action Bills - Call to Action

To:All NYIA Members

NYIA only asks members to participate in a Call to Action when absolutely necessary.

The time is now. We are requesting all member companies contact the Senate Majority Leader and the Assembly Speaker as well as your local Senatorto express your opposition to threeprivate right of action bills. We encourage you to ask your employees to join in this grassroots effort.The bill is currently live so please reach out today or tomorrow so our message is heard.

To participate, simply copy and paste the text below into an email, fill in the specifics about your company and send to Senator John Flanagan () and Assembly Speaker Heastie ().We also encourage you to contact your local Senator by going to There you can click on your Senator's name and then click contact at the top of the page. If you don't know your Senator's name you can enter your street address and zip code in the top left corner to find your Senator.

Text of email to legislators:

I am writing from [INSERT COMPANY NAME], a property and casualty insurance company doing business in New York with [INSERT NUMBER OF] policyholders.

We urge the Senate and Assembly to OPPOSE these bills, which relate to a private right of action that largely already exists in law, but include several provisions that really only benefit trial lawyers and not the consumers they represent:

  1. A257A Weinstein
  2. S4049BLanza (similar to A257A, but excludes life and health insurance)
  3. S29ADeFrancisco/A8025 Brennan

The passage of any of these bills would severely increase litigation in the state and greatly increase the cost of insurance for all New York citizens, businesses and municipalities. We do not need to encourage more lawsuits as New York is already consistently the second most litigious state in the nation. Especially since New York law already provides remedies for a policyholder who disagrees with a claim settlement. A consumer can sue their insurance company for a breach of the company’s duty to act in good faith and deal fairly and receive damages in excess of their policy limits. Consumers can also file a complaint with the state’s Department of Financial Services (DFS)—which unlike litigation is of no cost to the consumer.

The passage of any of these bills would result in higher premiums for New Yorkers, to the tune of a 17.2% increase, which amounts to more than$2 billion. Furthermore, because municipalities and school districts pay for protection from property and casualty losses, these bills would result in higher property taxes of $22 million.

A similar measure was repealed in California because the costs were so significant with no additional benefits—the average time it took for a claim to be paid increased with plaintiff attorneys purposely holding on to cases to substantiate an unfair claim settlement cause of action. New York should learn from California’s mistake and not make the same misstep.

For more information or copies of individual bill memoranda, please contact Marc Craw at .