Yes. New York is a no-fault state. This means the no-fault insurer pays your accident-related medical bills and lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. If you were driving or riding in a vehicle, coverage comes from the policy for that vehicle. If you were a pedestrian or bicyclist, coverage comes from the insurer of the car that hit you.
However, no-fault coverage carries strict coverage limits and short reporting deadlines. It also does not compensate you for pain and suffering. To recover damages for pain and suffering, you must file a lawsuit against the responsible party. Under Article 51 of New York State Insurance Law (often called the “threshold” law), you can only bring a lawsuit if you prove you sustained a “serious injury.”
In May 2026, the New York State Legislature amended several of these rules. So some of what you may read elsewhere is likely wrong and out of date.
Here is what applies now, provided by our experienced car accident lawyers serving Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Long Island.
What No-Fault Actually Pays For
New York calls this coverage personal injury protection (PIP), and every auto policy issued in the state has to include it. The statute allows up to $50,000 per injured person for a single accident, spread across a defined list of losses:
- Necessary medical, hospital, surgical, nursing, dental, ambulance, X-ray, prescription drug, and prosthetic expenses
- Psychiatric care, plus physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation, with the therapy rendered pursuant to a referral
- Roughly 80% of your lost earnings from work, because a 20% statutory offset applies, and less again if you also receive workers’ compensation, Social Security disability or state disability benefits. The underlying work loss figure is capped at $2,000 per month for up to three years from the date of the accident
- Up to $25 per day for one year for other reasonable and necessary expenses, such as household help or transportation to medical appointments
- A $2,000 death benefit payable to the estate, which is paid in addition to the $50,000
Notice what is missing. No-fault pays nothing toward vehicle damage and nothing for pain and suffering. Drivers can carry an extra $25,000 for lost earnings and therapy once the first $50,000 is exhausted, and insurers must offer it at the time of application or renewal.
Who Is Covered and Who Is Left Out
No-fault generally follows the vehicle. If you were driving or riding in an insured car, you file with that car’s insurer, which is your own insurer only when the car was yours. If you were on foot or a bicycle when a car struck you, you file with the insurer of the car that hit you. If the striking vehicle is unknown or uninsured, you may be able to file under your own policy or the policy of a relative in your household. If there is no auto policy in the household, the claim goes to the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation. Official state guidance walks through each of those situations.
Some people are shut out of the system entirely. Motorcycle operators get no no-fault benefits, because state law leaves motorcycles out of the definition of a motor vehicle for this purpose. The tradeoff is that an injured motorcyclist is not held to the serious injury threshold to be compensated for pain and suffering.
Owners who allowed their own coverage to lapse may lose first-party benefits for injuries in that vehicle. An insurer may also exclude a driver who was intoxicated or drug-impaired, though necessary emergency hospital care is still covered, along with someone injured while committing a felony, fleeing arrest, racing, or driving a car known to be stolen. People hurt while walking, by contrast, are clearly covered by no fault if they are struck by a motor vehicle.
The Three Deadlines That Quietly End No-Fault Claims
Missing one of these deadlines can result in a denial of a no-fault claim or certain benefits:
- Written notice of the accident to the no-fault insurer, no more than 30 days after the crash
- Written proof of claim for each medical service, no later than 45 days after that service is rendered
- Written proof of claim for lost wages and other necessary expenses, no later than 90 days after the loss is incurred
The notice clock begins the day after the accident, so a crash on January 1 requires notice by January 31. A late submission is not automatically fatal. Each of these deadlines may be excused if you provide written proof giving clear and reasonable justification for the delay, but you never want to put yourself in this precarious position.
When Does the No-Fault Law Allow You to Sue
No-fault covers basic economic losses only. In order to sue or recover pain and suffering from the at-fault driver or responsible entity who caused the crash, you must be able to prove that your injuries meet what is commonly known as the serious injury threshold. If your injuries do not qualify as “serious,” then you are not entitled to any compensation for pain and suffering under New York State law, which only recognizes specific categories of serious injury, including:
- Death
- Dismemberment
- Significant disfigurement
- Fracture (broken bone)
- The loss of a fetus
- Permanent loss of use of a body organ or member or function or system
- Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member
- Significant limitation of use of a body function or system
What the language in some of these categories actually means and whether your injury qualifies as serious is extremely complicated and the most litigated issue in motor vehicle accident cases throughout the state.
The issue typically arises when there is no fatality or broken bone, and the question becomes, does your soft tissue neck or back injury, for example (i.e., disc bulge), qualify as a serious injury? The answer depends on a number of factors unique to each case and each injury, but The Pryor Law Firm litigates these cases every single day and knows all of the nuances and details of the law and the medicine to properly evaluate your case and determine the value of your case.
You can also sue the at-fault driver for economic losses that exceed basic economic loss as the statute defines it, including medical bills past the $50,000 limit and lost earnings above the $2,000 monthly cap. What the insurer actually paid is not the measure. A loss that falls inside the statutory definition stays off the table in a lawsuit even if the no-fault carrier denies it.
What Changed for New York Drivers in 2026
Several amendments took effect on May 26, 2026, and they apply to all actions and proceedings commenced on or after that date. That turns on when a case is filed, not on when the crash happened, so a 2024 collision sued on today is governed by the new rules. Articles updated even after the change still describe the old law.
The first change narrowed the serious injury definition. A ninth category used to qualify an injury that prevented someone from performing all of their usual daily activities substantially for at least 90 of the 180 days following the crash. That category has been deleted, which closes the route many soft tissue claims used to reach a jury.
Two Clocks, Not One
The no-fault deadlines and the lawsuit deadline are different things. A New York negligence action for personal injury generally has to be commenced within three years of the accident, subject to statutory exceptions. Claims involving a public authority or a municipality carry their own far shorter notice requirements.
The no-fault deadlines run in days rather than years, and they keep running while you are still deciding whether to sue. Missing the 30-day no-fault notice does not close the courthouse door, and filing a lawsuit does not revive lapsed no-fault benefits. Both clocks have to be protected separately.
Talk to a New York City and Long Island Car Accident Lawyer
If you were hurt in a crash in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Nassau or Suffolk counties, the 2026 changes make early decisions matter more than they used to. The Pryor Law Firm handles personal injury cases only. Kenneth Pryor is a former Bronx prosecutor with more than 25 years of litigation experience, and he is prepared to take a case to verdict when the insurer will not pay full value. Contact us for a free consultation. There is no attorney fee unless we recover for you.