New York Drivers Sue Their Auto Insurers at Nearly 8 Times the Rate of the Rest of the Nation
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Sept. 29, 2026 — New York auto policyholders filed lawsuits against their insurers in 2025 at a rate equal to 31% of all claims closed without payment. That’s 7.9 times the average rate across the rest of the nation, according to a Weiss Ratings analysis of data recently reported by insurers to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
For every 1,000 private auto claims that insurers in New York closed without any payment, policyholders filed 310 lawsuits. Across all other U.S. states and territories, the average was just 39.
Even Florida, long regarded as the nation’s hotbed of insurance litigation, came in a distant second, with an auto lawsuit rate of 19.2%. New York’s rate was more than 1.6 times Florida’s.
States Where Auto Policyholders Sue Their Insurers Most Often
(as a percentage of claims closed with no payment during the year)
|
Rank |
State |
2025 |
2019 |
Change From |
|
1 |
New York |
31.0% |
N/A |
N/A |
|
2 |
Florida |
19.2% |
13.0% |
+48% |
|
3 |
Michigan |
18.9% |
11.4% |
+66% |
|
4 |
Connecticut |
12.0% |
9.1% |
+33% |
|
5 |
New Jersey |
9.6% |
9.0% |
+7% |
|
6 |
Georgia |
6.2% |
4.0% |
+55% |
|
7 |
Louisiana |
5.8% |
9.2% |
-37% |
|
8 |
Illinois |
5.6% |
3.6% |
+56% |
|
9 |
South Carolina |
5.6% |
3.6% |
+53% |
|
10 |
Alabama |
5.5% |
4.8% |
+16% |
|
11 |
Tennessee |
5.3% |
5.1% |
+6% |
|
National Average |
3.9% |
3.4% |
+17% |
Data: National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS). Change is the relative change in the 2025 rate versus the 2019 rate. No data is available for 2019–2024 because New York State chose not to participate in the NAIC survey. New York, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey are no-fault auto insurance states.
Weiss Ratings founder Dr. Martin D. Weiss commented: “It's unusual for policyholders to go through the time, trouble and expense of taking their insurance company to court. Yet in New York, lawsuits were filed at a rate equal to nearly one-third of all claims closed without payment. That's not a statistical blip. It's a red flag.”
New York reported this data for the first time this year. “This begs the question: Why not sooner?” Weiss added. “Moreover, what might auto insurance companies in New York be doing to drive their policyholders to sue so often?”
New York is not the only concern. Among the other 10 states with the highest lawsuit rates, all but Louisiana saw an increase in the rate of policyholder lawsuits from 2019 to 2025. The largest increases were in Michigan (+66%), Illinois (+56%), Georgia (+55%) and South Carolina (+53%).
Consumers can see how their own state compares with New York and the rest of the country here.
*******
About Weiss Ratings: Weiss Ratings is the nation’s leading independent provider of 100% unbiased ratings on stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, cryptocurrencies, banks, credit unions and insurance companies, covering more than 60,000 institutions and investments. Since its founding in 1971, Weiss Ratings has never accepted compensation from the companies it rates, and it never gives rated companies the opportunity to preview or suppress a rating before publication. All Weiss ratings are available at https://weissratings.com/.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the Weiss ratings of U.S. life and health insurers outperformed those of A.M. Best by 3-to-1 in warning of future financial difficulties, while also greatly outperforming those of Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. The New York Times reported that Weiss “was the first to warn of the dangers and say so unambiguously,” and Barron’s called Weiss Ratings “the leader in identifying vulnerable companies.”