For at least a half-century, one of the most powerful and enduring outside forces in New York State politics has been the Trial Lawyers Association.
The organization — which argues for expanding the right to sue and opposes most efforts that may curtail the legal fees of its members — has plowed millions of dollars into the campaigns of state lawmakers, and spent millions more on lobbyists close to leaders of both the Senate and Assembly.
Its latest fight is against a proposal by Gov. Kathy Hochul to lower the cost of auto insurance for New York drivers, who pay some of the highest rates in the country. The proposal would also limit payouts in cases where motorists were mostly at fault or impaired.
But this time, the trial lawyers have an equally deep-pocketed foe.
The ride-share company Uber is pushing for the bill, arguing that the auto insurance system is rife with fraud. Uber, one of the country’s biggest purchasers of auto insurance, has given about $8.3 million to the lobbying group Citizens for Affordable Rates.
“Call your legislator today” one piece of mail from the group states in capital letters. “Tell them to support Governor Hochul’s proposal to lower car insurance rates, now!”
The dispute is one of several dragging out negotiations over New York State’s multibillion-dollar budget, which blew past its April 1 deadline and will have been late every year since Ms. Hochul took office.
Drivers in New York State pay some of the highest premiums in the country, which climbed to an average $1,896 a year in 2023, 32 percent above the national average, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group.
The governor’s proposal caps at $100,000 the damages awarded for pain, suffering and emotional distress, if the victims are either uninsured, impaired or committing a felony during the incident. Another change would narrow the categories that allow a victim to meet the legal definition of “serious injury.”
Additionally, drivers in car crashes who are found to be more than 51 percent at fault would not be able seek compensation at trial beyond the $50,000 offered under no-fault coverage.
But some lawmakers seem reluctant to approve the governor’s insurance proposals, citing arguments seemingly taken from the trial lawyers.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate majority leader, acknowledged the trial lawyers’ deep ties in Albany but said the current pushback from legislators had more to do with whether Ms. Hochul’s proposed changes would actually lower rates.
“Give me the data that tells me that certain things that you’re proposing will lead to lower rates,” Ms. Stewart-Cousins said, paraphrasing the thrust of conversations she has had with the governor.
The governor, in turn, has circulated talking points written by Citizens for Affordable Rates, the group backed by Uber. She argued that similar insurance reforms in other high-cost states like Florida and Michigan have led to savings for drivers.
Much of Uber’s millions in spending have gone into television advertising. Uber has also blanketed its drivers and passengers in New York with prompts to keep rides affordable by rejecting “the crash tax” — an allusion to the rising cost of auto insurance. Assemblyman Patrick Chludzinski, a Republican from Buffalo, said he was receiving hundreds of form letters emailed from ride-share patrons in his district.
Mr. Chludzinski followed up with several of his constituents whose names were on the emails but who told him they’d not sent them.
Josh Gold, a spokesman for Uber, said that more than 72,000 letters from drivers and riders had been sent to state legislators, and that a majority of New Yorkers support the reforms. He did not comment on whether any of the letters had been unwittingly sent.
He said the company was backing the lobbying efforts because rising insurance policy costs were a burden for drivers as well as passengers, who pay high fees related to insurance — about $5 on a $20 fare.
The lawyers group has also been active. Over the last decade, the group has been one of the largest contributors to the political action committees set up to support members of the Assembly and Senate, giving about $2.65 million. The association has also been a top donor to political committees controlled by Carl Heastie, the Assembly speaker, and Ms. Stewart-Cousins.
Over the same time period, the trial lawyers have given about $7.5 million in campaign contributions and spent about $16 million on lobbying firms that have close ties to the leadership of the Senate and the Assembly. (The State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government found that the group was regularly one of the 10 biggest spenders on lobbying in recent years).
Fred Thiele Jr., a former state assemblyman, said the trial lawyers’ influence was particularly noticeable under the former speaker, Sheldon Silver. Mr. Silver, who worked as a trial lawyer, repeatedly blocked efforts to alter the state’s century-old scaffolding laws that would have changed how liability in accidents on job sites works. These moves were opposed by the trial lawyers association at the time as well. (Mr. Silver was later convicted on corruption charges related to his legal work).
“They are present in Albany every single day,” Mr. Thiele said.
Mr. Heastie is more solicitous of individual members’ needs, Mr. Thiele said. Still their spending has coincided with their efforts to pass bills that would allow people to sue over excessive noise from helicopters, require auto insurers to offer supplemental spousal liability coverage and overhaul the state’s “wrongful death” law to, among other things, permit damages to be sought for “emotional loss” in addition to potential lost income.
Ms. Hochul has vetoed multiple attempts to change the wrongful death laws in recent years, angering the association. It had supported her political rise, donating the maximum amount of $68,700 to her 2022 election.
Since then the spigot has turned off, and the fight has become more personal, with the governor referring to the group as “billboard lawyers.”
Some of the labor groups that Ms. Hochul has courted for support have been divided on the issue.
Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents more than 28,000 cab, Uber and Lyft drivers in the city, said the group supported the effort to reduce insurance fraud but not the move to limit additional payouts, when a driver is found to be over 51 percent liable.
“That drastic reduction in coverage could be devastating for a work force where many labor without workers’ compensation,” she said in a statement.
The governor has said the premiums have soared, in part, because of fraudulent claims and legal loopholes that incentivize opportunistic lawsuits. Supporters of her plan say reforms are necessary to crack down on a rash of staged car crashes, in which fraudsters cause collisions to collect insurance payouts.
In 2023, there were 1,729 staged car crashes in New York State, the second-highest number in the country, according to the Department of Financial Services.
Andrew Finkelstein, the president of the trial lawyers association, asserts that the rules could unfairly cap the compensation of legitimate crash victims, arguing that fraud represents a smaller share of crashes each year. He said the purported savings would largely benefit ride-share and insurance companies, not consumers.
Mr. Finkelstein accused Ms. Hochul of being beholden to the influence of Uber and insurance companies.
“We encourage our legislators to stand firm,” he said. “Stay with your constituents because the trial lawyers represent the same people that are the constituents of every legislator.”
Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.
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