New York's 2026 serious injury changes for MVA intake

New York changed MVA intake in two waves in 2026. On May 26, the state removed the 90/180-day serious-injury category, changed comparative fault for MVA personal injury, required fault to be determined before serious injury, and added a $100,000 non-economic cap for specified claimants; on June 1, new attorney advertising rules took effect and the solicitation moratorium ended.

What changed in May 2026?

Chapter 58, Part EE, Laws of 2026 made four material changes effective May 26, 2026. The serious-injury amendment applies to actions commenced on or after that date.

These changes affect different parts of case evaluation. Injury category, fault allocation, insurance status, and specified conduct should not be collapsed into one intake label.

This article describes the statutes as enacted. It is not legal advice and does not predict how a court will evaluate a particular claimant.

Which serious-injury categories remain?

New York removed the category based on a medically determined injury that prevented substantially all customary activities for at least 90 of the first 180 days after the injury. Eight categories remain:

1. Death

2. Dismemberment

3. Significant disfigurement

4. Fracture

5. Loss of a fetus

6. Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system

7. Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member

8. Significant limitation of use of a body function or system

All eight are objectively provable categories. That makes a generic confirmed-injury screen insufficient for a firm targeting non-economic MVA claims under the threshold.

Velocity Axis orders can name injuries and severity conditions separately under Injury Eligibility. The order may identify fractures or another written condition, but a case-type label by itself does not create a medical definition.

What does removal of the 90/180 category mean for intake?

Time away from customary activities no longer supplies its own serious-injury category for actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026. Intake should therefore identify which remaining category the reported facts may support rather than relying on duration alone.

That does not mean a qualification agent can determine the legal threshold. Under Signed Retainer Delivery and Live Transfer, the agent confirms the claimant’s answers during a live call. Those answers remain the claimant’s account, and the published product documentation does not claim medical-record verification.

A written order can still make the screening more exact:

The firm conducts the medical and legal evaluation after delivery. The acquisition screen identifies whether the claimant’s reported facts match the order.

How did comparative fault change for MVA cases?

New CPLR section 1411(b), effective May 26, 2026, bars recovery in MVA personal injury when the claimant’s culpable conduct is greater than the defendant’s. Pure comparative negligence continues to govern non-MVA negligence.

This creates a New York-specific distinction. An order that uses the standard “claimant not at fault” condition is stricter than the statutory greater-than comparison. A firm may choose that strict screen, loosen fault restriction, or write another condition supported by the available order fields.

Live qualification records the claimant’s fault account. It does not adjudicate comparative culpability. The order should therefore use questions the claimant can answer about the collision rather than present a legal conclusion as verified fact.

Insurance Law section 5104(a) now requires fault to be determined before serious injury. Intake can keep the two topics in separate fields, preserving the facts the firm needs to apply that sequence.

Which claimants face the new non-economic cap?

New Insurance Law section 5104(d) caps non-economic damages at $100,000 for three specified classes of claimant:

The cap does not apply to wrongful death.

For order design, insurance and conduct questions should remain separate. Exhibit A can require claimant insurance or another written insurance condition. A custom criterion can record additional conditions the firm wants screened. The live call confirms the claimant’s answers but does not independently verify every fact.

The firm should decide which reported conditions exclude a claimant from its acquisition order. That commercial screen is separate from the firm’s later legal analysis of whether the statute applies.

What changed on June 1, 2026?

A Joint Appellate Division Order dated May 27, 2026 changed New York attorney advertising rules effective June 1, 2026. It repealed the 30-day and 15-day solicitation moratoria and replaced Rule 7.1 with an ABA-model standard.

The same order removed several former advertising requirements:

New Rule 7.1(d) requires the name and contact information of at least one responsible lawyer or law firm on every advertisement.

The repeal means New York no longer has the old 30-day fresh-accident blackout. It does not turn a campaign response into proof that the claimant satisfies the serious-injury threshold. Advertising content and claimant eligibility remain separate controls.

How should a 2026 New York order be written?

Begin with the remaining injury categories. If the firm wants fractures, significant limitations, or permanent consequential limitations, record the accepted conditions in the injury or custom-criteria fields. Do not rely on “Serious Injury” as a category label to supply the actual threshold.

Then record fault, insurance, treatment, representation status, prior settlement, accident recency, and geography independently. This makes each answer visible in the delivered record and gives the firm a defined comparison point.

The written order should also distinguish three evidence levels:

An order can screen tightly without claiming that acquisition intake has proved a statutory element. The firm’s attorneys remain responsible for evaluating and representing the claimant.

What should appear in the New York advertising build?

New Rule 7.1(d) requires the name and contact information of at least one responsible lawyer or firm on every advertisement. Before launch, the firm should review the actual ad creative, funnels, landing pages, disclosures, and consent language carrying its identity.

Velocity Axis keeps one campaign and qualification funnel per firm. The funnel is built for that firm’s executed order, so the advertising identity, New York geography, and screening questions remain tied to the same destination.

Every delivered record also carries the origin artifacts described in the product documentation. Those artifacts identify the submission time, funnel page, consent language, and session replay, allowing the firm to trace the claimant back to the campaign path.

What Velocity Axis does

Velocity Axis writes the firm’s New York screening requirements into Exhibit A and confirms the claimant’s answers live under Signed Retainer Delivery and Live Transfer. The criteria documentation separates injury, treatment, insurance, fault, representation, settlement, and geography so the 2026 New York changes can be reflected without treating a qualification call as a legal or medical determination.