On May 27, 2026, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law significant amendments which impact the ability of parties injured in automobile accidents to recover money damages. Three major changes have gone into effect, including the elimination of an injury category to qualify for non-economic damages, a cap to a plaintiff’s recovery who is convicted of certain crimes out of the accident, and changes to a plaintiff’s right to recovery where plaintiff holds the majority at fault. These changes will be explained in a series of three blog posts. This first post covers perhaps most dramatic change to New York motor vehicle accident personal injury litigation, the elimination of the 90/180-Day serious injury category. Elimination of the 90/180-Day Serious Injury Category For the vast majority of personal injury cases involving motor vehicle crashes, plaintiffs seek to recover damages associated with pain and suffering for the injuries they have suffered. Simply receiving economic damages, such as lost wages, is helpful but does not fully compensate an injured plaintiff for what they have been through as a result of the negligence of another driver. In most situations, to bring a lawsuit that seeks pain and suffering damages, a plaintiff must have suffered what is known as a serious injury under the New York State Insurance Law. A serious injury is statutorily defined as: Death; Dismemberment; Significant disfigurement; Fracture; Loss of Fetus; Permanent Loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; or Permanent consequential limitation of use of body organ or member; or Significant limitation of use of a body function or system. Previously, there was a ninth category; a plaintiff could recover damages from the defendant driver and satisfy the “serious injury threshold” by demonstrating a medically determined, non-permanent injury or impairment that prevented the performance of substantially all of plaintiff’s customary daily activities for at least 90 of the 180 days immediately following the accident. However, the new legislation removes the 90/180-day category from the definition of “serious injury” under New York Insurance Law § 5102(d). This is a significant change that will cause many who are significantly injured to not have a right to bring a lawsuit and seek pain and suffering damages. The category commonly known as “90/180” was a sort of catchall that permitted folks who were significantly injured in a car accident, but who did not break a bone in a car accident, to have the right to bring a lawsuit seeking full damages and compensation for their injuries. Now, these people may not be able to bring a suit like they could have previously. Think of those with significant and serious soft tissue injuries, torn ligaments, concussive issues or rotator cuff injuries. If you have a potential personal injury case, the attorneys at Flink Maswick Law PLLC are pleased to evaluate your matter free of charge. Please do not hesitate to contact us. Parts 2 and 3 to come.

In observance of Memorial Day, our offices will be closed on Monday, May 25, 2026.  We will reopen on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 8:30 AM. Please join us to remember and honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

On May 7, 2026, news broke that New York State Governor Kathy Hochul had announced a budget agreement for the upcoming fiscal year for New York State. However, there were a number of portions of this budget agreement which included issues outside of simply what money would be spent on, including potential longstanding law changes that would impact the ability of people to obtain compensation for injuries suffered in car accidents which are not their fault. In New York State, for many years, to be able to bring an action/lawsuit for pain and suffering associated with a motor vehicle accident, one must meet what is known as the “serious injury” threshold, which is defined by Insurance Law Section 5102(d). Without the ability to seek pain and suffering compensation, frequently car accident cases are not litigated. Seeking non-economic damages is the way that folks who are injured as a result of someone else's negligence in a car accident recover funds to help compensate them for the injuries, pain, suffering, and impact on their life that they have really and truly experienced. Under Insurance Law 5102(d), serious injuries are defined currently as follows:

This Mother’s Day, all of us at Flink Maswick Law extend our heartfelt wishes to the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and mother figures who make our Adirondack and Upstate NY communities so special. Today we celebrate your strength, compassion, guidance, and the countless ways you support your families every day. Whether you are spending the day relaxing by the lake, gathering with loved ones, or simply enjoying time together, we hope your Mother’s Day is filled with joy, appreciation, and beautiful moments. From all of us in our Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, and Albany offices — Happy Mother’s Day!

The Lake Placid Office will remain open during regular business hours. The Tupper Lake office will be closed on Monday, April 6, and will reopen on Tuesday, April 7 at 8:30 a.m.

We are excited to announce that Flink Maswick Law PLLC and some of its attorneys have been nominated again this year in multiple categories for the annual Best of the Mountains contest, which is hosted by the Adirondack Daily Enterprise . In addition to being nominated for Best Law Firm, which Flink Maswick Law PLLC has won the past three years in a row, Attorneys Molly S. Hann and James L. Maswick have both been nominated for the Best Attorney category for the third year in a row. Molly S. Hann won in this category in 2024 and 2025, and James L. Maswick won in 2023. Additionally, Flink Maswick Law PLLC has been nominated for the category known as Best Customer Service. It is an honor to be recognized, especially by the community we are proud to serve daily. If you would like to support us, voting is now open and we truly appreciate the trust of our community. You can vote via the Adirondack Daily Enterprise website until May 5, 2026. No matter the outcome, Flink Maswick Law PLLC is grateful to be part of such an incredible community and to continue doing the work we care about. Please follow this link for voting - dailygazette.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of-The-Mountains/

We have had clients report to us on Monday, March 23, 2026, and Tuesday, March 24, 2026, that they had trouble calling our offices. We have been working with our phone carrier to fix those issues, with some calls connecting and others not. We are advised that this issue is fixed by our phone carrier. However, if you still experience this issue, please report this to our business manager Kasey L. Donahue via email at kdonahue@flinkmaswicklaw.com so that we may continue to have our phone carrier work on this issue.  We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Thank you for your ongoing trust and support.

Our office frequently handles tax assessment work for clients. As many people know, reductions in real property taxable assessed value season starts in March and goes through most of May in full force. Not unlike our Adirondack end of winter weather! Our office has been inundated with calls from Harrietstown town residents and property owners regarding significant increases in assessed value of the property. Please feel free to reach out to us if you think that your assessed value is artificially high or is unfair, but please keep some things in mind. Based on our review of matters, the Town of Harrietstown has been operating at an equalization rate of under 100%. For example, in 2025, the equalization rate was 70.21%. This meant that people were being assessed below what was considered fair market value by the Town of Harrietstown’s assessor’s value placed on the property. The Town of Harrietstown has sought to reassess properties at what they believe to be fair market value and use a 100% equalization rate. Thus, numerous property owners, if not all, have seen their assessed values rise significantly. However, the Town of Harrietstown included a hypothetical estimate table on its 2026 assessment notifications for folks who own property in Harrietstown. The bottom right-hand corner of this table shows property owner’s estimated increase in taxes vis a vis the increased assessed values. As it is anticipated that every property owner’s assessed values are basically increasing, some folks will see tax increases; some will see their taxes remain relatively flat, and some will actually see their estimated taxes decrease. Thus, please note that, your real property fair market value doubling in assessed value does not mean that you are going to pay twice as much in taxes next year.  You have the right to contest this proposed increase in assessed value if you choose. If you are interested in discussing your potential tax assessment challenge, please do not hesitate to contact our office at (518) 523-2441. Please provide us with a copy of your 2026 assessment notification to aid our review. Thank you.

Flink Maswick Law PLLC’s Tupper Lake office is back up and running as of Tuesday, March 17, 2026! As you may have noticed and as we have previously announced, renovation work had closed the office down for a number of weeks. Molly and Rachael are settling back into the office. The office is open Monday – Friday from 8:30am to 5pm. Stay tuned for more information about our new space! Please feel free to call the Tupper Lake Office at (518) 359-5175 to speak with Attorney Molly S. Hann or her assistant, Rachael Kmack.