New York Personal Lines Study Guide

Personal lines in New York comes down to two bodies of state law, and both of them are unusually specific. The first is the no-fault auto scheme — a benefit schedule with real numbers attached and a threshold you have to cross before you can sue anybody. The second is Section 3425, which governs when a personal auto or homeowners policy may be cancelled or not renewed, and which is written around permitted grounds rather than around notice periods. Get those two right and the New York portion of this exam largely takes care of itself.

No-fault — the benefit schedule is the exam

New York’s Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance Reparations Act makes personal injury protection mandatory: your own policy pays your medical costs and lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. The statutory package is called basic economic loss, and it is $50,000 per person, broken down as unlimited-duration medical, 80% of lost earnings up to $2,000 a month for up to three years, and up to $25 a day in incidental expenses for a year. An optional additional PIP — OBEL — adds another $25,000.

There is also a $2,000 death benefit, and where it sits is a favourite exam trap. It is not part of the $50,000. Section 5102(a) says basic economic loss “shall not include any loss incurred on account of death,” and § 5103(a)(5) makes the death benefit “in addition to any first party benefits for basic economic loss.” Inside or on top? On top.

Because the system is no-fault, you cannot sue the other driver for pain and suffering unless the injury clears New York’s serious injury threshold — death, dismemberment, fracture, significant disfigurement, permanent loss of use, or a substantially disabling injury lasting 90 of the 180 days after the accident, among others.

Liability minimums are 25/50/10, rising to 50/100 where the injuries cause death. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory on every New York auto policy — not an offer-and-reject coverage here — at the same two-tier minimum as liability: 25/50, rising to 50/100 where the injury results in death. SUM (supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorists) is optional and must be offered, up to the policy’s liability limits and capped at $250,000/$500,000.

Comparative negligence — a rule that changed in 2026

New York has taught pure comparative negligence for decades: under CPLR § 1411 a claimant recovers even if 99% at fault, with the award reduced by their share. Every national outline still says so, and for general negligence it remains true.

But CPLR § 1411(b) now bars recovery in personal-injury actions subject to Article 51 — the no-fault article — where the claimant’s culpable conduct is greater than that of the person sued, or greater than the combined conduct of the persons sued. Note both prongs: most summaries quote only the multi-defendant half. This is recent enough that a lot of study material has not caught up, which makes it a good bet for a new exam item.

When nobody will write the risk, personal auto goes to the New York Automobile Insurance Plan (NYAIP) — and an assigned insurer must keep that driver for three years before it may nonrenew.

Cancellation — ask whether they were allowed to, not how much notice

Section 3425 is the most policyholder-protective cancellation statute in the country, and it is built differently from what you have studied. During a personal auto or homeowners policy’s first 60 days, an insurer may cancel for almost any non-discriminatory reason — though the notice must still state that reason. After 60 days the door closes to a short list.

For personal auto, the only remaining grounds are nonpayment, suspension or revocation of the named insured’s or a regular operator’s driver’s licence, and fraud or material misrepresentation. For homeowners, the list is nonpayment; fraud or material misrepresentation; a conviction or physical change that increases the hazard; or a determination by the Superintendent.

The clocks cluster, so learn them together. A cancellation for nonpayment is defeated if the premium is paid within 15 days after the notice is mailed. Nonrenewal requires at least 45 but not more than 60 days’ notice. A renewal conditioned on changed limits or dropped coverage runs on that same 45-to-60-day clock. The 20-day notice is a different animal — it belongs to an insurer that has the right to cancel and instead conditions continuation mid-term (§ 3425(d)), and misfiling it under “renewal” is exactly the mistake the exam is looking for. And the specific reason must appear in every cancellation, conditional-renewal and nonrenewal notice — a notice missing a required element is simply ineffective.