Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Insurers and providers urge quick-pay rule to curb surge in PIP suits
Loading...
Summary
Insurers and trade groups told lawmakers a spike in no‑fault personal-injury-protection suits, many brought by out‑of‑state firms, is clogging courts and driving rate pressure; they asked the committee to report favorably on H1088, which would require insurers to tender amounts due within 30 days of service to deter fee-driven litigation.
Insurance industry representatives and defense counsel told a Massachusetts legislative panel that a rapid increase in personal injury protection (PIP) lawsuits has created operational strain and risks higher premiums, and urged passage of House Bill 1088 to curb abusive filings.
Christopher Stark, executive director of the Massachusetts Insurance Federation, said H1088 would "return to the legislative intent of our statutory scheme for personal injury protection" by giving insurers 30 days from service of a complaint to pay amounts due without exposure to attorneys' fees. "This simple step will deter those seeking to exploit our no fault system," Stark said.
Stark presented figures he described as industry-provided counts of PIP suits: 2,092 suits in 2023; about 4,100 suits in 2024; and a 2025 year-to-date total that, he said, already exceeded the full 2024 number through only the first six months of the year. He said insurers are reporting premium-indicator increases for PIP coverage, in some cases exceeding 20 percent.
Representatives from Arbella Insurance and MAPFRE described a pattern of high-volume submissions and suits they attributed to a handful of out-of-state firms. An Arbella witness told the committee that one law firm’s filings in a particular district court included hundreds or thousands of matters, and that many bulk filings were later dismissed; Arbella provided company-level counts showing 24 PIP suits in 2021, 48 in 2022, 140 in 2023 and 143 year-to-date through June 2025 for that carrier.
Brian Siri, assistant vice president at MAPFRE, said his company has received more than 2,000 bill submissions from a single firm going back multiple years and that roughly 90 percent of those submissions did not reflect amounts the insurer owed. He said the volume of submissions has forced insurers to divert staff from active claims to respond within the statutory timeframes.
Defense counsel Derek Buckley described specific cases where plaintiffs’ counsel did not correct obvious pleading errors or did not dismiss claims promptly, requiring defendants to file motions to dismiss and other pleadings. Buckley said attorneys sometimes do not respond to repeated defense requests to dismiss or to correct complaints for months, increasing litigation cost.
Witnesses asked the committee to report H1088 favorably and to work with leadership to enact the 30‑day tender rule. No committee vote on H1088 was recorded in the hearing transcript.
