By Marc H. Pillinger and Neil L. Sambursky.
PMT alerted you that on December 31, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act (“CIDA”) into law and greatly expanded a defendant’s insurance disclosure requirements under New York’s CPLR § 3101(f). Last week, however, by a 60-1 vote, the New York State Senate took the first step towards reigning-in CIDA. The revised bill is now before the New York Assembly. Although we cannot predict the Assembly’s actions, the State Senate’s bill proposes modifying CIDA to require:
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- New insurance disclosure information only for lawsuits filed after the CIDA 12/31/21 effective date and not retroactive application to pending cases.
- Disclosure of insurance policies or Declaration pages within 90 days of the filing of an Answer, instead of 60 days. With plaintiff’s consent, a defendant will only need to provide a copy of the policy’s Declaration page, but the plaintiff can revoke consent at any time.
- Disclosure of only the name and email address of the person adjusting the claim. A Third-Party Administrator will not need to disclose the person at an insurance company to whom they are reporting.
- A defendant to disclose the available Limits of Insurance remaining on its policies as eroded. A defendant will not be required to disclose information about other lawsuits that eroded the limits. For “eroding limits policies,” i.e., where defense costs reduce the available Limits of Insurance, a defendant will not need to disclose attorney identities regarding fees paid.
- Supplemental disclosures when the Note of Issue is filed and during settlement negotiations or mediation.
Two other proposed changes are significant: First, insurance applications will not be required to be disclosed. This will avoid a host of issues regarding proprietary information that is not relevant to the resolution of a lawsuit, but can cause competitive damage to both insureds and insurers. Second, the law will not apply to automobile No-Fault and Personal Injury Protection policies.
PMT is always on your side, and we will monitor these revisions and advise you of what happens next. Stay tuned.
Should you have any questions, please call our office at (914) 703-6300 or contact:
Marc H. Pillinger, Executive Partner
mpillinger@pmtlawfirm.com
Jeffrey T. Miller, Executive Partner
jmiller@pmtlawfirm.com