Signed Into Law: NY Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act Amendments (CIDA)

By Marc H. Pillinger, Neil L. Sambursky and Thomas M. Bona.

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).  Recently, by a 60-1 vote, the New York State Senate took the first step towards reigning in CIDA.  Subsequently, the New York Assembly passed the bill and Governor Hochul has signed the legislation into law to modify CIDA to require:

1. New insurance disclosure information only for lawsuits filed after the CIDA 12/31/21 effective date and not retroactively to pending cases.
2. Disclosure of insurance policies or Declaration pages within 90 days of the filing of an Answer, instead of 60 days.  With plaintiff’s written 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.
3. 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.
4. A defendant to disclose the available Limits of Insurance remaining on 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., defense cost included in calculating available insurance remaining, a defendant will not need to disclose attorney identities regarding fees paid.
5. Supplemental disclosures when the Note of Issue is filed and during settlement negotiations or mediation.
6. Disclosure of policy limits under this section shall not constitute an admission that an alleged injury or damage is covered by the policy.

There are two other significant changes: 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.

As your trusted advisor, PMT is ready to help with questions or provide a webinar about CIDA compliance.  Please contact Marc H. Pillinger at Mpillinger@pmtlawfirm.com; Neil L. Sambursky at nsambursky@pmtlawfirm.com or Thomas M. Bona at tbona@pmtlawfirm.com.

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