Navigating The Amendments To New York’s AVOID Act

In late December 2025, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the “AVOID Act,” which amended CPLR 1007 to impose draconian deadlines on defendants’ time to commence impleader actions in New York State courts. Two months later, lawmakers implemented significant changes to the Act that provided slight concessions to the defense bar (which was unfairly maligned as “vexatious,” “delaying,” “egregious,” and “clever” within New York State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr.’s “justification” for the bill and within the title of the Act itself). 

These amendments were signed into law on February 13, 2026:

• Pre-Note of Issue Deadline for Impleader: The amended bill sets a new deadline of 90 days after answering for a defendant to commence a third-party action, regardless of the nature of the suit (doing away with the original bill’s 60-day timeline and its distinctions between contractual and common-law claims). A defendant must obtain a court order to permit the filing of a third-party complaint after the 90-day period. Failure to secure the Court’s permission after 90 days will result in automatic severance or dismissal without prejudice. The original deadline was sixty days. Further, the amendment also does away with the original bill’s prohibition on any impleaders commenced one year after the filing of an answer without the “plaintiff’s consent.” A motion may now be made at any time prior to the filing of the note of issue requesting the Court’s permission to file a late impleader (after 90 days from answering). While the amendments to the original bill are favorable, they still shift the burden to defendants to justify, within a motion or Court application made to the assigned justice, the service and filing of a third-party action more than 90 after service of their answer. Thus, defendants should treat the 90-day time limit as a hard deadline to avoid the potential denial of a motion/application.
   
• Deadline for “Grave Injury” Impleader: There is an exception to the foregoing rule. Where a defendant wishes to implead the plaintiff’s employer, the 90-day deadline to commence the third-party action (without a court order) starts running not from when the answer is filed, but rather from “the later of … the date the identity of the employer of the plaintiff becomes known to the defendant,” or the date that the defendant “knows or should have known the plaintiff sustained a grave injury…"
   
• Post-Note of Issue Third-Party Actions: The amended bill states that no third-party action may be commenced after the filing of a note of issue “unless upon good cause shown or in the interests of justice.” If such grounds are not established on a motion, the post note of issue impleader action is to be severed or dismissed without prejudice. The severed/dismissed action may not later be consolidated with the main action under any circumstance.
   
• Bill Will not Apply to Lawsuits Commenced Prior to 4/18/26: Finally, the amendments to the bill retain the same effective date—April 18, 2026—but now the bill only applies to cases “commenced” after the effective date, and not “pending” as of the effective date. Within the original bill, the Act would have applied to all currently pending actions as of the effective date; now it only applies to plaintiff’s lawsuits which are commenced on or after April 18, 2026.
   

• Removal of Successively Shortened Deadlines: The original bill required increasingly shortened deadlines for the commencement of subsequent third-party actions (45-day deadline for second third-party action; 30-days for third third-party actions; and 20 days for later actions). The amendments to the bill remove these sections altogether such that any party—regardless of the stage of the impleader action—will have the same 90 days from answering to commence its own third-party action without Court order.

  As discussed above, the best practice is to obtain early investigation, insurance information, and contracts to ensure the commencement of any third-party actions within 90 days of the service and filing of a defendant’s answer to avoid potential pitfalls in later being forced to litigate the issue and being thrown upon the Court’s mercy in requesting the Court’s permission for a belated impleader.

As discussed above, the best practice is to obtain early investigation, insurance information, and contracts to ensure the commencement of any third-party actions within 90 days of the service and filing of a defendant’s answer to avoid potential pitfalls in later being forced to litigate the issue and being thrown upon the Court’s mercy in requesting the Court’s permission for a belated impleader.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.