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On December 31, 2021, New York enacted into law the most extensive liability insurance disclosure requirements in the country. Defendants in New York will now be required to produce insurance-related information within 60 days of answering the complaint, or for those complaints in which answers have been filed, an extension has been granted to March 1, 2022.
Prior to this enactment, defendants were only required to provide insurance agreements that would satisfy all or part of a judgment in an action. Courts typically did not require information that spanned beyond the policy of insurance to be produced.
There will be changes to this enactment in the coming weeks but here are some key things to consider right now:
- Information required to be disclosed should be reviewed and vetted by defense counsel
- Providing applications that contain confidential information, as well as information protected by privacy laws, may be problematic to release. This information should be reviewed and vetted by defense counsel
- Obligations to additional insured’s need to be reviewed
- Disclosing information regarding claims that may be applied to an aggregate erosion as part of the litigation can become public information thereby enticing other lawsuits to possibly attach to the remaining limits
- Providing information can usurp non-disclosure requirements in prior confidential settlements
- The burden on insurance carriers, brokers, and insureds will become immense as this applies to all civil suits
The intent of this law is to protect Plaintiffs and to provide information to available coverages. This seems to be to the detriment of those compelled to respond to the exhaustive list of required documentation. A bill has already been submitted to the assembly for narrowing the requirements set forth.
TSIB will continue to keep our finger on the pulse of the developments and share any updates. If you have any questions or concerns about how this change could affect your company, please reach out to your Broker or reach out to TSIB to learn more.
TSIB’s Risk Consultants are currently servicing the following locations:
East Coast: New York City, NY; Bergen County, NJ; Fairfield County, CT; Philadelphia, PA
Texas: Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas
California: Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County
