Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed into law an amendment to New York CPLR Section 1007, which governs when third-party practice is allowed. The law applies to third-party impleaders that arise out of a contractual relationship. The law reads that the impleader must be made "within sixty days of becoming aware that such person is or may be liable to the defendant for all or part of plaintiff's claim". The stated aim of the law is to limit the use of impleaders to delay a case's trial readiness.

The law goes into effect 120 days from passage, which should be on or about April 18, 2026.  If a contractual relationship exists, the defendant has sixty (60) days to file the complaint. On its face, the updated additional limitations to file are:

• For First-Party Defendants - Sixty (60) days after filing a defendant's answer, or of becoming aware that the third-party defendant may be liable to them.
• For Third-Party Defendants - Fourty-Five (45) days to implead a second third-party defendant
• For Second-Third-party Defendants - Thirty (30) days to implead another third-party defendant
• Any Subsequent Third-Party Defendant - Twenty (20) days to implead any further third-party defendant.

The law has yet to be interpreted by the Courts, and it is unclear how they will apply the amorphous language of "becoming aware." With that said, if it becomes clear that a third party should be added to the case, it is best practice to implead such a party as soon as possible, or risk having that claim severed.