Just last week, Governor Hochul signed a bill into law amending the CPLR to add hard time constraints to filing third-party actions. This new law is guaranteed to affect Labor Law litigation. 

Prior to the signing of the bill, there were no hard and fast rules regarding the time constraints on filing a third-party claim. CPLR Section 1007 does not contain a time constraint. Instead, the timing of such complaints was typically addressed by county-wide court rules or part-specific rules. But generally, there were no real hard time constraints; reasonableness was the general standard. 

Those days are gone. 

Now, under the new law, which will become effective 120 days after enactment, on or about April 18, 2026, there will be hard and fast rules on the timing and filing of third-party complaints. 

Defendants must now file their third-party complaints within 60 days of filing their answer in the main action if the third-party claim arises from a contractual relationship between the third-party plaintiff and third-party defendant. If no such contract exists, then the TPC must be filed within 60 days of the third-party plaintiff becoming aware that the third-party defendant may be liable to them for all or part of the plaintiff's claim. 60 days – that's it. 

From there, further third-party complaints are also limited. 

• A third-party defendant itself now has 45 days to bring in another party in a second third-party action
• If that second third-party defendant wishes to bring in another third-party defendant, they now have 30 days
• And any subsequent third-party defendant will now have 20 days to file any further third-party complaints 

There will be no time extensions longer than 30 days without an order of the court, provided that there can be no third-party complaint 12 months after having filed an answer in the action without the written consent of both the plaintiff and the court.

Further, no party can file a third-party complaint after the note of issue has been filed. Full stop. Any third-party complaint filed after the filing of the note of issue shall be severed or dismissed with prejudice. 

The only exceptions to the above are in cases where the party is seeking contribution or indemnification for a grave injury under the Workers' Compensation Law, or the identity of the plaintiff's employer had not been known to the party until such time as the time periods set forth here had already expired. In either scenario, the third-party complaint must be filed within 120 days after either learning of the grave injury or acquiring knowledge of the employer's identity. Even then, the party must still secure the written consent of both the plaintiff and the court to proceed. 

Finally, if a third-party action is severed from the main action and the third-party plaintiff then initiates a new action in a new complaint against the third-party defendant, no motions to consolidate the new action with the old one will be permitted. 

Bottom line—if you have any potential third-party defendants? Implead them all, let the court sort it out.