The AVOID Act (Avoiding Vexatious Overuse of Impleading to Delay) is a New York State law that rewrites CPLR § 1007 to impose strict deadlines on third-party practice. Before it took effect on April 18, 2026, defendants in personal injury and construction tort cases could wait years before impleading a third party, often dragging out litigation, frustrating plaintiffs, and leaving co-defendants uncertain about their exposure. The AVOID Act closes that window. Once you are served, the clock starts, and courts will enforce it.
What the AVOID Act does
At its core, the AVOID Act amends CPLR § 1007 to require that a defendant who wishes to bring a third-party complaint must do so within 90 days after serving its answer. The legislature framed this as a response to a documented pattern of delay: defendants using the threat of impleader as a negotiating tactic, filing third-party complaints only after the note of issue had been filed, and using the process to force settlements rather than to genuinely litigate apportionment of liability.
The enacted statute applies a unified 90-day deadline to all third-party claims. The chapter amendments (S8809) eliminated the earlier tiered structure and replaced it with this single rule: a defendant must file a third-party summons and complaint within 90 days of serving its answer, or obtain a court order to proceed after that period.
One of the most consequential provisions governs filing after the note of issue. Under CPLR § 1007(c), no third-party summons and complaint may be filed after the filing of a note of issue unless upon good cause shown or in the interest of justice. This replaces what had been a categorical bar in the original bill with a good-cause exception, while still making post-note-of-issue filings exceptional rather than routine.
The deadline framework at a glance
The AVOID Act establishes a unified deadline applicable to all third-party claims. As enacted and amended, the framework is as follows.
These deadlines apply to cases commenced on or after April 18, 2026. Use the deadline calculator to apply these rules to a specific set of dates.
Who it affects most
The AVOID Act does not affect all defendants equally. Its sharpest edges are felt in industries where complex multi-party liability is routine: construction, insurance, real estate, and litigation practice generally. Each sector faces a distinct compliance challenge.
The construction practitioner's view
Construction cases, particularly those involving Labor Law § 240 and § 241 scaffold and gravity claims, have historically been the primary venue for third-party practice in New York. General contractors and property owners routinely sought to implead subcontractors for indemnification after being sued by injured workers. Under the prior version of CPLR § 1007, that impleader could happen at almost any point before trial.
Under the AVOID Act, a general contractor served with a Labor Law § 240 claim must identify every potentially liable subcontractor, locate its subcontracts, verify indemnification provisions, and file third-party complaints within 90 days of answering. For large projects with dozens of subs and years of project history, that is an operationally demanding requirement. Firms that cannot locate contracts quickly or that rely on informal indemnification arrangements will find themselves unable to transfer risk through third-party practice.
The insurance claims view
Insurers and claims teams handling defense of covered defendants face a related but distinct problem. Coverage counsel and defense counsel must be aligned on the impleader decision before the deadline expires. For insurers managing high volumes of construction and premises claims, the AVOID Act adds a new workflow requirement: every case must be triaged within weeks of service to identify potential third-party defendants and confirm that the underlying contracts support impleader.
Carriers that historically relied on defendants to self-report impleader opportunities may need to build more proactive review processes. A missed 90-day deadline cannot be papered over after the fact.
The chapter amendments
The chapter amendments (S8809) are part of the enacted law as it took effect on April 18, 2026. They replaced the tiered deadline structure in the original bill with a unified 90-day rule from answer, eliminated a separate trigger for non-contractual claims, and revised the note-of-issue provision to allow filing upon good cause or in the interest of justice rather than imposing a categorical bar. They also set the employer exception at 90 days, shortened from the longer window in the original bill.
The full text of the enacted statute is available at /the-law/chapter-amendments. For a side-by-side view of how the statute changed, see the before-and-after comparison.
What to do next
If you are a construction professional, defense attorney, insurer, or risk manager with exposure to New York tort litigation, the following steps reflect a reasonable starting point for AVOID Act compliance.
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Assess your cases commenced on or after April 18, 2026. For every active matter where that date is met, identify whether a third-party complaint has been filed. If not, calculate whether the 90-day deadline has passed or is approaching. The deadline calculator can help you work through this.
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Map your contracts. Identify which subcontractor or vendor contracts contain indemnification and insurance-procurement clauses. If you cannot locate a contract within 48 hours of being served, you cannot evaluate your impleader rights in time to meet the deadline.
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Establish a response protocol. The first 48 hours after service are the most critical. Your team needs a defined process for notifying counsel, flagging the matter for impleader review, and pulling relevant contracts and certificates of insurance.
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Brief your carriers. Your defense counsel and coverage counsel should know the AVOID Act timelines before any specific claim arises. Align on who is responsible for recommending impleader and by what date.
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Download and work through the compliance checklist. The compliance checklist walks through all 10 preparation steps in detail, organized by phase. It is designed for legal teams and risk managers who need a structured audit framework.
The AVOID Act represents a genuine shift in how third-party practice works in New York. The firms and organizations that will navigate it successfully are those that treat it as an operational problem, not just a legal one. Getting your contracts, your workflows, and your response protocols in order before you are served is the only reliable way to preserve your impleader rights when it counts.
Take the readiness assessment to see where your organization currently stands across the ten preparation dimensions that matter most under the AVOID Act.