Repeal Of The 60-Day Rule

Our longtime readers may recall that an alert we sent on January 17, 2006 happily advised of a new rule in New York whereby attorneys were required to write to a judge whenever an order or judgment was not rendered within 60 days of submission.  We were all pleased with this administrative directive because, as mortgage servicers know all too well, cases can move at a glacial pace in the Empire State.

There was, however, much dissatisfaction with this procedure on the part of the various judges and so a new procedure will be put into effect on October 1, 2006 (a modified version of §202.8(h) of the Uniform Civil Rules for the Supreme and County Courts).  Actually, the revised methodology may even be better.  It will require the Office of Court Administration to send an email notice to judges as soon as a motion is pending past the 60 day deadline.  On the other side, it also allows a judge to apply for an increase of the deadline to 120 days for motions that would be deemed “complex”.

The proverbial bottom line is that judges will still be pushed if a decision is delayed beyond the norm.  If that impetus comes from the judges’ own supervisory agency – the Office of Court Administration – rather than from attorneys, it is probably an even better approach.  Let’s see if this helps.

Mr. Bergman, author of the four-volume treatise, Bergman on New York Mortgage Foreclosures, LexisNexis Matthew Bender (rev. 2017), is a partner with Berkman, Henoch, Peterson, Peddy & Fenchel, P.C. in Garden City, New York. He is also a member of the USFN, The American College of Real Estate Lawyers, The American College of Mortgage Attorneys, an adviser to the New York Times on foreclosure issues and writes a regular servicing column for the New York Law Journal. He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, his biography appears in Who’s Who In American Law and he has been for years listed in Best Lawyers In America and New York Super Lawyers.