New York Courts and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A No-Fault Lawyer's March 2020 View

This post was written on March 19, 2020, days after New York’s court system shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic and the day before the statewide work-from-home directive took effect. It is preserved here as a contemporaneous record of what the early shutdown looked like from inside a no-fault and personal injury practice, followed by some context on what the closure meant for litigants and how the period looks in hindsight.

The Original Post (March 19, 2020)

My friends in Miami-Dade apparently see no problem with the pendamic. While Courts in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade are closed, the streets from what I hear are lined with people and the beaches are occupied. It is as if nothing is wrong. If you’re dealing with a no-fault insurance defense matter, an experienced attorney can help protect your rights.

One of the things I like about our State is that we take things seriously. When there is a crime spree, a natural catastrophe or a pandemic, New Yorkers by and far handle these situations comparatively better than their out of state compatriots. One of the things we take for granted here is our education system.

I for one am not a fan of the tax burden in this state and most of you would agree. Perhaps is reeks of waste and inefficiency? I will leave that to better minds. But even at its worst, the children and teenagers who finish school within this state have a basic understanding of morality and common sense. When you live in a state (i) without a state income tax; (ii) pay teachers $40,000 a year; and (iii) have “countywide” school districts, the result is paragraph 1 supra.

While my first post in this series chided OCA for what I think are institutional inefficiencies in our court system, I truly believe that our populace is better suited to handle this disaster than many others.

I am told that as of tomorrow (3-20-20), 75% of each office must work from home. We will heed this advice and eventually the storm will pass. I finally must commend Dr. Fauci, a Geico no-fault attorney’s lost lost cousin, for the calmness he has brought to what are uncharted waters.

The Court Shutdown in Context

The reference to OCA — the Office of Court Administration, the administrative arm of New York’s Unified Court System — places this post in its moment. In mid-March 2020, OCA restricted court operations to essential matters, suspended most filings, and adjourned pending civil calendars indefinitely. For a litigation practice, the practical consequences were immediate: motions could not be filed or argued, trials could not proceed, and the predictable rhythm of Civil Court and Supreme Court calendars stopped.

Alongside the court directives, the Governor’s executive orders tolled or suspended litigation deadlines during the emergency period — a measure whose precise effect on statutes of limitations and procedural time limits was litigated for years afterward. Anyone reconstructing the timeline of a claim that was pending in the spring of 2020 still has to account for that period.

What the Shutdown Meant for No-Fault Practice

No-fault litigation is high-volume, document-driven work governed by the regulatory deadlines of 11 NYCRR 65 — verification requests, follow-ups, and denials all run on calendars measured in days. A frozen court system did not freeze claims: accidents still happened, treatment continued, bills were submitted, and carriers still had to process them. The disputes that accumulated during the closure eventually flowed back into the courts and into no-fault arbitration, which — being largely paperless — continued functioning while courtrooms were dark.

The work-from-home directive mentioned in the original post (75% of each office, effective March 20, 2020) accelerated a transition that proved permanent in this field. Virtual appearances, remote arbitration hearings, and electronic submissions outlasted the emergency because the economics of small-bill, high-volume litigation favor them.

Looking Back

Read several years on, the post captures three things worth remembering. First, the speed of the change: within a week, an entire litigation bar moved from courthouse calendars to laptops. Second, the unevenness of the response across jurisdictions, which the post observes in real time comparing New York with South Florida. Third, the resilience of the underlying system — the storm did pass, the courts reopened, and the backlog was eventually worked through, though the experience permanently changed how New York civil litigation is conducted.

For clients and providers with claims that straddled the shutdown, the era still matters concretely: deadline computations, adjournment histories, and the question of what was or was not operationally possible in the spring of 2020 continue to surface in motion practice arising from that period.

Related Resources

• Law office failure as an excuse in New York litigation — the doctrine governing missed deadlines and defaults, a recurring issue in the wake of practice disruptions
• The firm’s Legal Encyclopedia — plain-language explainers on New York no-fault and personal injury doctrine
• No-fault insurance defense practice
• New York No-Fault Insurance Law
• Understanding regulatory amendments and their impact on practitioners
• No-fault verification requirements and compliance standards
• Critical timing rules for summary judgment motions under CPLR 3212(a)