NY Governor Cuomo Signs Two Executive Orders

Legal Alert

March 23, 2020

Executive Order Photo

The New York office is open and (remotely) running. All of our attorneys have the same SGR provided laptop that seamlessly interfaces with our firm-wide IT infrastructure.

All of our various practice area resources are available inter- and intra-office.

EXECUTIVE ORDER PERMITTING LEGAL DOCUMENTS TO BE AUDIO-VIDEO "NOTARIZED":

Governor Cuomo has signed an Executive Order permitting legal documents to be audio-video “notarized”.

We invite our New York clients to contact Nellie Lefteratos at nlefteratos@sgrlaw.com should you need your legal documents "notarized".

The Executive Order that follows establishes the remote signing protocol.

Any notarial act that is required under New York State law is authorized to be performed utilizing audio-video technology provided that the following conditions are met:

The person seeking the Notary's services, if not personally known to the Notary, must present valid photo ID to the Notary during the video conference, not merely transmit it prior to or after;
The video conference must allow for direct interaction between the person and the Notary (e.g. no pre-recorded videos of the person signing);
The person must affirmatively represent that he or she is physically situated in the State of New York;
The person must transmit by fax or electronic means a legible copy of the signed document directly to the Notary on the same date it was signed;
The Notary may notarize the transmitted copy of the document and transmit the same back to the person; and
The Notary may repeat the notarization of the original signed document as of the date of execution provided the Notary receives such original signed document together with the electronically notarized copy within thirty days after the date of execution.

EXECUTIVE ORDER TOLLING STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS:

Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York also issued an Executive Order on Friday, March 20,2020 that “tolled” the statute of limitations for starting lawsuits and the deadlines for the filing or service of motions and other applications to the Courts. Tolling in effect stops the clock from running until April 19, 2020. The Order applies to both civil and criminal proceedings.

If the deadline for an act was March 20th, the clock is stopped until April 19th —

and a filing by April 19th would be with the same force and effect as if filed on March 20th.

The Order does not waive or suspend the deadlines. The Order only gives parties with existing deadlines another month to meet the deadlines. The Order does not revive or extend a deadline that passed before March 20th.

Should you have any questions about this, please contact your SGR NY litigators.