Provides that an attorney's lien maintains superiority over a right of set-off where the set-off is unrelated to the judgment or settlement to which the attorney's lien attached.
Ayes (23): Skelos, Libous, Bonacic, Carlucci, Farley, Flanagan, Fuschillo, Larkin, Marcellino, Maziarz, Nozzolio, Seward, Valesky, Stewart-Cousins, Breslin, Dilan, Hassell-Thompson, Krueger, Montgomery, Parker, Perkins, Espaillat, Gianaris
Ayes W/R (2): Hannon, LaValle
Ayes (60): Adams, Addabbo, Avella, Ball, Bonacic, Boyle, Breslin, Carlucci, DeFrancisco, Dilan, Espaillat, Farley, Felder, Flanagan, Fuschillo, Gallivan, Gianaris, Gipson, Golden, Griffo, Grisanti, Hannon, Hassell-Thomps, Hoylman, Kennedy, Klein, Krueger, Lanza, Larkin, Latimer, LaValle, Libous, Little, Marcellino, Marchione, Martins, Maziarz, Montgomery, Nozzolio, O'Brien, O'Mara, Parker, Perkins, Ranzenhofer, Ritchie, Rivera, Robach, Sanders, Savino, Serrano, Seward, Skelos, Smith, Squadron, Stavisky, Stewart-Cousin, Tkaczyk, Valesky, Young, Zeldin
Absent (1): Sampson
Excused (2): Diaz, Peralta
BILL NUMBER:S3037
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the judiciary law, in relation to set-off against attorney's fees
PURPOSE: To provide that an attorney lien maintain superiority over a right of set-off where the setoff is unrelated to the judgment or settlement to which the lien is attached.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section One - Section 1 - Amends section 475 of the judiciary law to provide that an attorney's lien maintains superiority over a right of set-off where the set-off is unrelated to the judgment or settlement to which the attorney's lien attached and the attorney's services created the fund that any right of set-off is claimed against.
Section Two - Establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION: This legislation would ensure that an attorney lien is satisfied prior to a right of set-off where the set-off is unrelated to the judgment or settlement to which the attorney's lien is attached, since without the attorneys efforts, there would have been no fund created and no lien paid.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: S.6836 of 2011-2012
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3037 2013-2014 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 29, 2013 ___________Introduced by Sen. DeFRANCISCO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to set-off against attor- ney's fees THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM- BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Section 475 of the judiciary law, as amended by chapter 478 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as follows: S 475. Attorney's lien in action, special or other proceeding. From the commencement of an action, special or other proceeding in any court or before any state, municipal or federal department, except a depart- ment of labor, or the service of an answer containing a counterclaim, or the initiation of any means of alternative dispute resolution including, but not limited to, mediation or arbitration, or the provision of services in a settlement negotiation at any stage of the dispute, the attorney who appears for a party has a lien upon his or her client's cause of action, claim or counterclaim, which attaches to a verdict, report, determination, decision, award, settlement, judgment or final order in his or her client's favor, and the proceeds thereof in whatever hands they may come; and the lien cannot be affected by any settlement between the parties before or after judgment, final order or determi- nation; AND AN ATTORNEY'S LIEN MAINTAINS SUPERIORITY OVER A RIGHT OF SET-OFF WHERE THE SET-OFF IS UNRELATED TO THE JUDGMENT OR SETTLEMENT TO WHICH THE ATTORNEY'S LIEN ATTACHED AND THE ATTORNEY'S SERVICES CREATED THE FUND THAT ANY RIGHT OF SET-OFF IS CLAIMED AGAINST. The court upon the petition of the client or attorney may determine and enforce the lien. S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD07809-01-3
This content is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0. Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available here.
The software and services provided under this site are offered under the BSD License and the GPL v3 License.
Open Legislation comments facilitate discussion of New York State legislation. All comments are subject to moderation. Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity or hate speech; or that links to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday.
By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.
Discuss!