Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal

Maddy summaryThis bill updates the laws governing wrongful death lawsuits to clarify which types of financial compensation survivors can receive and how those funds are shared. It explicitly allows juries to award damages for specific costs such as funeral and medical bills, as well as for emotional suffering, loss of financial support, and the loss of guidance or companionship from the deceased. The legislation also defines who is eligible to receive these funds, including spouses, domestic partners, children, and individuals who stood in a parent-like role to the deceased. Additionally, the bill establishes rules for distributing the recovered money among eligible family members based on the specific financial injuries each person suffered and clarifies how legal fees and other expenses are handled.

Maddy summaryThis bill modifies state law to reduce the recordkeeping and reporting responsibilities of public notaries. It specifically exempts notaries from creating or keeping physical records for any notarial acts that are not electronic. Under this provision, notaries would only be required to maintain records for electronic notarizations, while other traditional notarial acts would no longer mandate the creation of formal logs. The change aims to simplify administrative duties for notaries by limiting their paperwork requirements to digital transactions only.

Directs every peer-to-peer mobile service to require users to create a personal identification code associated with the user's account that is required to be used when certain actions are taken and to require users to set a monetary amount for intended transfers above which the use of a personal identification number will be required to authenticate the user's identity.

Relates to venue in matrimonial actions regarding the children of the parties; provides that the place of the trial shall be in a county in which either party resides or, if there are minor children of the marriage, the place of trial may also be in the county where one of such children resides.

Provides for a quorum of one quarter of the members and the presiding officer of a community board physically be present at a location where the public can attend for such board to conduct videoconferencing.

Establishes an indirect source review for heavy distribution warehouse operations; requires the department of environmental conservation to conduct a study regarding zero-emissions zones.

Prohibits the participation of certain animals in traveling animal acts; prohibits the department of environmental conservation from issuing permits or licenses allowing participation of certain animals in traveling animal acts; excludes certain permanent performing institutions; imposes a civil penalty not to exceed $1000 for a violation.

Provides that any person who has served as a state-paid judge or justice of a court of the unified court system or as a housing judge of the housing portion of the civil court of the city of New York, but who no longer holds any of such offices, may apply to be designated as a judicial hearing officer.

Expands the civil jurisdiction of county courts to matters of up to fifty thousand dollars and district courts to matters of up to thirty-five thousand dollars.

Modifies provisions regarding notice of a matrimonial action where the complaint is not personally served with the summons to permit service by e-mail under certain circumstances.