Municipal liability or municipalities often become target defendants in a lawsuit. When somebody falls in a roadway, somebody falls on a sidewalk in front of a private home here in the city of New York, the city of New York is responsible. There may be other responsible parties, but the city is certainly a municipality who is responsible. So, they do become a defendant. And the city of New York does get sued often in lawsuits.
On Long Island, the same thing applies to the different towns, Town of Hempstead, Town of Brookhaven, just to name a few. Nassau and Suffolk County, and the many, many, many villages that fall within Nassau and Suffolk County.
I spoke about it earlier when it came to premises liability. The laws, the regulations, the codes are different in all of these villages, and all of these towns based on how an accident occurs. And a lot of times it’s premises. And there are also automobile accidents that involve town vehicles, county vehicles, police vehicles.
So in all of these circumstances, municipalities, the towns, the county, the city, they will be the actual named parties in a lawsuit or named defendants. It’s important to identify if a municipality is a part of a lawsuit very early on because in New York, under the law, there are many prerequisites that apply to bringing a lawsuit against a municipality that do not apply when it’s a regular civilian or a regular citizen.
So identifying that early is, you know, beyond important.