Daily Coronavirus Update: As NY Pause Extends to May 15, NYSBA Urges More Emergency Relief Funds for NY Small Businesses

Daily Coronavirus Update: As NY Pause Extends to May 15, NYSBA Urges More Emergency Relief Funds for NY Small Businesses

4.16.2020

By Christian Nolan

Good evening Members,

Emergency federal relief funds intended to keep millions of small businesses from closing down amid the COVID-19 health crisis have run out of money, and the New York State Bar Association is calling for immediate action to rectify that.

“I appreciate that Congress acted quickly to create these relief measures, and I urge the New York Congressional Delegation to take all immediate steps necessary to provide adequate funding to fulfill the promise to our nation’s small businesses,” NYSBA President Henry M. Greenberg wrote in a letter to the state’s delegation.

Only a small percentage of New York’s small businesses have been approved for these loans. More than half of NYSBA’s members are solo practitioners or work at small firms, and many are finding the scarcity of funds and glitches in the system discouraging.

“NYSBA is the largest volunteer bar association in the country and many of our 70,000 members are small firm and solo practitioners,” Greenberg wrote. “These lawyers are under a stay-at-home order and many are struggling in the wake of the pandemic. They turned to the federal government for promised relief but instead they’ve found confusion, delays and a lack of access to emergency funds to keep people on payroll and the lights on.”

NY Pause Extended to May 15

Meanwhile today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced all “New York State on pause” restrictions and closures will be extended until May 15th. He said the action was taken in consultation with other regional states and that they will re-evaluate after this additional closure period.

Court Announcements

Administrative Judge Felix J. Catena, Fourth Judicial District, issued a new order that stays all eviction proceedings until June 20. The district will continue its policy that no default judgments based on non-appearance shall be granted in the district.

 Click here for the full official administrative order from Judge Catena.

Kings County Surrogate’s Court has also issued updated guidance. All urgent and essential applications are being accepted for filing. No trials or hearings will commence until further notice. This includes 17-A Guardianships and finalizations of adoptions, unless there is urgency to the application. Trials or hearings that had been adjourned to a date in April or May 2020 will be adjourned again.

Click here for the full notice.

COVID-19 Webinars

On Friday, April 17, NYSBA will host COVID-19 Paid Leave and Employee Benefits – overview of federal, New York state and New York City laws. Click the above link for more details and to register.

Also, on Monday, April 20, the Committee on Lawyers in Transition is calling for NYSBA Members to join them for a townhall program at 4 p.m. to help in brainstorming and creating programs for lawyers whose practices and jobs were impacted by COVID 19.

Latest NYSBA.ORG Coronavirus News

We are adding new content each day to our website related to the coronavirus public health emergency and its impact on the legal community.

Get all the details about the NYSBA and state court system COVID-19 Recovery Task Force that will oversee the Pro Bono Network of lawyers who will be assisting New Yorkers suffering from the pandemic. Also, in case you missed it this week, NYSBA and the Seoul Bar Association in Korea recently sent each other letters of support in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.