Tuesday, February 16, 2021 Acting within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’s unique opportunity for permanent reform, the Administrative Board of Courts in New York, through the state’s Chief Administrative Judge Larry Marks and his Order of December 29, 2020, enacted new Uniform Rules in the Supreme and County courts that will permanently change discovery, motion practice, pre-trial procedures and other aspects of civil litigation in the state. Effective February 1, 2021, some of these changes will impact personal injury litigation in general, and products liability cases in particular. The rule changes came about after three years of study and public comments, as well as review by working groups composed of judges and lawyers. They were adopted from New York’s specialized Commercial Division, which Judge Marks’s Order described as a “recognized leader” in court innovation with “unparalleled creativity and flexibility” in the development of court rules. Many of the rule changes mirror common practices in the federal courts that nonetheless had escaped New York’s sometimes archaic procedures – until now.