22 NYCRR 28.12

(a) Demand may be made by any party not in default for a trial de novo in the court where the action was commenced or, if the action was transferred, the court to which it was transferred, with or without a jury. Any party who is not in default, within 30 days after service upon such party of the notice of filing of the award with the appropriate court clerk, or if service is by mail, within 35 days of such service, may file with the clerk of the court where the award was filed and serve upon all adverse parties a demand for a trial de novo.

(b) If the demandant either serves or files a timely demand for a trial de novo but neglects through mistake or excusable neglect to do one of those two acts within the time limited, the court where the action was commenced or, if the action was transferred, the court to which it was transferred, may grant an extension of time for curing the omission.

(c) The demandant shall also, concurrently with the filing of the demand, pay to the court clerk where the award was filed the amount of the fees payable to the panel by the administrative office for the courts pursuant to section 28.10 of this Part. Where a judicial hearing officer has heard and determined the arbitration, the amount payable shall be the same as would have been payable to a single arbitrator or a panel of three arbitrators, as the case may be, if such judicial hearing officer had not been assigned. Such sum shall not be recoverable by the demandant upon a trial de novo or in any other proceeding.

(d) The arbitrators shall not be called as witnesses nor shall the report or award of the arbitrators be admitted in evidence at the trial de novo.

(e) If the judgment upon the trial de novo is not more favorable than the arbitration award in the amount of damages awarded or the type of relief granted to the demandant, the demandant shall not recover interest or statutory costs and disbursements from the time of the award, but shall pay such statutory costs and disbursements to the other party or parties from the time of the filing of the demand for the trial de novo.

(f) If a judicial hearing officer has heard and determined an arbitration, the trial de novo may not be presided over by a judicial hearing officer, except upon consent of the parties.