The persistent Grieving Families Act, a proposed update to New York's 177-year-old wrongful death statute which would have it join 48 other states in compensating family members for emotional loss in wrongful death cases, while also broadening the categories of people who can seek money damages, advanced to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk on Thursday.

The New York State Trial Lawyers Association and other proponents of the twice-amended Grieving Families Act are hopeful there are enough revisions in the latest version to convince Hochul not to break out her veto pen to spike the measure for a third consecutive occurrence.