Comptroller Lander’s New Dashboard Tracks City Claims & Settlements; City Paid Nearly $2B in Settlements Last Fiscal Year

New York, NY — Today, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander launched the Claims Dashboard, a real-time, comprehensive transparency tool to visualize claims filed to and settled by the Comptroller’s Office. This new dashboard will replace the Annual Claims Report, which was an annual summary of claims filed against and settled by the City in a fiscal year. In FY 2024, 13,397 claims against New York City were resolved for $1.94 billion, the most ever for one fiscal year, up from $1.5 billion in FY 2023.

“The $2 billion in taxpayer funds we paid last year to settle claims against the City is money we could have spent on building a safer, more affordable city with world-class parks, schools, and neighborhoods — but agencies are not incentivized to save the City from claims,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “City Hall must stop shielding agencies by underbudgeting settlements in the General Fund and instead hold them accountable through their own budgets. Every dollar spent on a claim is a dollar we can’t invest in services for New Yorkers, and with this new data tool, City agencies and the public can use real-time data to analyze settlements and reduce both harm and costs.”

The new dashboard features:

• Claims Filed & Settled: charts showing the highest settlements by agency, top five claims, and top settlement type, which can be toggled by fiscal year.

• Settlement Details: list with claim numbers in order to more easily search individual claims, amounts, agency, and claim type.

• Trends Data: A comparative line chart between claims filed, number of settlements, and settlement amounts throughout fiscal years.

Following are key findings from the dashboard for FY 2024, as of April 25, 2025:
NYPD Claims Account for Largest Share of Tort Claims   

In FY 2024, the City paid out $1.04 billion in personal injury and property damage claims (collectively “tort claims”). Some FY 2024 tort claims trends include:

• 9,036 claims filed against the New York City Police Department (NYPD), a 30.7% increase from 6,914 claims filed in FY 2023.

• NYPD settlements totaled $309.51 million, a 14.6% increase from $270.15 million in FY 2023 (but still below the high of $338.3 million in FY 2017).

• 1,252 claims filed against Department of Education (DOE), a decrease of 7.9% from 1,359 claims filed in FY 2023.

• DOE settlements totaled $128.04 million, a 22.7% increase from $104.36 million in FY 2023.

• 52 of DOE settlements were payouts of $1 million or more, an increase of 136.4% from 22 in FY 2023.

• 2,040 personal injury claims filed from automobile accidents, an increase of 20.4% from 1,694 claims filed the previous year.

• Personal injury claim settlements from automobile accidents totaled $125.68 million, down 33.6% from $189.39 million in FY 2023.

• Read more on crash claims trends over the past decade, and recommendations to reduce these claims, in the Comptroller’s Wreckless Spending: The Accelerating Cost of City Car Crash Settlements report.

Of the 15 largest individual tort claims against the city in FY 2024, 13 were for civil rights claims with the Department of Correction (DOC) and NYPD. The largest payout was a $171.52 million DOC claim settlement regarding the City’s failure to promptly release people detained pretrial after people posted bail.

The NYPD ($309.56 million), DOC ($252.87 million), DOE ($128.07 million), Department of Transportation ($115.27 million), and Health + Hospitals ($45.77 million) were the five agencies with the highest tort claim settlement and judgment costs in FY 2024.
Special Education Accounts for Largest Share of Law Settlements   

In FY 2024, the City paid out $907.83 million in law claims, a 27.8% increase from the $709.67 million in law claims paid out in FY 2023. 49% of all law claim settlements were salary settlements in FY 2024. 46% were for special education tuition and/or services reimbursement. The City paid out:

• $439.75 million in salary settlements, a 68.6% increase from the $260.79 million paid out in FY 2023.

• Total salary claim payouts increased due to judgments in Gulino v. Board of Education, a class action lawsuit filed in 1996 that alleged two of the DOE mandated teacher certification examinations as part of the selection process for teachers violated Title VII. DOE continues to pay back pay and other damages and cost.

• $416.28 million in special education settlements, a 4.5% increase from the $397.81 million paid out in FY 2023.

• When the City fails to provide legally mandated special education services to children directly, families can file “Carter claims” that can result in a legal judgment or settlement requiring the City to provide services or pay the costs to families to arrange these services.

• Read more in the Comptroller’s Course Correction report on special education services claims.

• $30.4 million in contract settlements, a 31.3% decrease from the $44.27 paid out in FY 2023.

This dynamic tool covers settlements reached on claims filed prior to litigation, as well as settlements of lawsuits against the City. Claims resolved prior to litigation are managed by the Comptroller’s office Bureau of Law and Adjustment (BLA), which, under the direction of the Comptroller, the General Counsel, and the Assistant Comptroller for BLA, comprises attorneys, claims professionals, engineers, and administrative staff. Resolving meritorious claims pre-litigation results in substantial financial savings to the City and provides prompt relief to New Yorkers harmed by actions or inactions of the City. In litigation, the City is represented by the Law Department, headed by the Corporation Counsel; settlements reached through litigation must be approved by both the Law Department and the Comptroller’s office.

To see the full dashboard, visit https://comptroller.nyc.gov/claims-dashboard.

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