Overview :Office of the New York City Comptroller Brad Lander

Overview

Last updated April 21, 2025

Overview

To commence an action against the City of New York (“City”), a claimant typically must first notify the City by filing a Notice of Claim with the Comptroller’s Office. (Please see the following link for more information regarding the proper filing of Notice of Claims: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/claims/file-a-claim/.) In most instances, the notice of claim for personal injury or property damage claims must be filed within 90 days of the occurrence of an alleged injury or wrong. The City Charter grants the Comptroller the power to settle and adjust all claims in favor of or against the City. The Comptroller has the power to investigate claims, evaluate liability and damages, and reach a settlement prior to litigation. If the Comptroller denies liability or is unable to arrive at a settlement with a claimant, the claimant may commence a lawsuit. Actions based in tort law must generally be filed within one year and 90 days from the date of loss. The New York City Law Department defends the City in most actions (Health + Hospitals defends most of its own medical malpractice actions). No litigation against the City can be settled without the approval of the Comptroller.

The City Charter authorizes the Comptroller to settle claims prior to litigation; once cases enter litigation, the Law Department takes primary responsibility, though the Comptroller still must approve proposed settlements. The Comptroller’s Bureau for Law and Adjustment dedicates significant resources to investigating, evaluating, and, if appropriate, resolving claims prior to litigation. Resolving meritorious claims pre-litigation results in substantial financial savings to the City while allowing the Law Department to allocate resources to defend cases involving core City policies or important precedent. Early resolution of meritorious claims provides prompt relief to New Yorkers harmed by actions or inactions of the City, since the Comptroller’s Office is empowered to offer pre-litigation settlements up to a year and 90 days from the date of the incident, while litigation may take years.

Classification of Claims

Claims that are filed against the City are classified into categories to facilitate analysis by the Comptroller's Office and other interested parties. Under the present classification structure, claims are designated as Tort (personal injury and property damage), Law, or Labor & Employment (starting in FY 2019). Additionally, claims are categorized by the City agency involved and by the claim type based on the allegations in the notice of claim.

Tort Claims: Tort claims consist of personal injury (PI) and property damage (PD) claims. Property damage claims consist of damage or loss to personal property as a result of the City’s alleged negligence, including, but not limited to, motor vehicle crashes, roadway conditions, water main breaks, and sewer overflows. Personal injury claims are the most frequently filed and the costliest claims for the City to resolve. These claims include, but are not limited to, allegations of medical malpractice, civil rights violations, injuries occurring on the premises of DOE schools, motor vehicle crashes involving City-owned vehicles, defective sidewalks, or unlawful actions of the police or uniformed services employees.

Law Claims: Law claims include disputes arising from City contracts, equitable claims, refund claims, City employee salary disputes, special education claims against DOE in which families sue for resources for failure to meet their child’s educational needs, sidewalk assessments, cleanup costs levied on property owners who are in violation of the Mental Hygiene Law, as well as affirmative claims that are brought by the City against individuals, companies, corporations, and other entities for torts, breaches of contract, and as remedies for violations of civil codes.

Labor & Employment Claims: All claims related to the terms and conditions of City employment began to be classified as labor and employment claims in FY 2019. However, if filed before FY 2019, these claims were categorized as and continue to be recorded under either personal injury civil rights or law salary claim types. Settlement of pre-FY 2019 personal injury civil rights and law salary claims continues. In this dashboard, data for labor and employment claims filed since FY 2019 is reported under both personal injury civil rights and law salary claim type, depending on the nature of the claims. This allows for continuity in the analysis of these types of claims while pre-existing labor and employment related personal injury civil rights claims and law salary claims continue to be resolved.