By the numbers
New York City paid $796,213,846.51 to resolve 6,766 NYPD misconduct lawsuits between 2019 and 2025, by the Legal Aid Society's count of Law Department data. The Civilian Complaint Review Board received nearly 5,500 complaints in 2025. The NYPD has roughly 35,000 uniformed officers. Every figure on this page is a public payout statistic or a CCRB statistic, with its source beside it. They are other people's cases. They predict nothing about any case, and the firm publishes no results of its own.
Two public bodies count what this site is about. The Legal Aid Society counts what the City pays to end lawsuits against the NYPD. The Civilian Complaint Review Board counts what New Yorkers complain of and what it substantiates. Neither figure is about any case you might bring, and neither is a figure about this firm. They are published here, cited, because they answer a question people ask before they call: does the City actually pay these claims. It does. What it would pay in any one case is a different question, and this page does not answer it.
What the City paid, 2019 to 2025
The Legal Aid Society analyzes New York City Law Department data on lawsuits alleging misconduct by NYPD officers and publishes the totals by the year each lawsuit was resolved. Its release of March 2, 2026 gives the following table for 2019 through 2025. Every figure is a public payout statistic: money the City paid to end lawsuits brought by other people, in cases of every kind, from a night in a precinct to a wrongful conviction. The count is of lawsuits resolved by the Law Department; it excludes claims the Comptroller settled before a lawsuit was filed, so it is not a count of everything the City paid on police claims in those years.
| Year resolved | Lawsuits | Public payouts |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,044 | $117,251,230.82 |
| 2024 | 980 | $206,472,256.53 |
| 2023 | 811 | $115,852,780.64 |
| 2022 | 973 | $135,404,617.10 |
| 2021 | 753 | $87,405,727.13 |
| 2020 | 929 | $62,103,991.67 |
| 2019 | 1,276 | $71,723,242.62 |
| 2019 to 2025 | 6,766 | $796,213,846.51 |
Source: Legal Aid Society press release and table, March 2, 2026, analyzing New York City Law Department data on lawsuits alleging NYPD misconduct, by year of disposition. Figures are public payout statistics about other people's cases and exclude pre-litigation settlements by the Comptroller. Earlier Legal Aid releases reported slightly different figures for some years (for example $205.6 million for 2024); the March 2026 table supersedes them.
Three things the table does say. The City resolves roughly a thousand NYPD misconduct lawsuits a year, so these cases are ordinary business for the Law Department, not exceptions. The totals move with a small number of large resolutions, which is why 2024 is nearly double 2023 on fewer lawsuits. And the seven-year total, a public payout figure of $796,213,846.51, is large enough that the City's exposure is a settled part of how it budgets, which bears on how the Law Department approaches a case it expects to lose.
Three things it does not say. It does not say what any lawsuit was paid, because the totals blend cases with nothing in common. It does not say which claims were paid, or whether the officers were disciplined. And it does not say what any future case will be paid, by this firm or any other. The what a case is worth page explains what does decide that, and the settlement page explains who on the City's side decides to pay.
What the CCRB received and substantiated in 2025
The Civilian Complaint Review Board is the City agency that investigates civilian complaints against NYPD officers and recommends discipline. It does not award damages and does not file lawsuits; discipline is the Police Commissioner's decision. Its end-of-year release of December 16, 2025, and its 2025 Annual Report give the following CCRB statistics for 2025.
| CCRB statistic, 2025 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Complaints received | Nearly 5,500, the third-highest total in ten years |
| Fully investigated complaints closed | Nearly 2,000 |
| Closed complaints with at least one substantiated allegation | Just over 960 |
| Allegations by type | Abuse of authority 47.78 percent; force 33.54 percent; discourtesy 15.12 percent; offensive language 3.56 percent |
| NYPD concurrence with CCRB discipline recommendations | 84 percent in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2024 |
Source: CCRB end-of-year release, December 16, 2025; CCRB 2025 Annual Report, p. 3. These are CCRB statistics about complaints by other people, not findings in any lawsuit.
A CCRB complaint and a lawsuit are different things with different clocks. The CCRB treats a complaint filed more than a year after the incident as late, and NYPD discipline must be commenced within 18 months of the incident (N.Y. Civ. Serv. Law § 75(4); 38-A RCNY § 1-15). A substantiated CCRB finding is not required for a lawsuit and does not decide one, and a lawsuit does not require a CCRB complaint. If a criminal charge is pending, talk to your defense lawyer before describing the arrest to anyone, including the CCRB; the criminal case and civil case page explains why, and the CCRB page explains how the two processes are sequenced.
The department
The NYPD has roughly 35,000 uniformed officers. That is the Mayor's Office's figure: its release of October 31, 2025 states that the City is "on the path to 35,000 uniformed NYPD officers by the fall 2026." We do not publish an exact headcount because we have not verified one from a primary source. The number matters here only for scale: nearly 5,500 complaints and roughly a thousand resolved lawsuits a year against a force of that size describe a department, not an officer, and not your case.
What these numbers are, and are not
Every figure above is a public statistic about other people's cases and complaints, compiled by the Legal Aid Society from Law Department data or published by the CCRB. We publish them because they are public and because they answer the first question. They are not a prediction, a range, an average or a promise about any case, and reading them as one is the mistake this page exists to prevent. A lawsuit is decided by its own footage, its own medical records, its own criminal case, its own officers and its own judge, as the what a case is worth page explains factor by factor.
The firm publishes no results of its own
No settlements, no verdicts, no totals, no "recovered for our clients." New York Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1 and Florida Bar Rule 4-7.13, cited on our disclaimer page, govern what a lawyer may say about results, and prior results do not predict any case in any event. The public figures on this page are the only dollar figures of their kind on this site, and each is labeled as a payout statistic with its source. If you see a figure about this firm's results anywhere, it did not come from us.
The useful number in a police abuse case is not a dollar figure. It is the number of days left on the notice of claim, which for the City of New York is 90 from the incident (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 50-e(1)(a)). The deadline tool counts them.
What a case is worth
The factors that move the number, the ones that do not, and why this site does not estimate.
What a case is worth →The CCRB and a lawsuit
What a CCRB complaint does, what it does not do, and how to sequence it around an open charge.
CCRB →Settlement and trial
The Comptroller, the Law Department, what a jury decides, and what attaches to a judgment.
Settlement and trial →Common questions
Where do the payout figures come from?
From the Legal Aid Society's analysis of New York City Law Department data on lawsuits alleging NYPD misconduct, released March 2, 2026, and organized by the year each lawsuit was resolved. The figures exclude claims the Comptroller settled before a lawsuit was filed. Earlier Legal Aid releases reported slightly different figures for some years; the March 2026 table supersedes them.
Do these numbers say what my case is worth?
No. They are totals across roughly a thousand lawsuits a year with nothing in common but the defendant, and they include cases of every kind and size. They tell you that the City resolves police misconduct lawsuits by paying money. They tell you nothing about which claims, how much each, or yours. The what a case is worth page explains the factors that actually move a case.
What does the CCRB substantiation rate mean?
The CCRB fully investigates a portion of the complaints it receives and closes them with findings. In 2025, just over 960 closed complaints had at least one substantiated allegation. Substantiated means the CCRB found the misconduct occurred; it is a disciplinary finding, not a damages award, and the CCRB does not file lawsuits.
Does the firm publish its own results?
No, and it will not. New York Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1 and Florida Bar Rule 4-7.13 govern what a lawyer may say about results, prior results do not predict any case, and a results page invites exactly the comparison this page warns against. The public statistics are published here because they are public, with their sources, and labeled as other people's cases.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.