The law behind the case
A police abuse case is built on one federal statute from 1871, a century of Supreme Court decisions about what it means, and the state and local laws that fill in around it. Most of what decides these cases is not whether the officer did something wrong. It is whether the right was clearly established, whether the city can be reached, whether the criminal case closed the door, and what the damages are. This section goes through each piece in plain English, with the authority for every sentence.
Section 1983 does not create any rights. It gives a way to sue when a right that already exists, in the Constitution or in a federal statute, is taken away by someone acting with the authority of a state or local government (42 U.S.C. § 1983). In a police case the right is nearly always the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, which covers arrests, stops, searches and force, or the Fourteenth or Eighth Amendment's protection of a person in custody. The statute is short. The law around it is not, and the pages below take it one piece at a time.
Who can be sued, and for what
What Section 1983 is
The text, the two elements, the rights it most often carries, and why a person's immigration status does not matter.
Read →Under color of law
Officers on duty, officers off duty, special patrolmen, private security, and the State itself, which cannot be sued at all.
Read →Suing the city: Monell
Why the City is not liable just because its officer was, and the policy, custom and failure-to-train routes that reach it.
Read →Why cases are lost without a trial
Qualified immunity
"Clearly established," in plain English. The 2026 Supreme Court decisions, the pending bills, and what actually defeats the defense.
Read →The New York City law of 2021
A local civil right against unreasonable search, seizure and force, with no immunity defense and the City as a defendant. What it changes and what it does not.
Read →The criminal case and the civil case
Heck v. Humphrey, favorable termination, pleas, ACDs, and why the two cases have to be handled together.
Read →What travels with the federal claim
State-law claims
Assault, battery, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution under state law; the New Jersey Civil Rights Act; the Florida sovereign immunity waiver and its caps.
Read →Damages and fees
Compensatory, nominal, punitive against the officer and never the City, and attorney's fees under Section 1988.
Read →Officer disciplinary records
The repeal of Civil Rights Law 50-a in 2020, FOIL, the CCRB database, and how an officer's history reaches the jury.
Read →The CCRB and a lawsuit
What the Civilian Complaint Review Board does and does not do, its clock, and how a complaint helps or hurts a civil case.
Read →Federal officers
Section 1983 stops at the state line. Bivens after Egbert, and the Federal Tort Claims Act route against ICE and CBP.
Read →Changes in the law
The decisions and statutes since 2020 that changed these cases, newest first, each linked to the page it affects.
Read →Four questions decide most cases
Was a right violated?
Probable cause for the arrest, reasonableness of the force, a warrant or an exception for the search, deliberate indifference in the cell. The facts, on the record.
Was the right clearly established?
Qualified immunity. Whether a published case put the officer on notice that this conduct, in these circumstances, was unlawful. Not a defense under the City's 2021 law.
Can the City be reached?
Under state law, yes, with a notice of claim. Under Section 1983, only through a policy, a custom or a failure to train. Under the City's 2021 law, directly.
What did the criminal case do?
A conviction or a plea that still stands can bar a claim that would contradict it. A dismissal starts the malicious prosecution clock. An ACD is its own question.
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.