When you are charged, discontinued, verbally abused, or whatever, within 90 days you should file a Notice of Claim (NOC) with the NYC Controller’s office . . . In 2005 when a UFT member was treated badly or was reassigned, the UFT gave each person a list of what to do, and filing a Notice of Claim was listed at the top. Then they stopped saying anything. Don’t know why.
When can claims be filed?
By law, claims generally must be filed within ninety (90) days of the incident and eClaim will allow you to file at any time of the day.
In order to begin an action against New York City or one of its agencies or departments, you must give it notice. The City requires that you notify it of an injury or other claim within 90 days of the occurrence When you notify the City of the occurrence, you will receive a “Notice of Claim.” Again, you must first file
a Notice of Claim before starting any action or special proceeding for personal injury, wrongful death
or damage to real or personal property alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence
or wrongful act of the municipal entity or of any officer, agent or employee thereof (GML §50-i.)
A proper and timely Notice of Claim must be served upon the government and at least 30 days must
elapse before a lawsuit can be instituted. After the waiting period, you may start an action in Court. However, the action must be started within one year and ninety days of the time of the loss, damage or injury for the above agencies.
What kind of organization is the NYC DOE and can I file a NOC against them?
Please note this helpful hint. The word “Department” in the name of a City agency usually means that the Defendant who is being sued is the City of New York. The NYC DOE is a non-Mayoral organization and you should file a Notice of Claim with the agency itself. You should indicate the Defendant on the court form as:
N.Y.C. Department of Education
52 Chambers Street, Room 320, B4
New York, New York 10007
Where can I find the paperwork?
The Notice of Claim you can find here: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/forms-n-rfps/filing-claims/
What form of Notice is required?
The notice must be in writing, sworn to before a notary public, by or on behalf of the claimant (the person who wishes to make the claim), and set forth the following:
(i) the name and post-office address of each claimant, and of his/her attorney, if any;
(ii) the nature of the claim;
(iii) the time when, the place where and the manner in which the claim arose, being as precise as possible; and
(iv) the items and dollar amount of damages or injuries that are claimed to have been sustained to the extent practicable at that time.
The claimant should take care to list all the claims he or she has. If not, the claimant runs the risk that the deadline will expire before the assertion of certain claims and the government may argue that those claims are untimely and therefore time barred.
Where do I send my NOC?
You do not need to hire a lawyer to write and file a NOC, just remember to Notarize the letter/NOC and send it certified mail to both the Corporate Counsel (100 Church street, NY NY 10007) and the NYC Comptroller’s office ((1 Centre Street Room 1225, NY NY 10007). In this way you can preserve your State law claims if you want to sue the Department within 1 year and 90 days from the event.
Resources:
Handy PDF explaining basic NOC procedures (MUST READ): https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/6jd/forms/SRForms/ntc_howto.pdf
You can e-file a NOC. Here’s a FAQ page: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/help/eclaims-faqs/
A Guide to Filing NOC’s against Mayoral, non-Mayoral, and State organizations: https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/civil/forms/civ-sc-25.pdf
