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Total citywide payout for judgments and claims ($000)
Represent the City of New York in litigation and other legal matters involving the City’s interests. — Limit the City’s liability as a result of claims.
The near-doubling of citywide legal payouts from FY22 to FY24 was driven in significant part by settlements tied to the Child Victims Act, a 2019 state law that opened a window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue over decades-old claims, generating a wave of large settlements (heavily concentrated in cases against the Department of Education). The Law Department's own reporting for FY26 attributes a subsequent drop in payouts partly to the resolution of several of these large, longstanding Child Victims Act cases in the prior fiscal year.
Researched July 16, 2026 — NYC Law Department, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report, NYC Comptroller, Annual Claims Report Fiscal Year 2023
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
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| Fiscal year | Actual |
|---|---|
| FY22 | $794,702,000 |
| FY23 | $1,208,576,000 |
| FY24 | $1,516,776,000 |
| FY25 | $1,376,184,000 |
| FY26 (YTD) | Not available |
Source: Law Department Matter Management System (Tort, Special Federal Litigation, General Litigation and Labor and Employment Divisions) – preliminary data. OMB – final data. — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported pmmr/mmr.
Definition: The judgment and claims amount, in thousands of dollars, paid by the City from the judgment and claims account in the City's General Fund to resolve cases through settlement or verdict, including pre-litigation claims dispositions. Initial values for the Mayor's Management Report are sourced from the Law Department, and corrected values are sourced from OMB and printed in the following PMMR. PMMR values come from OMB.