What New York City Pays for Injury Claims: $11.46 Billion, Agency by Agency
When a garbage truck, a police car, a broken sidewalk or a public hospital injures someone in New York, the City pays. SettleScore added up those payments from the City's own published records, from 2013 to 2026: 91,095 personal injury claims and lawsuits, totaling $11.46 billion. The typical payment was $25,000.
The figures include civil-rights claims against the police, such as false arrest and excessive force, because the City records them alongside injury claims. They make up 35% of the payments but only 16% of the dollars, with a typical payment of $15,000.
Outside the police department, the Department of Sanitation stands out. Its 3,234 payments total $998 million, and its typical payment, $60,000, is more than twice the City-wide figure; 277 of those payments were $1 million or more. NYC Health + Hospitals pays less often but more per case: its typical payment, $175,000, is the highest of any agency.
How a claim is resolved matters too. Claims settled before a lawsuit were typically paid $17,500, half the $35,000 typical for cases that became lawsuits. And the typical lawsuit payment has doubled since 2013.
Payments by agency
| Agency | Payments | Typical payment | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Police Department (NYPD) | 35,535 | $20,000 | $3.40 billion |
| Department of Education | 6,004 | $45,000 | $1.12 billion |
| Department of Transportation | 8,915 | $35,000 | $1.06 billion |
| Department of Sanitation | 3,234 | $60,000 | $998 million |
| Department of Correction | 11,435 | $7,500 | $519 million |
| Fire Department (FDNY) | 2,537 | $45,000 | $510 million |
| NYC Health + Hospitals | 1,013 | $175,000 | $506 million |
| Parks & Recreation | 2,497 | $50,000 | $448 million |
| Environmental Protection | 616 | $40,000 | $155 million |
| Other or not stated | 18,973 | $30,000 | $2.66 billion |
The Department of Transportation is responsible for streets and some sidewalks, so its total includes potholes and roadway defects as well as crashes involving its vehicles. The last row covers smaller agencies and payments for which the City's records do not name an agency.
Payments by borough
| Borough | Payments | Typical payment | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 23,490 | $25,000 | $3.42 billion |
| The Bronx | 31,877 | $21,000 | $3.07 billion |
| Manhattan | 16,069 | $25,000 | $2.36 billion |
| Queens | 12,974 | $25,000 | $1.60 billion |
| Staten Island | 4,187 | $35,000 | $544 million |
The Bronx has the most payments of any borough. Its count includes claims from the Rikers Island jails, which are in the Bronx, and many police claims, which tend to be smaller. That helps explain why its typical payment is the lowest. About 2,400 payments do not name a borough and are not shown.
The typical lawsuit payment, year by year
The City Law Department's records of payments on injury lawsuits cover every year since 2013:
| Year | Lawsuit payments | Typical payment | Payments of $1 million or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 3,378 | $25,000 | 58 |
| 2014 | 3,518 | $25,000 | 70 |
| 2015 | 3,238 | $25,000 | 50 |
| 2016 | 3,292 | $30,000 | 76 |
| 2017 | 3,517 | $35,000 | 99 |
| 2018 | 3,292 | $30,000 | 86 |
| 2019 | 3,388 | $35,000 | 80 |
| 2020 | 2,910 | $35,000 | 63 |
| 2021 | 2,746 | $40,000 | 101 |
| 2022 | 2,997 | $45,000 | 115 |
| 2023 | 3,317 | $50,000 | 138 |
| 2024 | 3,100 | $50,000 | 150 |
| 2025 | 3,091 | $50,000 | 142 |
The typical payment went from $25,000 in 2013 to $50,000 in each year from 2023 to 2025. These are amounts before adjusting for inflation; prices rose by more than a third over the same period, so the increase after inflation is smaller but still more than 40%. Part of the rise also reflects which cases reach a payment each year, not only larger payments for the same injuries.
What this means if you were hurt by the City
- The deadline is short. A claim against the City usually starts with a notice of claim within 90 days of the injury. Our guide to the notice of claim deadline explains the steps.
- Claims settled before a lawsuit are paid less. The typical payment roughly doubles once a case becomes a lawsuit, although lawsuits also tend to involve more serious injuries.
- Look for a firm that handles City cases. You can compare firms by their published results, by case type and borough.
How we did this
These figures combine two sets of City records: Comptroller claim settlements, paid before a lawsuit (July 2015 to June 2023 in the records we hold), and Law Department payments on lawsuits (January 2013 to August 2026). Agencies are as named in the City's records, and years are the year of payment. Because the two sets cover different periods, the year-by-year table uses lawsuit payments only.
The full figures, with every agency, borough, year and type of claim, are on our research page: What New York City Pays for Injuries.
This article is general information about New York law, not legal advice for your situation.
Sources: SettleScore research: what NYC pays for injuries · NYC Open Data, Comptroller claims · NYC Law Department · NYC Comptroller, claims · NY General Municipal Law § 50-e