If you were hurt, arrested without cause, or held on charges that should never have been brought, a NYC police misconduct lawyer can help you hold the officers and the City accountable. These cases run on two separate tracks with two different deadlines, and one of those deadlines is ninety days, so the first weeks matter more here than in almost any other kind of case.
They are also cases built on evidence that is deleted on a schedule. Body-worn camera footage, precinct video, radio transmissions, and 911 audio are all kept for a limited time. Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower moves to preserve that material immediately and then builds the case on what it shows. Below are the questions people ask our police misconduct attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
You may have a case if officers used force that was not necessary under the circumstances, arrested or held you without a lawful basis, searched you or your home unlawfully, brought charges without probable cause, or ignored a serious medical need while you were in custody. What matters is what the officers knew and did at the time, measured against what the law allowed, rather than how the encounter was described afterward in the paperwork.
Many people assume that being arrested, or having a charge dismissed later, settles the question one way or the other. Neither does. Our police misconduct lawyers review what actually happened, at no cost to you.
Police work involves lawful authority to stop, detain, search, and use reasonable force in defined situations. Misconduct is conduct that goes past what the law permits. That includes force beyond what the situation called for, detention without the legal basis it required, entry or search without lawful grounds, charges filed on facts an officer knew were not true, and a failure to act by officers who watched it happen and did nothing.
It is not misconduct simply because an encounter was frightening, or because charges were later dropped for reasons unrelated to the officers' conduct. The question is a legal one, which is why these claims turn on records rather than on impressions.
This is the part almost nobody knows, and it decides more of these cases than any other single factor.
A claim under New York state law, such as assault, false arrest, malicious prosecution, or negligence against the City, follows the municipal rules: a formal notice of claim within ninety days of the incident, a sworn hearing before suit, and a lawsuit generally within one year and ninety days. Those rules are covered on our municipal liability page.
A federal civil rights claim works differently. It does not require a notice of claim, and the deadline in New York is generally three years. That is why someone who was told their case was over because they missed ninety days may still have a live claim, and why the two tracks are usually pleaded together when both fit.
Timing also varies by claim. A false arrest clock generally runs from when the detention ended, while a malicious prosecution claim usually cannot begin until the criminal case has ended in your favor, which can be long after the arrest.
Both are possible, and they work differently. Officers can be sued individually for what they did. The City can be responsible for its employees' conduct under state law claims, and it can also be sued directly on a federal claim where the harm came from a policy, a practice, or a failure to train, supervise, or discipline, rather than from one officer's decision on one day.
That second route is demanding to prove and depends on showing a pattern rather than an incident. It is also where an officer's prior complaint history, disciplinary records, and internal findings become central, and those records are more available in New York than they used to be.
Qualified immunity is a defense that can protect an individual officer from a federal civil rights claim where the law was not clearly established that the conduct was unlawful at the time. It is raised in almost every one of these cases, and it ends some of them.
It is not the wall it is sometimes described as. It does not apply to state law claims against the City, it does not shield conduct that clearly violated settled law, and it does not protect the City on a policy claim. The practical answer is that a case has to be built on both tracks from the start, so a ruling on one does not end everything.
Get the criminal case handled first and take it seriously, because parts of a civil claim depend on how it ends. A malicious prosecution claim generally requires that the case ended in your favor, and pleading guilty to something, even a violation to resolve the matter quickly, can affect what civil claims remain.
Do not discuss the incident publicly or on social media while the criminal case is open, and do not assume a dismissal automatically produces a case. When a criminal case ends in your favor, the records are sealed under New York law, which means you will need to authorize their release before a civil claim can use them.
These cases are proven with recordings and records rather than with competing accounts. Our police misconduct lawyers move first to preserve body-worn camera footage, precinct and holding cell video, dashboard and vehicle camera recordings, and nearby private and public cameras, all of which are retained only for a limited period before they are overwritten.
From there the case is built on radio runs and 911 audio, memo book entries, arrest reports, complaint and property vouchers, sworn charging documents, medical and EMS records, jail and precinct logs, and the officers' own prior complaint and disciplinary histories, along with civilian complaint files. Where a claim runs against the City for a pattern or a training failure, that history is the case.
It depends on which claims you are bringing. State law claims against the City generally require a notice of claim within ninety days and a lawsuit within one year and ninety days. Federal civil rights claims in New York generally run three years, without a notice requirement. A malicious prosecution claim usually starts when the criminal case ends in your favor. Claims involving a child are treated differently.
Because a single incident can carry several claims on different clocks, the safest assumption is the shortest one. If you are already past ninety days, do not conclude the matter is closed, because the federal track may still be open and a late notice can sometimes be permitted.
A claim can pursue:
No. Our police misconduct lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the case so you can get back to your life. Our police misconduct lawyers:
Our police misconduct lawyers prepare every case as if it will be tried, because the City defends these files and settles the ones that are ready. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that shortchanges what happened to you is not one this firm accepts just because it comes early.
If you were injured, arrested, or charged in a way you believe was unlawful, the video that shows what happened is on a deletion schedule right now. The consultation is free, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless you do.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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