Joni Kletter, Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIALS AND HEARINGS | Page 105
WHAT WE DO
The Office of Administrative Trials
and Hearings (OATH) is the City’s
central, independent administrative
law court. OATH has two divisions
that are responsible for adjudicating
City matters: the OATH Trials Division
and the OATH Hearings Division.
The OATH Trials Division adjudicates
a wide range of issues that can be
referred by any City agency, board
or commission. Its caseload includes
employee discipline and disability
hearings for civil servants, Conflicts
of Interest Board cases, proceedings
related to the retention of seized
vehicles by the police, City-issued
license and regulatory enforcement,
real estate, zoning and loft law
violations, City contract disputes and
human rights violations under the
City Human Rights Law. OATH Trials
are conducted by Administrative Law
Judges (ALJs) who are appointed to
five-year terms. In the OATH Hearings
Division, hearings are conducted on
summonses issued by 25 different
City enforcement agencies for
alleged violations of law or City rules.
These summonses are issued by the
Departments of Buildings, Sanitation,
Environmental Protection, Consumer
and Worker Protection, Health and
Mental Hygiene, and the Taxi and
Limousine Commission, among
others. OATH also has jurisdiction
to hold hearings on summonses
from certain non-City entities such
as the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey. OATH hearings
are conducted by Hearing Officers.
OATH also houses the Center for
Creative Conflict Resolution, which
provides mediation and restorative
justice support to City government
agencies, and the Administrative
Judicial Institute, a resource center
that provides training, continuing
education, research, and support
services for the various administrative
law judges and tribunals throughout
New York City.
FOCUS ON EQUITY
OATH’s mission is to provide fair and unbiased administrative trials and hearings
for the City’s residents, businesses and agencies. Key to achieving this mission
is addressing underlying societal inequities that can impact how accessible
and navigable the administrative justice process is to a respondent. OATH has
undertaken several changes to its operations in order to increase accessibility. Since
2014, OATH has updated its Hearings Division rules, procedures and forms to make
the hearing process uniform and understandable to anyone who wants a hearing,
regardless of which City enforcement agency issued the summons - making the
process easier to navigate means that respondents do not need to hire a lawyer
or representative.
Additionally, Fiscal 2020 represents the third year of operation for OATH’s Help
Centers, which operate at Hearings Division locations throughout the five boroughs.
Help Centers are staffed by Procedural Justice Coordinators (PJCs) who help selfrepresented litigants navigate the hearing process, find legal resources and City
records, and understand OATH procedures. PJCs do not offer legal advice or act as
legal representatives to litigants. Since launching its Help Centers, OATH PJCs have
actively assisted more than 100,000 people. During the last four months of Fiscal
2020 when the City was shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, OATH’s Help
Center went 100 percent remote and was able to conduct almost 5,000 remote
Help Sessions with respondents prior to their hearing. OATH also established a
small business unit inside its help center to assist small businesses with the OATH
Hearing Process and to connect small businesses to other City resources, in a
partnership with the Department of Small Business Services.
In Fiscal 2019, OATH established a Neighborhood Pop-Up Court initiative that
allows OATH to conduct hearings in communities across the five boroughs at
Community Boards, libraries, civic organizations, and other public spaces. The
initiative targets so-called “transportation deserts” to increase response rates to
City-issued summonses by making it more convenient for people to access their
hearing who live in places that do not have reliable public transportation. This
decreases the cost of having to travel to OATH in person if a respondent lives in
a transportation desert. By the end of Fiscal 2020, OATH had held 19 Pop-Up
Courts in different neighborhoods, across all five boroughs. Unfortunately, due
to the COVID-19 outbreak, OATH had to put its Pop-Up Court program on hold.
OUR SERVICES AND GOALS
SERVICE 1 Adjudicate alleged violations of State and City
administrative laws.
Goal 1a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH
Trials Division.
SERVICE 2 Adjudicate alleged violations of City administrative laws.
Goal 2a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH
Hearings Division.
Page 106 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
HOW WE PERFORMED IN FISCAL 2020
SERVICE 1 Adjudicate alleged violations of State and City administrative laws.
Goal 1a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH Trials Division.
City agencies filed 2,245 cases at the OATH Trials Division in Fiscal 2020, a decrease of 17 percent from Fiscal 2019. The
decrease can be primarily attributed to a decline in personnel and vehicle forfeiture filings, potentially explained by the City
shutting down or limiting certain in-person office operations during the COVID-19 outbreak and reduced vehicle usage in
the last four months of the fiscal year.
The number of cases closed at the OATH Trial’s Division declined by 20 percent in Fiscal 2020 compared to the prior year.
Up to the end of March 2020, OATH was on track to close more cases than it had in Fiscal 2019, but COVID-19 restrictions
dramatically reduced OATH’s capacity to close cases because of the additional time required to hold conferences and trials
via remote appearance and the postponement of certain trials that had been scheduled to proceed in-person during the
last four months of the fiscal year. This also impacted the annual average number of cases processed per ALJ. OATH Trials’
settlement rate, facts and conclusion adopted by agencies and decisions issued within 45 business days in Fiscal 2020 were
all on par with the prior fiscal year.
Performance Indicators
Actual Target Trend
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
Desired
Direction
OATH Trials Division cases with decisions issued within 45 business days (%) 93% 93% 91% 90% 90% * * Neutral Up
« OATH Trials Division facts and conclusions adopted by agencies (%) 99% 99% 99% 100% 98% 96% 96% Neutral Up
¹Actual financial amounts for the current fiscal year are not yet final. Final fiscal year actuals, from the Comptroller’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, will be reported
in the next PMMR. Refer to the “Indicator Definitions” at nyc.gov/mmr for details. ²Authorized Budget Level ³Expenditures include all funds
“NA” - Not Available * None
Page 108 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
SPENDING AND BUDGET INFORMATION
Where possible, the relationship between an agency’s goals and its expenditures and planned resources, by budgetary unit
of appropriation (UA), is shown in the ‘Applicable MMR Goals’ column. Each relationship is not necessarily exhaustive or
exclusive. Any one goal may be connected to multiple UAs, and any UA may be connected to multiple goals.
Unit of Appropriation
Expenditures
FY191
($000,000)
Modified Budget
FY202
($000,000) Applicable MMR Goals3
001 - Personal Services $35.6 $34.8 All
002 - Other Than Personal Services $11.5 $11.2 All
Agency Total $47.1 $46.0
1
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2019. Includes all funds. 2
City of New York Adopted Budget for Fiscal 2020, as of June
Includes all funds. 3Refer to agency goals listed at front of chapter. “NA” Not Available * None
NOTEWORTHY CHANGES, ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS !
• Tynia D. Richard served as the Acting Commissioner and Acting Chief Administrative Law Judge for the first eight
months of Fiscal 2020. On March 13, 2020 Joni Kletter was appointed Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law