Know Your Rights

• When you receive a summons to appear at OATH for a hearing, you have the right to receive reasonable notice of the day, time, and location.
• The right to represented by legal counsel, or representative authorized by the court, at your expense.
• You have the right to have access to language assistance services, including interpretation during all stages of your case.
• You have the right to request that your hearing be rescheduled. Only one request is allowed for each summons. If the agency that issued the summons requests that your hearing be rescheduled, you have the right to be informed of the new hearing date, at least three (3) business days before the originally scheduled hearing date.
• Prior to your hearing, you have the right to ask the agency that issued the summons, for the names of any witnesses they plan on calling to testify at the hearing and copies of any documents or other evidence they plan to submit.
• You have the right to question or express concern about the method in which you were served the summons. Example: You were not adequately notified of the summons.
• In certain circumstances you may respond to your summons by mail, online, or by phone.
• During the hearing, you have the right to present evidence, question witnesses and the agency that issued the summons, and make any arguments you believe are necessary to your case. Evidence may include, but is not limited to, documents, recorded images, photographs and witness testimony.
• All hearings are recorded, and you have the right to request a copy of the recording or transcript - a reasonable fee may be charged.
• If you are not satisfied with the outcome of hearing, you have the right to appeal. You can learn how to appeal an OATH hearing decision by visiting the OATH Hearings Division section of this website. 
• If you do not want to participate in a hearing, you may have the right to settle your case with the issuing agency, prior to the hearing. Settling your case usually requires paying, in full, an amount determined by the agency.
• If you have more than one summons based on the same occurrence, and each summons has a different hearing date, you have the right to request that all of your summonses be heard the same day. While OATH may make every effort to accommodate your request, this right is not guaranteed.

Hearings Division Decisions

You can search final decisions from appealed Hearings Division cases using the online library from the Center for New York City Law. This website allows you to search OATH Hearings Division decisions using key words, section of law, and other search criteria.

Avoid Scams! Please note that all emails that come from OATH have the email address of @oath.nyc.gov. Any other communications that come from other email addresses like ones that have a gmail.com or other commercial email address are not from OATH and should not be considered a communication from OATH. If you were contacted by someone misrepresenting themselves as an OATH employee, please contact the Clerk’s Office by email.