Where to File a Discrimination Complaint in New York

Most people who come to us after filing a complaint themselves did not know there was a choice to make. They looked up how to report discrimination in New York, found a state agency with an online form, and filed. That form is free, it is well designed, and filing it can permanently end the right to sue on the same facts under the State Human Rights Law.

This page explains what each forum costs you before you commit to it.

What is the election of remedies, in one paragraph?

New York Executive Law § 297(9) gives a person claiming to be aggrieved by discrimination “a cause of action in any court of appropriate jurisdiction,” and then takes it away from anyone who “had filed a complaint hereunder or with any local commission on human rights.” Filing an administrative complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights is treated as an election. You chose the agency, so you gave up the court. The statute preserves your right to sue only where the Division dismisses your complaint on the grounds of administrative convenience, on the grounds of untimeliness, or on the grounds that the election of remedies is annulled.

That is the whole trap. It is not hidden in case law. It is in the statute, and nothing on the intake form makes it obvious.

Which forum should you actually choose?

There is no universally correct answer, because the forums are good at different things. What follows is the comparison people are never shown.

	EEOC	NYS Division of Human Rights	County or city commission	State or federal court
Deadline to start	300 days from the act	Three years, for incidents on or after 15 February 2024	Varies by locality	Three years for a State Human Rights Law claim
Costs you the right to sue?	No. It is a prerequisite to suing	Generally yes, as to the State Human Rights Law claim	Generally yes, same statutory bar	Not applicable
Who decides	An investigator, then possibly a determination	An investigator, then possibly a public hearing before an administrative law judge	A local commission	A judge, and a jury where one is available
Filing fee	None	None	Generally none	Yes, plus litigation costs
Do you need a lawyer	No	No	No	Effectively yes
Speed	Often slow. 180 days before you can demand a right-to-sue notice	Can be slow, and you do not control the pace	Varies	Slow, but you control the pace

The pattern worth noticing is that the free, accessible, no-lawyer-needed options are the ones that close the courthouse, and the one that does not close it is the one that is mandatory anyway before a federal suit.

Why does the EEOC not trigger the same bar?

Because you did not choose a state agency, even though a state agency probably received your charge.

The EEOC and the Division operate under a worksharing agreement that makes each one the other’s agent for receiving charges. A charge filed with the EEOC in New York is routinely dual-filed with the Division as a matter of administrative routine. If forwarding worked as an election, every federal charge in New York would silently destroy the state law claim attached to it.

Courts have not read it that way. The reasoning is that a person who had no choice in the matter cannot be said to have made a meaningful election, and § 297(9) cannot be read to allow the EEOC to make that election for someone merely by satisfying its own filing prerequisites. The question a court asks is whether you chose the Division, not whether paperwork reached it.

Two practical consequences follow. First, if you want to preserve every option, filing with the EEOC and letting the cross-filing happen is materially different from walking into the Division and filing there. Second, if you have already filed somewhere and are not sure which of the two it was, that is a question worth answering precisely, because the answer may decide whether you have a case in court.

Does the bar destroy your federal claims as well?

No, and this is where most published guidance goes wrong.

Section 297(9) is a limitation on the rights created by the New York State Human Rights Law. It is not a general jurisdictional rule about discrimination. A person who filed with the Division has generally lost the state law claim in court, and may still have an entirely live claim under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, provided the federal deadlines were met.

That distinction matters enormously in practice, because the two bodies of law are not equivalent. Federal law caps compensatory and punitive damages by employer size. The State Human Rights Law does not cap them, and since 2019 it is construed liberally in the same direction as the New York City Human Rights Law. Losing the state claim and keeping the federal one is a real loss, not a technicality, but it is very far from losing everything.

What is the federal timeline, step by step?

File the charge In New York you have 300 days from the discriminatory act. The baseline federal deadline is 180 days, extended to 300 because New York has its own fair employment agency.

Intake and possible mediation The EEOC may offer mediation. It is voluntary and it is not an admission by anyone.

Investigation The agency requests a position statement from the employer and may request documents and interviews. You are entitled to respond to the employer’s position statement, and doing so carefully is one of the few points in the process where an unrepresented person can materially help their own case.

The 180-day mark Once 180 days have passed from the day you filed, the EEOC is required by law to issue a right-to-sue notice if you ask for it. Before 180 days it will issue one only if it will be unable to finish the investigation in time.

The 90-day window Once you receive the right-to-sue notice you have 90 days to file your lawsuit. This deadline is set by statute and courts enforce it strictly. It is measured from receipt, which is why keeping the envelope and the date matters.

Why do the state and federal deadlines make people file in the wrong place?

Because they are wildly different lengths, and the longer one is the one that costs you the court.

You have three years to file with the Division and 300 days to file with the EEOC. Someone who spends a year deciding what to do has usually not thought about the fact that the shorter clock is the federal one. By the time they act, the accessible option is often the only one still open, and it is the option that forfeits the state law suit. The order in which the deadlines expire is almost exactly backwards from the order in which most people learn about them.

If you take one thing from this page, take this: the 300-day federal clock is the one that runs out first. Work backwards from that date, not from the three-year one.

Does a county or city commission count as an election?

Yes. Section 297(9) names “any local commission on human rights” in the same breath as the Division.

That includes the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission and the New York City Commission on Human Rights. People routinely treat a county commission as an informal early step that keeps their options open, on the theory that it is smaller and more local and therefore less final. The statute draws no such distinction.

What if the Division already dismissed my complaint?

The grounds of the dismissal decide everything, and they are written on the determination.

Administrative convenience Your right to sue is preserved as if no complaint had been filed. This is the outcome to understand and, where appropriate, to request.

Untimeliness Your right to sue is preserved in the same way, although the timeliness problem that led to the dismissal may also affect a court claim.

Annulment of the election of remedies. Also preserved.

No probable cause Not on the statutory list. A no-probable-cause dismissal does not restore the court action, and it also produces an agency determination that can create separate problems in a later case.

If you have a determination in front of you and are not certain which of these it is, that is worth an hour of a lawyer’s time before you do anything else, and it is time sensitive because any federal clock is still running while you decide.

What should you do before you file with the EEOC or the Division?

1. Work out which clock is shortest for you, and calendar that date Use the filing deadline checker for an estimate, and read how long you have to file for the detail behind it.
2. Find out precisely where anything has already been filed The EEOC and the Division are different agencies with different consequences, and the paperwork does not always make it obvious which one you dealt with.
3. Do not withdraw a Division complaint on the assumption that withdrawing undoes the filing. It may not.
4. Do not sign a severance agreement or release while you are deciding A release will usually extinguish these claims permanently. See severance review and negotiation.
5. Get the choice looked at before you make it, not after This is the rare employment decision where an hour of advice at the start is worth more than any amount of work later, because the door does not reopen.

How does TA Legal Group handle this?

We represent employees and executives in the great majority of our matters, and employers in a limited number of them. We run a conflict check before taking any case. If you have not filed anything yet, the conversation is about which forum fits your facts, what each one gives up, and which deadline is closest. If you have already filed, the conversation is about what survives and how much time is left.

Fee arrangements depend on the matter. Many employee-side cases are handled on a contingency fee basis, where there is no fee unless we recover for you and case costs and disbursements are advanced by the firm and reimbursed from any recovery. Other matters are handled on a retainer, and we tell you in writing which applies before you commit to anything. The initial consultation is always free and confidential. Contact us or call 631.498.7984.

Nothing on this page is legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The election of remedies turns on facts specific to what you filed and when, and on case law that continues to develop.