Mail your complaint to: New York State Department of Law Office of the Attorney General, Investor Protection Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10005. You may also fax your complaint to this office. The fax number for our bureau is …
If you cannot complete the form online or need additional assistance with where to direct your complaint, please call our OAG Help Line at (800) 771-7755. Filing a false complaint is punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor. Charities and Fundraising. Consumer Issues. Civil Rights and Discrimination. Employment Issues. Finance, Investment, and Lending.
New York, NY 10027 (212)364-6010 Harlem Complaint Form [Spanish] Harlem Complaint Form - Spanish. Syracuse Regional Office 300 South State Street, Suite 300 Syracuse, NY 13202 (315) 448-4848 Syracuse Complaint Form. Nassau Regional Office 200 Old Country Road, Suite 240 Mineola, NY 11501 (516) 248-3301 Nassau Complaint Form. Utica Regional Office
We can best process your complaint if we receive accurate and complete information from you. Please be prepared to provide the information below, as well as documentation of your complaint in electronic format (TXT, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PDF, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF, or TIFF only): Your name. Your email and mailing address. Your telephone number.
If you cannot complete the form online or need additional assistance with where to direct your complaint, please call our OAG Help Line at (800) 771-7755.
If you cannot complete the form online or need additional assistance with where to direct your complaint, please call our OAG Help Line at (800) 771-7755. Filing a false complaint is punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor. Charities and Fundraising. Consumer Issues. Civil Rights and Discrimination.
Filing a false complaint is punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor.
Law enforcement actions are taken by the Attorney General to protect the public good and to ensure a fair market place.
Although the Attorney General’s Office will do its best to assist you, we are not authorized to represent individual consumers in court or provide legal or financial advice.
The Attorney General does not have jurisdiction over many areas of the law. For an extensive list of other agencies that may be able to assist you, please click here
You should enclose copies of all relevant documents. Do not send us any original documents. Filing a false complaint is a Class A Misdemeanor. Please understand that in order to resolve your complaint we may send a copy of your letter to the person or firm you are complaining about.
Those who address these investigations or actions properly have the best chance of obtaining a positive outcome. An attorney general investigation can come in many forms, from a simple letter to a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) or subpoena.
If a lawsuit has been commenced, the goal is to get the quickest, most cost effective and painless resolution.
If you are interested in ensuring that you are compliant with current regulations or if you are facing an investigation from a state attorney general or other regulatory agency, please e-mail us at [email protected], or call us at (212) 246-0900. Attorney Advertising. Related Blog Posts:
The cover-up often is worse than the crime. Third, contact experienced counsel immediately. Attorneys general commence investigations for a wide variety of reasons. Perhaps they are seeking information about, or are investigating, your industry generally.
A complaint should be filed, by email or regular mail, with the attorney grievance committee having jurisdiction over the county in the State of New York in which the attorney maintains their office for the practice of law. If the attorney is admitted to the bar of New York but does not maintain an office in this state, the complaint may be filed with any attorney grievance committee and, if necessary, it will be transferred to an appropriate committee in the judicial department of the Appellate Division in which the lawyer was admitted to the practice of law.
However, if a person believes that an attorney has acted unethically, that person may file a complaint against the lawyer simply by submitting a signed, written statement setting forth a clear, concise statement of the facts and circumstances of the alleged misconduct. No special legal knowledge is needed to file one. The complainant should provide copies of any documentary evidence that supports the claim and include the names and addresses of any witnesses who can support the allegations of the complaint.
The staff attorney will notify the complainant in writing if this occurs and provide the contact information of the committee to which the complaint has been transferred.
The staff attorney may conclude that a complaint describes conduct that, even if true, does not violate a provision of the Rules of Professional Conduct ( 22 NYCRR part 1200 ), and therefore does not involve professional misconduct. On occasion, an otherwise valid complaint may not be suitable for investigation due to other contributing factors. In such cases, the staff attorney will notify the complainant in writing and explain the reasons why the committee is unable to be of assistance.
These rules state the standard of conduct below which no lawyer can fall without being subject to disciplinary action. Professional Discipline.
The Attorney Grievance Committees. Each of the three attorney grievance committees in the Second Judicial Department consists of 21 members (no fewer than 3 whom are non-lawyers) who are appointed by the court.
The attorney has a professional obligation to comply with that request and the failure to submit an answer may, in and of itself, constitute professional misconduct.
Perhaps this conclusion may be reached informally whereby the investigation is closed with no action taken and documents returned, assuming state law permits. An investigation may also be closed by some less formal action, such as a letter agreement. Attorneys General typically prefer to resolve an investigation through execution with the respondent of an assurance of voluntary compliance (“AVC”). An AVC is often simply a recitation of stipulated facts describing the state’s position and the respondent’s position. An AVC also includes some type of injunctive relief, under which the respondent agrees to follow by relevant law, and perhaps some form of future monitoring and compliance plans. If the circumstances warrant based on consumer harm, monetary payments may also be made to complainants or a consumer restitution fund could be established. Investigative costs and fines are also a possibility if the conduct is sufficiently problematic or justifies some additional deterrent.
One of the most powerful tools in the Attorney General’s arsenal is the ability to issue demands for records and testimony from individuals and companies believed to be in violation of the law. This pre-litigation discovery power is broad, and parties practicing in this space must know the investigative powers of Attorneys General, and how to respond in the event of an investigation, in order to ensure that minor regulatory issues do not grow into major problems.
The Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (Consumer Fraud Act), 815 ILCS 505/1, et seq ., grants the Attorney General authority to enjoin a variety of consumer abuses such as fraud , deception, and misrepresentation. As with many state consumer statutes, the Consumer Fraud Act was patterned on Section 5 (a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. §41, et seq ., and in interpreting the Consumer Fraud Act “consideration shall be given to the interpretations of the Federal Trade Commission and the federal courts relating to Section 5 (a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act.” 815 ILCS 505/2. Based on the incorporation of this language, the Consumer Fraud Act is often referred to as a “mini-FTC act.”
The Consumer Fraud Act’s purpose is “to protect consumers and borrowers and businessmen against fraud, unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.” 815 ILCS 505/1.
It is critical to analyze whether objections may exist before responding to a subpoena in order to avoid any claim of waiver. It is important to begin at the beginning and not overlook any object ions. For instance, ensure that service was proper and that personal jurisdiction exists.
A threshold question in a document production is the manner in which the documents will be made available to the Attorney General. The manner of production takes on heightened importance when confidential or proprietary information is involved.
At the risk of hyperbole, an Attorney General can wake up one morning and decide to focus on a given company. It is therefore critical to understand what can trigger an Attorney General investigation.