Requiring certain agencies to publish guidance on responding to settlement offers, translate such guidance into the designated citywide languages, and notify settlement offer recipients about such guidance.

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring certain agencies to publish guidance on responding to settlement offers, translate such guidance into the designated citywide languages, and notify settlement offer recipients about such guidance

This bill would require each settlement offer sent by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to be accompanied by a multilingual notice that: (1) informs the recipient that they are receiving a settlement offer because they are being charged with a violation of the law; and (2) directs the recipient (via a QR code or similar mechanism) to a portion of the agency’s website with plain language information about the recipient’s options for responding to the settlement offer. Both the notice and the online information would need to be translated into each of the designated citywide languages, which are the top ten languages spoken by New Yorkers with limited English proficiency.