How to Fill Out and File the New York OCA Retainer Statement

If you take a contingency-fee case in New York, you must file a New York OCA retainer statement with the Office of Court Administration within 30 days of signing the fee agreement. Filing is done electronically through OCA’s Retainer and Closing e-filing system, there is no filing fee, and the obligation applies in all four Appellate Division departments.¹

Which Cases Require the Filing

The requirement is triggered by the fee arrangement, not the forum. Any time a lawyer’s compensation depends on winning or settling one of the following case types, a retainer statement is due:

Personal injury claims for bodily harm caused by negligence or any type of malpractice
Property damage claims involving real or personal property
Wrongful death claims brought on behalf of a decedent’s estate
Loss of services claims arising from a family member’s personal injury
Condemnation and change of grade proceedings, meaning eminent domain matters

Each Appellate Division department imposes the requirement through its own rule — 22 NYCRR § 603.25 (First), § 691.20 (Second), § 806.13 (Third), and § 1022.31 (Fourth) — but the practical obligation is identical: file within 30 days, include the required details, submit electronically.²

Referrals do not change anything. If a lawyer engages another lawyer on a contingent-fee basis to work the case, both attorneys file their own retainer statements.

What Has to Be on the Statement

Under 22 NYCRR § 691.20, the statement collects a focused set of facts:

The exact date the retainer or fee agreement was signed
The terms of compensation, matching the signed agreement
The client’s full legal name and home address
If another attorney engaged you, that attorney’s name and office address
For injury, wrongful death, or property damage claims, the date and place the injury or damage occurred
For eminent domain matters, the title and description of the proceeding, the date it began, and the parcel numbers affected
The name, address, occupation, and relationship of anyone who referred the client to you

The filing attorney signs the statement personally before submitting it.²

Entering the Fee Termsh3>

Report the compensation terms exactly as written in the retainer agreement. Rounding 33⅓% to 33% is enough to create a discrepancy between what the client signed and what OCA has on file.

In medical, dental, and podiatric malpractice cases, New York Judiciary Law § 474-a caps the contingency on a sliding scale: 30% of the first $250,000; 25% of the next $250,000; 20% of the next $500,000; 15% of the next $250,000; and 10% of anything above $1,250,000. Those percentages apply to the net recovery after expenses for expert testimony and investigative services, but not after hospital or medical care liens. An attorney who believes extraordinary circumstances justify a higher fee can apply to a justice, though the fee still cannot exceed what the retainer agreement provides.³

General personal injury cases in the Fourth Department follow a choice between two schedules: Schedule A, a sliding scale starting at 50% of the first $1,000 and dropping to 25% of amounts over $25,000, or Schedule B, a flat 33⅓% of the total recovery.⁴ Whichever schedule is in the signed retainer is what goes on the statement.

When Another Attorney Is Involved

If you were retained by another attorney on a contingent-fee basis, your statement also has to identify the fee-sharing arrangement, the services you will perform, the code number OCA assigned to the retaining attorney’s filed statement, and the date that statement was filed.² Missing that cross-reference disconnects your filing from the original one in OCA’s records.

How to File and When

All retainer statements are filed electronically through OCA’s Retainer and Closing e-filing system at iapps.courts.state.ny.us/retainerandclosing. It is a separate system from NYSCEF, the general court e-filing platform, although the NYSCEF login page links to the Retainer and Closings portal.

The deadline is 30 days from the date the fee agreement was signed. That clock runs from the signing, not from when a lawsuit is filed or a demand letter is sent, so waiting for the case to take shape before filing already puts you late.¹

Once submission is successful, the system returns a confirmation showing the filing date, client name, and page count, and it assigns an OCA Statement number — a unique code that will identify the case in every future filing, including the closing statement.⁵ Save the confirmation. It is your proof of timely compliance, and you will need the OCA Statement number later.

There is no filing fee.

After You File

Send the client a copy of the filed statement along with the OCA Statement number. That gives the client a record of the fee terms reported to the state.

The rules also impose a seven-year record-retention obligation on attorneys for both plaintiffs and defendants. All records related to the claim have to be preserved for seven years after the case concludes — whether by settlement, judgment, dismissal, or discontinuance — and that clock starts only after the case fully wraps up and all distributions are complete. The records covered go well beyond the retainer statement itself and include pleadings, correspondence, medical reports and bills, repair estimates, income-loss documentation, and financial records showing amounts disbursed to the client and others.¹

The Closing Statement That Follows

The retainer statement is only half the obligation. When the case resolves, a closing statement has to be filed through the same OCA system. The deadlines are tight:

If there is a recovery, file within 15 days of receiving, retaining, or sharing any money from the case.
If there is no recovery, file within 30 days of the case’s disposition or the termination of the retainer agreement.

The closing statement is more detailed than the retainer statement. It requires the OCA code number from the original filing, the names and addresses of all parties, whether the case settled or went to judgment, the gross recovery, the net amounts paid to the client and the attorney, the names and amounts paid to any other attorneys sharing the fee, and an itemized breakdown of expenses charged against the client’s share, including hospital liens, medical bills, expert witness costs, and investigative services. A copy has to be served on the client, and the date it was forwarded has to be recorded.²

Mistakes That Trip Attorneys Up

Missing the 30-day window is the most common problem, usually because the attorney waits for the case to develop before filing. The signing date is what matters. Failure to comply is a professional obligation issue that can surface in disciplinary proceedings or court audits.

Reporting fee terms that do not match the signed agreement word for word is the next most common error. Enter the percentages and structure exactly as they appear in the contract.

When multiple attorneys are working the same case on contingency, each files a separate statement, and the retained attorney’s filing must reference the OCA code number of the retaining attorney’s earlier statement.

Finally, the 15-day closing deadline runs from when money changes hands. Treating the closing statement as an afterthought is how attorneys discover, after the fact, that the window closed weeks ago.

1
Cornell Law Institute. New York Code 22 NYCRR 603.25
2
New York State Unified Court System. 22 NYCRR 691.20 – Claims or Actions for Personal Injury, Property Damage, Wrongful Death
3
New York State Senate. New York Code JUD 474-a – Contingent Fees for Attorneys in Claims or Actions for Medical, Dental or Podiatric Malpractice
4
Cornell Law Institute. New York Code 22 NYCRR 1015.15 – Contingent Fees in Claims and Actions for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death
5
New York State Unified Court System. Retainer and Closing E-Filing Training