Thousands of lawsuits are filed against New York City agencies and employees every year. The city comptroller’s office said the city spent $664 million in the 2011 fiscal year on settlements or awards stemming from those lawsuits. The figure for the 2012 fiscal year was $583 million.

City officials said the Law Department began omitting payment amounts from publicly filed documents in employment cases after one federal judge voiced discomfort with such disclosures. In a second case, involving the police, officials said that Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, in Brooklyn, said recently that she did not want to approve the settlement of a lawsuit that included paperwork listing an amount. The judge did not respond to a message left with a staff member in her chambers.

via New York City No Longer Discloses Cost of Federal Court Settlements – NYTimes.com.