Document it. Ground it in the law that governs it.
Complaints don't get dismissed because they're wrong. They get dismissed on procedure — the wrong office, a missed deadline, no record of notice. This platform closes those gaps before anything goes out the door. Serving Paterson and Passaic County, New Jersey.
Free help for New Jersey residents with housing, schools, public benefits,
records requests and city government. Available in English, Spanish,
Arabic and Bengali.
What you can report or get help with
- Public-records non-response (OPRA)
- Open-meetings violation (OPMA / Sunshine Law)
- Contracting irregularity (bid avoidance / steering pattern)
- Budget / appropriation irregularity
- Fiscal-affairs / audit irregularity
- Pay-to-play / contribution-award timing pattern
- Payroll / staffing anomaly
- Disability access / accommodation failure (ADA Title II)
- Disability discrimination in a federally funded program (Section 504)
- Race / national-origin discrimination (Title VI)
- Traffic-safety / roadway hazard non-remediation
- Selective / non-enforcement of law
- Public-employee whistleblower retaliation (CEPA)
- Illegal dumping / public nuisance
- School bullying / HIB response failure
- School district records refused
- School budget or spending irregularity
- Special education services denied or delayed
- School board meeting or transparency violation
- Illegal rent increase / rent control violation
- Landlord will not make repairs / unsafe conditions
- Eviction or non-renewal without legal grounds
- Illegal fees or misrepresented apartment
- Disability access or discrimination in housing
- Rent increase that may be unconscionable
- Noise, smoke, pets, and neighbor conditions
- Flooding, sewer backup, or drainage failure
- Parks, trees, lighting, and public property left to rot
- Police or law enforcement conduct
- Lead paint in a rental home
- Lead in drinking water
- Discarded needles, waste, rodents, and public health hazards
- Illegal conversion, overcrowding, or fire safety
- Property tax assessment or appeal
- Tax lien, tax sale, or losing a property over unpaid taxes
- Food, cash, or medical assistance denied or cut off
- Unemployment benefits denied
- Utility shutoff or no heat because of a bill
- Not paid what you are owed
What you can learn
- What happens when nobody reports it
- The elections almost nobody votes in
- The meeting where your taxes get decided
- The county — the level nobody watches
- Small things that are actually the law
- Why one voice fails and forty succeed
- Who actually decides things
- How to read a law without a law degree
- Your right to watch and to ask
- Writing it down so it counts
- Your officials, and what each one actually does
- What a legislator's office can and cannot do for you
- I need help with ___. Who do I actually ask?
- How to ask so you actually get help
- The four doors
- Following the money
- Constitutional foundations
- Administrative law: the government you never voted for
- Suing the government: the Tort Claims Act
- Getting an official out of office, and who actually can
- Finding the law yourself
- The line you must not cross
- What your landlord must do, and what you can do about it
- If you are a landlord: what the law requires of you
- How a tenancy can legally end — and how it cannot
- Fees, promises, and the remedy nobody mentions
- When the rent goes up: what they can and cannot do
- Property taxes, liens, and the equity they cannot keep
- Streets, sewers, parks: who is actually responsible
- After a flood: what you can claim and the deadline that ends it
- Speaking at a public meeting without dread
- How the room works: agendas, motions, and votes
- Keeping your own records, and reading a budget
- Your city is run by people, and some of them are wrong
Tools
- OPRA records request builder with New Jersey response deadlines calculated
- Deadline calculator for the 90-day Tort Claims notice, CEPA and prerogative writs
- Paterson municipal code explained in plain language
- Accountability scorecard for local public bodies
- Document drafting: tort claim notice, repair demand, records appeal, recall notice
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We The People — New Jersey · https://www.wethepeopleofnj.org