Reporting a client under the Freelance Isn't Free Act.

The public enforcement route.

NY GEN. BUS. LAW ART. 44-A · ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINTS

Under the statewide Act, a freelancer who was not paid can file a complaint with the New York State Attorney General rather than (or before) going to court (the State Department of Labor publishes the Act's guidance and model contract, but the Attorney General enforces it). The complaint route is free, does not require a lawyer, and puts the state's weight behind your claim. New York City freelancers also retain the city route through the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which has handled Freelance Isn't Free complaints since 2017. Repeat offenders face more than your claim: the Attorney General can seek civil penalties for violations, up to $25,000 where a hiring party shows a pattern or practice of them.

How the process typically runs.

• You file a complaint form with the supporting documents: contract or the communications that stand in for one, invoice, proof of the work.
• The client is notified and given the chance to respond and resolve the matter.
• Paperwork failures hurt them later: hiring parties must keep the written contract for six years, and a hiring party that fails to produce it can face a presumption that the terms you present are the terms that governed.
• The agency's role is procedural, not adjudicative: the complaint process pressures and papers the dispute, but a contested claim for your money is ultimately resolved by payment, settlement, or a court judgment.

What the complaint route is good at.

It is free, it is official, and it creates a record that strengthens a later lawsuit. For freelancers with no budget at all, it is a legitimate first move. It also aggregates: agencies notice hiring parties whose name keeps appearing, which is how pattern-or-practice penalty cases start.

Where it is slower than a letter.

Government process moves on government time: notice periods, response windows, queues. The complaint does not itself award you double damages; those come from settlement or a court judgment. A private attorney demand letter, by contrast, lands in days and speaks the one language every business understands: a deadline attached to itemized statutory exposure. In practice, many freelancers get paid from a letter in weeks, not months, without any agency involved. The two routes are not exclusive; a letter now does not waive a complaint later, and vice versa.

A sensible sequence.

• Clear-cut debt, client still operating: attorney demand letter first. Fastest path to money. See what the letter contains.
• No budget, no urgency: file the complaint, then escalate if it stalls.
• Letter ignored: complaint plus small claims court, where your letter and the complaint file both become evidence.
• Not sure where you stand: start with the step-by-step guide for freelancers whose clients won't pay.