To file a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice, go to civilrights.justice.gov/report and work through the seven-screen online form, or mail a written complaint to the Civil Rights Division in Washington. You can submit either way anonymously. Hate crimes, law enforcement misconduct, and election threats go to the FBI instead, and if you’re in immediate danger, call 911 before filing anything.
The Civil Rights Division enforces more than thirty federal statutes, and the online portal is its primary intake channel. Most people finish the form in fifteen to twenty minutes once they have the facts in front of them.
Before You Start: Is the DOJ the Right Place?
The DOJ’s own site sends some complaints elsewhere. Hate crimes and law enforcement misconduct should go to the FBI directly, through tips.fbi.gov or 800-CALL-FBI. Threats against voters, threats against election officials, and suspected election fraud also belong with the FBI rather than the civil rights portal.1U.S. Department of Justice. Contact the Civil Rights Division
One other boundary matters. The DOJ enforces federal law on behalf of the United States, not as your personal attorney. When the division acts on a complaint, it typically pursues injunctive relief and institutional change, not money damages for individual complainants. Its police misconduct work, for example, targets whether an agency has a pattern of violating constitutional rights, not isolated incidents involving a single officer.2Department of Justice. Conduct of Law Enforcement Agencies
Filing with the DOJ also does not substitute for filing with the EEOC or HUD when those agencies have primary jurisdiction. Employment discrimination claims generally need a Notice of Right to Sue from the EEOC before anyone, including the DOJ, can take the case to federal court.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge If your complaint falls into a category another agency handles first, file there and treat your DOJ report as a separate, parallel step.
What the DOJ Complaint Portal Covers
When you open the form, you pick from a list of categories that maps to the division’s enforcement authority:
- Workplace discrimination in hiring, firing, pay, or harassment based on protected characteristics, typically enforced under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Housing discrimination in rentals, mortgage lending, real estate steering, or landlord harassment, covered by the Fair Housing Act.5Department of Justice. The Fair Housing Act
- Education discrimination at a school, program, or related service.
- Police or correctional misconduct by law enforcement officers, correctional staff, or inmates.
- Voting rights interference, under the Voting Rights Act.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 U.S.C. Chapter 103 – Enforcement of Voting Rights
- Public accommodations discrimination at businesses or public places.
- Hate crimes and human trafficking.
Disability-related complaints across settings are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which the DOJ enforces for state and local government programs and public accommodations.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ADA: Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability
Filing Through the Online Portal
The form at civilrights.justice.gov/report walks you through seven screens.
Screen 1: Contact Information
You’re asked for your name, email, phone number, and mailing address. It also asks whether you are or have ever been an active-duty service member, and whether you are filing on someone else’s behalf. Providing contact information is optional. The form explicitly states you can leave this section blank and file anonymously.8U.S. Department of Justice. Contact the Department of Justice to Report a Civil Rights Violation If you do provide details, the DOJ says it will only use them to respond to your submission.9U.S. Department of Justice. Report a Civil Rights Violation The tradeoff is straightforward: filing anonymously means the division cannot follow up for clarification or tell you the outcome.
Screens 2-4: Primary Concern, Location, and Personal Characteristics
You select the category (workplace, housing, education, and so on), then the state and city where the incident happened, then the protected traits relevant to the discrimination you experienced. Answer these specifically. The division uses your answers to route the report to the right specialized team.
Screens 5-6: Date and Personal Description
You enter the date of the incident and then reach the narrative screen. This is the part that matters most. Write a straightforward, chronological account of what happened. Name the people or organizations involved. Include what they said or did, and explain why you believe the treatment was discriminatory. If you know badge numbers or the names of specific officials, put them in. Specific dates, times, and addresses help the division cross-reference your report with others from the same area or entity.
Screen 7: Review and Submit
Check the category, names, and dates before you submit. Once you send it, you get a confirmation number.1U.S. Department of Justice. Contact the Civil Rights Division Save it. That number is how you’ll reference the complaint in any future contact with the division.
Filing by Mail Instead
If you’d rather not use the portal, send a written complaint to:
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Main
Washington, D.C. 2053010Department of Justice. Civil Rights Division Contact Us
Include the same information the online form collects: your contact details (if you choose to provide them), the type of violation, when and where it happened, who was responsible, and a narrative of the facts. Certified mail gives you a delivery receipt confirming the division received your materials. Send copies of any supporting documents, never originals.
Evidence to Pull Together First
The online form doesn’t require uploads, but corroborating material improves your complaint’s chances of moving past preliminary review. Gather what you have before you start:
- Emails, text messages, letters, or notices from the party that discriminated against you.
- Police reports, termination letters, lease denials, or eviction notices reflecting the discriminatory action.
- Medical records if the incident caused physical injury.
- Performance reviews or commendations that contradict a claimed justification for firing or demotion.
- Names, phone numbers, and email addresses of witnesses.
Reference this evidence in your narrative so the division knows it exists and can request it during follow-up.
Deadlines That Run Outside the DOJ Portal
The portal itself has no hard filing deadline. But the underlying civil rights statutes do, and missing those can eliminate the possibility of enforcement action.
For workplace discrimination under Title VII, the ADA, or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, you generally have 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file a charge with the EEOC. That extends to 300 days if a state or local agency enforces a similar law. Federal employees have just 45 days to contact an agency EEO counselor. Equal Pay Act violations carry a two-year deadline from the last discriminatory paycheck, extended to three years if the violation was willful.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
Fair Housing Act complaints filed with HUD must be submitted within one year of the last discriminatory act.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3610 – Administrative Enforcement; Preliminary Matters Even if you file with the DOJ within that window, the one-year clock keeps running while the division reviews your submission. Don’t rely on the DOJ filing to preserve rights that belong to another agency’s timeline.
What Happens After You Submit
Your report goes to a specialized team matched to the issue you selected. The division then works through a two-stage process.1U.S. Department of Justice. Contact the Civil Rights Division
Staff first review whether your complaint falls within the division’s enforcement authority. If it belongs with a different agency, they’ll try to route it. Then they determine next steps, which may include following up for more information, opening a mediation or investigation, directing you to another organization, or telling you they can’t help with your particular situation.
Responses are slow. The division acknowledges it can take several weeks to reply because of the volume of reports it receives.1U.S. Department of Justice. Contact the Civil Rights Division Sometimes you may not hear back at all, particularly if the division is actively investigating a related matter or working through a backlog. This is why filing separately with the primary agency (EEOC or HUD) protects you: those agencies run their own enforcement timelines independent of the DOJ.
Protection From Retaliation After You File
Under Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and the Equal Pay Act, employers cannot punish you for filing a discrimination complaint, participating in an investigation, or opposing discriminatory practices at work.13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retaliation Protected activity includes filing a complaint, serving as a witness, refusing to follow orders that would produce discrimination, and asking coworkers about pay to uncover wage disparities.
Participation in a complaint process is protected under all circumstances. Other acts opposing discrimination are protected as long as you reasonably believed something at work violated federal anti-discrimination law, even if you didn’t use legal terminology to describe it.13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retaliation If retaliation follows your complaint, it’s a separate violation you can report the same way.
Similar anti-retaliation provisions run through the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights statutes for non-employment complaints. The principle holds across settings: people who report discrimination are protected from being punished for speaking up.