First, confirm you are on the right form. DA Form 7500 carries the official title TORT CLAIM PAYMENT REPORT, and you use it to tort claim payment report. Second, check the edition: the copy offered here is dated 06/01/2003 and its publication status is ACTIVE. Third, size up the job — 1 page(s) and about 98 entry fields, so you can decide whether to fill it now or set aside time.
Now decide who does the writing. Normally you enter your own particulars, then hand the sheet to the unit administrative office for review. If you work in that office, you enter what the individual brings you. From there the path is the same for everyone: TJAG is responsible for the form, and PAM 27-162 tells you what triggers it and where it ends up. Look at the directive first whenever your case departs from the ordinary.
Start at the top of the page and work down. The heading blocks come first: write your name as it appears on your official records, then your identification number, then your unit or organisation, then the date you are preparing the form. Do not skip ahead to the interesting parts and come back — these heading entries are how your form is found in the file afterwards, and a form filed under a misspelled name is a form nobody can locate.
In the body of the form, tab from field to field instead of clicking around. The tab order follows how the form was constructed, which keeps you from missing a box. For check boxes and option buttons, click them. If you find a set where the choices are exclusive, expect your new selection to clear the previous one. Keep an eye on long entries as you type: fields built for one line will not wrap, and what overflows the width will print truncated even though your screen shows all of it. At that point move the text into remarks or onto a continuation. And when something does not apply to you, say so in the field — write the entry that means "none" rather than leaving white space a reviewer has to interpret.
Leave the signature until everything else is done. Sign by hand or by an approved electronic means, and remember that a form without a signature is a draft, however complete the entries. Where a second and third signature are required — reviewing official, approving authority, witness — go in the order the blocks appear, and each signer dates the form on the day of signing. Then go back to the top and read what you wrote. Look first for a mandatory field you passed over, then for transposed digits in your identification number, then for a date with the day and month inverted. If you started from a file you had used before, look also for entries left from that earlier use; nothing removes them but you.
At some point while filling the form you will meet a Privacy Act statement, and you should read it when you reach it rather than after you finish. It tells you who is authorised to collect the information, what it will be used for, who else may see it, and whether you are obliged to answer or may decline. Once you have entered your details, treat the file accordingly: it now holds personal information about you, so store it and send it the way your office handles such records.
Download the form
Next comes the download itself. The formats available are PDF, XFDL, and you decide between them by asking how you will enter the information. If you plan to type, take the fillable pdf: the boxes accept keyboard input and you can save the result. If you plan to write by hand, take the printable pdf and run it through your printer while it is still blank. Both show the same published page, so the decision affects your method and nothing else.
After you download, open the file the right way. Double-click a pdf and your browser may take it, which is fine for reading but risky for filling: some browser viewers show you the fields, let you type, and then lose the text when you close the tab. Save the file to your computer first, then open it in a full pdf reader, and check that your entries survive a save before you type the whole form. If you downloaded the xfdl file, do not try a pdf reader on it. That format is IBM Lotus Forms, and you need the Lotus Forms Viewer to open it at all.
Then simply download. There is no charge, no sign-up and no email to hand over, and the file that arrives is exactly what the publisher released.
What the form asks for
- AcctName
- Agency
- AgencyAddr
- CertfyOffc
- Checking
- ClaimAmt
- ClaimNum
- Claimant
- ContentArea1
- DateA
- DateFiled
- DateSignA
- DateSignB
- FundCite
- NameAddr
- OfficeCode
- Page1
- PayAmt
- PayType
- Payee
- PayeeAddr
- R100
- R101
- R102
Once you have signed, route the form. The prescribing directive names the destination: an office, your unit administrative channel, or your personal file, according to the case. Make yourself a copy first, because you will not get the original back. After that, retention is out of your hands — the applicable records schedule fixes how long the document is kept, whatever the practice in a particular office.
Should the package need more than one document, search by series and number. Within the DA series, forms under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be required as a set, and a form referenced on the page you are filling usually accompanies it. Collect the continuations, covers and transmittals up front so the submission goes complete the first time.
Check the edition date again the next time you reach for this form. Editions change when the proponent revises the content, and a copy you saved months ago may no longer be current — compare the date printed on your file against the edition in force before you type anything into it. What you do not need to do is redo work already finished: a form you completed and submitted under an earlier edition stays as it is.
Read this before you go. The file you download is a reproduction of a published Department of the Army document, offered as it was published. We are an independent site with no connection to the Department of the Army and no authority to issue anything, and we make no statement about whether your completed form will be accepted anywhere. Treat what you read here as information, not legal advice. Take real questions — about an entry, a requirement, or your eligibility — to TJAG or to your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7500?
- TORT CLAIM PAYMENT REPORT
- Which edition is current?
- 06/01/2003
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TJAG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA,