Claims Against Government Entities

Why public entities are different

Government bodies in California have partial protection from lawsuits, and the price of suing one is a strict procedure that must be followed before a court will hear anything. The first step is presenting a written claim directly to the agency.

This is not a formality that can be caught up on later. If the claim is not presented in time, the lawsuit is normally barred regardless of how strong it is.

Six months, from the injury

For claims involving death, injury to a person, or damage to personal property, the deadline to present the claim is six months from when the claim arose. Other claims, including damage to real estate, generally have one year.

Six months passes quickly when someone is still receiving treatment and reasonably assumes they have two years. This is the most common way these claims are lost.

Who counts as a public entity

More organisations than people expect. Cities and counties. School districts. Public transit agencies and their buses. State agencies including those responsible for highways. Public hospitals and public universities. Municipal utilities. Police and fire departments.

Some situations are less obvious: a pothole or missing sign on a public road, a badly designed intersection, a poorly maintained pavement, or a collision with a vehicle being driven by a government employee in the course of their work.

If any of that is even possibly part of your story, work on the six-month assumption while you establish the facts. It costs nothing to be early and everything to be late.

What happens after you present the claim

The agency can accept the claim, reject it, or do nothing.

If it sends a formal written rejection, you generally have six months from the date that notice was mailed to file suit. It runs from mailing, not from receipt.

If the agency does nothing, the claim is treated as rejected after 45 days, but because no formal rejection was mailed, the longer two-year period applies instead of the six months. This asymmetry is genuinely confusing and is a good reason to get advice rather than working it out yourself.

If the six months has already passed

There is a limited route back. A late-claim application can be made within a reasonable time, not exceeding one year from when the claim arose, and the agency is required to grant it in certain circumstances, including where the injured person was a child throughout the six-month period.

This is a genuine remedy but a fragile one. It depends on acting quickly and on the reasons for the delay.

Children are not protected here

The rule that pauses deadlines for children does not apply to claims against public entities. A child injured by a school district bus still faces the six-month claim deadline. The only route once it has passed is the late-claim application, which the agency must grant where the claimant was a minor for the whole period.

This surprises almost everyone, including people who have read that children in California have until they are 20. That is true for ordinary claims and not true here.

Practical advice

Identify the agency precisely, because presenting a claim to the wrong body does not stop the clock. Many agencies publish their own claim form and a specific address for service. Keep proof of what you sent and when. And if a public entity is involved at all, this is the clearest case on this entire site for getting professional advice early rather than late.