The government tort claim process California requires before suit is unforgiving. Unlike a claim against a private defendant, a claim against a state agency, county, city, or special district cannot go straight to a lawsuit. The Government Claims Act imposes a strict presuit claim requirement, short deadlines, and specific content rules, and missing any one of them can end a case before it starts. This page walks through the process from the initial claim deadline to the lawsuit filing window.
6 months
Deadline to present a written claim under Government Code section 911.2
45 days
Window the entity has to act on the claim under section 912.4
6 months
Deadline to file suit after a rejection under section 945.4
Before anything else, the injured person must identify every public entity responsible for the property or condition at issue. This is often more complicated than it sounds. A single stretch of roadway might be maintained by the state through Caltrans, by a county, or by a city, depending on jurisdictional boundaries that are not visible at the scene. A defective intersection might involve overlapping responsibility between a city's public works department and a county flood control or transportation agency. Filing a claim against the wrong entity, or failing to name an entity that shares responsibility, can permanently bar recovery against the entity left out, since the claim requirement applies separately to each public entity involved. Early investigation, including public records requests and review of maintenance agreements, is often necessary to identify every proper defendant.
Government Code section 911.2 requires that a claim for personal injury or wrongful death be presented to the public entity no later than six months after the date the cause of action accrues, which is generally the date of the injury. This deadline is dramatically shorter than the two-year statute of limitations that applies to most personal injury claims against private parties, and it is one of the most common ways injury victims accidentally forfeit a valid claim. Not every missed deadline is necessarily final, because Government Code section 946.6 allows a claimant to petition for relief after first applying to the entity for leave to present a late claim under section 911.4, but that relief is discretionary and far from guaranteed. Relying on late-claim relief is a fallback, not a strategy.
Government Code section 910 specifies what a claim must contain, including the claimant's name and address, the date, place, and circumstances of the occurrence, a general description of the injury, the name of the public employee causing it if known, and the amount claimed or a statement that it exceeds a limited civil case amount. A claim that omits required information can be deemed legally insufficient.
Once a proper claim is presented, Government Code section 912.4 gives the public entity 45 days to grant it, reject it in whole or in part, or take no action, which results in the claim being deemed rejected by operation of law at the end of the period. Extensions are possible only by written agreement with the claimant.
Once the claim is rejected, Government Code section 945.4 requires that any lawsuit be filed within six months of the date the rejection notice was delivered or mailed. If the entity never sends a formal rejection notice, a longer two-year period generally applies instead, running from the date the cause of action accrued.
Every one of these deadlines runs independently, and missing any of them can end the case regardless of how strong the underlying dangerous condition claim is. Because the claim-presentation deadline is only six months, and identifying the correct entity often takes real investigative work, delay is the single greatest risk to an otherwise strong claim, so contacting counsel within days of an injury on public property preserves the full range of options.
The case behind this page
How the claims process connects to the dangerous condition elements, notice, and design immunity in the underlying case.
See the full frameworkRelated standard
The elements and defenses that decide whether a public entity answers for its property.
Read the agency duty standardRelated breakdowns from this case and our government liability practice.
We take injury and wrongful death cases against public entities as counsel or co-counsel and pay statutory referral fees.
Refer a caseSix months from the date of the injury under Government Code section 911.2.
Forty-five days under Government Code section 912.4, after which an unanswered claim is deemed rejected by operation of law.
Six months from the date the rejection notice was delivered or mailed under Government Code section 945.4, or two years from the injury if no formal rejection notice was ever sent.
