Suing a City in California: The 6-Month Claim Deadline

By Daniel Yesayan

7 min read

Injuries caused by a city, county, school district or transit agency follow a separate track in California. A written government claim usually has to be presented within six months.

Most California injury cases give you two years to file a lawsuit. Claims against a public agency are the big exception. If a city bus, a county vehicle, a school district employee or a poorly maintained public sidewalk caused your injury, the two-year clock is only half the story — before you can sue at all, you normally have to present a written claim to the agency within six months.

That six-month rule catches people off guard more than any other deadline in California injury law, because nothing about it is obvious from the outside. Here is how the process works and what it means in practice.

Why claims against public agencies work differently

Public entities in California are governed by the Government Claims Act (Government Code §810 and following). The law lets people sue government agencies for negligence, but only after giving the agency formal notice and a chance to investigate or settle. That notice is called a government claim, and skipping it can end an otherwise strong case before it starts.

What is the six-month government claim deadline?

Under Government Code §911.2, a claim for death, injury to a person, or damage to personal property must be presented to the public entity within six months of the date the claim accrues — usually the date of the incident. Claims for other kinds of damage, such as damage to real property or breach of contract, generally get one year.

The claim goes to the specific entity involved, not to a general government mailbox. A crash with a city refuse truck, a fall on a county-maintained walkway and an incident on a transit vehicle can each involve a different agency with its own claim form and filing address. Some incidents involve more than one, which is why identifying every potentially responsible entity early matters.

Who counts as a public entity?

The definition is broad. Cities, counties, the State of California, school and community college districts, transit and transportation authorities, water and utility districts, and public hospitals are all public entities. So are their employees when acting within the scope of their jobs. Private contractors doing work for a city are usually not public entities themselves, but if a public agency hired, supervised or owned the property involved, the claim requirement can still apply to part of the case.

What has to be in the claim?

Government Code §910 lists the required contents: your name and address, the address where notices should be sent, the date, place and circumstances of the incident, a general description of the injury or loss, the names of the public employees who caused it if known, and the amount claimed. Many agencies publish their own claim form, and using it is generally the cleanest approach.

Accuracy matters more than length. The facts you describe define the scope of what you can later sue over, so the description should cover the incident fully rather than narrowly.

What happens after you file the claim?

The agency's board generally has 45 days to act on the claim (Government Code §912.4). It can reject it, allow it, settle it, or do nothing — and doing nothing counts as a rejection by operation of law once the 45 days pass.

The rejection then starts a second, shorter deadline. Under Government Code §945.6, if the agency mails a written rejection notice, a lawsuit must be filed within six months of that mailing. If the agency never sends written notice, the period is generally two years from when the cause of action accrued. That first six-month window is unforgiving, and it is far shorter than the two-year period that applies to an ordinary Los Angeles car accident claim.

Dangerous conditions of public property

A large share of government claims involve public property itself: a broken sidewalk, an unlit stairway, a missing guardrail, a signal that stays dark. Government Code §835 allows recovery when public property was in a dangerous condition, the condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred, and the entity either created the condition or had notice of it with enough time to fix it.

Notice is usually the contested issue. Prior complaints, repair records, work orders and earlier incidents at the same location are the kind of evidence that shows an agency knew. Because public agencies repair hazards routinely, photographing and measuring the condition early can matter a great deal in a slip and fall claim involving public property.

What if you miss the six-month deadline?

It is not automatically the end, but the path narrows. Government Code §911.4 allows an application to present a late claim, filed within one year of accrual, and the agency may grant it for reasons such as mistake, excusable neglect, incapacity, or the claimant being a minor during the six-month period. If the agency denies the application, a court can be asked for relief. None of this is routine, and it adds risk and delay that filing on time avoids.

Practical steps in the first weeks

1. Write down every entity that may be involved — the vehicle's markings, the property owner, the agency named on nearby signage.
2. Report the incident and request the agency's incident or traffic collision report.
3. Photograph the location, including the surrounding context and anything that fixes the date.
4. Get medical care and keep every record; treatment gaps are difficult to explain later.
5. Identify the correct claim form and filing address for each agency, and calendar the six-month date immediately.

Deadlines in California injury cases vary by claim type, and the statute of limitations resource pages outline the ordinary civil timelines that apply once a government claim has been rejected. If you are not certain which deadline governs your situation, treat the shortest one as the operative one and get the question answered quickly. You can contact our office to talk through the timeline in your own case.

This is general information, not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.