Suing a Public Entity in California: The Government Claim Deadline

Before suing a California city, county, school district, or state agency, a claimant generally must present a written government claim to that entity — typically within six months for personal injury. If the claim is rejected, suit must usually be filed within six months of the rejection notice. Missing either deadline ordinarily bars the case entirely, no matter how strong the facts.

What a government claim is

It is not a lawsuit. It is a written notice, presented to the entity itself, describing the claimant, the incident, the date and place, the circumstances, and the damages claimed.

The entity then has a defined period to act. It may accept, reject, settle, or do nothing — and doing nothing operates as a rejection by law after the statutory period. Only after that process may a lawsuit be filed.

The timeline in practice

1. Injury occurs. The clock starts when the cause of action accrues, which is not always the date of injury.
2. Six months to present the claim for personal injury and wrongful death claims. Certain other claims carry a one-year period.
3. The entity responds — or its time to respond expires, which counts as rejection.
4. Six months to file suit after a written rejection is served. If no written rejection is served, a longer period may apply — which is a trap, because relying on it requires knowing precisely what the entity did and when.

The childhood sexual abuse exemption

Government Code section 905(m) exempts claims brought under Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 for damages from childhood sexual abuse. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse in a public facility generally are not required to present a government claim first.

This exemption is narrow and specific. It does not cover:

• Physical abuse that was not sexual
• Neglect, medical neglect, or failure to protect
• Abuse suffered as an adult
• Emotional abuse claims outside section 340.1

A survivor of physical assault by staff at a county facility is on a six-month clock. A survivor of sexual abuse at the same facility, on the same day, generally is not. Almost nobody knows this, and it is why an early conversation matters even when a survivor has been told there is “no deadline anymore.”

If the six months has already passed

Do not assume the case is over.

Late claim applications. An application to present a late claim may be made within one year of accrual, based on mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, or on the claimant’s minority, incapacity, or death. If the entity denies it, relief may be sought from the court.

Minors. Where the claimant was a minor during the entire six-month period, relief from the claim requirement is available on a different and more favorable standard.

Accrual and delayed discovery. The clock runs from accrual, not necessarily from the incident. Where the connection between the injury and the entity’s conduct was not reasonably discoverable, accrual may be later.

Each of these is fact-specific and time-sensitive. If a public entity is involved and time has passed, call rather than concluding.

What to do right now

1. Identify the correct entity. City, county, district, and state agencies are separate, each with its own claim procedure and address. Claims presented to the wrong entity may not count.
2. Do not wait for records. A claim can be presented on the facts known and supplemented. Waiting on a records request while the clock runs is the most common way these cases are lost.
3. Do not rely on a grievance or complaint. An internal grievance, an ombudsman complaint, a licensing complaint, and a police report are all valuable — and none of them satisfies the claim-presentation requirement.
4. Get the claim right the first time. Defective claims are rejected on technical grounds. The form matters.