Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
These rules apply to anyone hurt on property owned or controlled by a public entity in Los Angeles County: a sidewalk, a park, a transit station, a school, a public garage, a county building. They do not apply to a private business that leases space in a public building, which follows the ordinary rules on our Los Angeles premises liability lawyer page.
What a government claim is
A government claim is a written notice presented to the public entity itself. It is not a lawsuit, it is not filed in court, and it is not a demand letter. Government Code section 910 lists what it has to show. It must give your name and address, the address where notices should be sent, and the date, place, and other circumstances of the occurrence. It must also give a general description of the injury or loss so far as it is known when the claim is presented, and the names of the public employees who caused it if you know them.
Section 910 also handles the amount. If the claim is under $10,000, state the amount and how you computed it. If it is $10,000 or more, no dollar amount is stated; you indicate instead whether the case would be a limited civil case, the court's category for smaller-dollar cases. Getting the amount rule backwards is one of the more common defects in a claim written without help.
No lawsuit until the claim is filed
Government Code section 945.4 provides that no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity on a cause of action for which a claim is required until two things have happened. A written claim has been presented to the entity, and it has been acted upon by the entity's governing board or deemed rejected. There is no informal path around it. A complaint filed before the claim is presented is vulnerable from the day it is served.
What happens after you present the claim
Section 912.4 gives the board 45 days to act on the claim. The claimant and the board can extend that period by written agreement. If the board fails or refuses to act within the time prescribed, the claim is deemed rejected on the last day of the period it had to act. Silence counts as a rejection, and it starts a clock.
If the entity does send a rejection, section 913 requires the notice to carry a warning. In substance, subject to certain exceptions, you have only six months from the date the notice was personally delivered or deposited in the mail to file a court action on the claim. That paragraph at the bottom of the letter is the deadline, and people read past it.
Which of the two suit deadlines applies
Section 945.6(a) splits into two. If written notice is given in accordance with section 913, suit must be filed not later than six months after that notice is personally delivered or deposited in the mail. If written notice is not given in accordance with section 913, you have two years from accrual of the cause of action.
| Stage | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Present written claim, injury or death | 6 months from accrual | Gov. Code 911.2 |
| Present written claim, all other claims | 1 year from accrual | Gov. Code 911.2 |
| Board acts on the claim | 45 days, then deemed rejected | Gov. Code 912.4 |
| File suit after written rejection | 6 months from delivery or mailing | Gov. Code 945.6(a)(1) |
| File suit with no written rejection | 2 years from accrual | Gov. Code 945.6(a)(2) |
Proving the property was dangerous
Presenting the claim only buys the right to sue. Liability itself comes from Government Code section 835, which makes a public entity liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if the plaintiff establishes four things. The property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury. The injury was proximately caused by that condition, meaning the condition was a substantial factor in causing it. The condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred. Finally, either a negligent or wrongful act of an employee within the scope of employment created the condition, or the entity had actual or constructive notice under section 835.2, meaning it knew or should have known, in time to have protected against it.
Section 830 supplies the definitions. A dangerous condition is a condition of property that creates a substantial risk of injury when the property or adjacent property is used with due care in a manner in which it is reasonably foreseeable that it will be used. To protect against means repairing, remedying, or correcting the condition, providing safeguards, or warning of it.
Each agency has its own claims office
Los Angeles is not one defendant. The City, the County, Metro, school districts, and the State each take claims through their own office, on their own form, and a claim delivered to the wrong entity does not stop the six months running against the right one. The County of Los Angeles takes claims for death or injury through the Executive Officer of the Board of Supervisors, at 500 W. Temple Street, Room 383. LA Metro accepts its Claims for Damages form only in person or by mail through Legal Services at One Gateway Plaza, and states that claims received by email are rejected.
For the State of California, section 911.2(b) itself points to the Department of General Services. It treats the date of presentation as the date the claim is submitted with a twenty-five dollar filing fee, or with an affidavit requesting a fee waiver. Identifying the right entity is the first job, and on a sidewalk or a roadway it is often not obvious. Our Los Angeles slip and fall lawyer page covers the sidewalk question specifically.
If the six months already passed
The case is not automatically over. Section 911.4 allows a written application to the entity for leave to present a late claim. It must be presented within a reasonable time not exceeding one year after the cause of action accrued, must state the reason for the delay, and must have the proposed claim attached.
If the entity denies that application, section 946.6 allows a petition to the superior court for relief from the claim requirement, filed within six months after the application is denied or deemed denied. Grounds include failure to present through mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, the claimant being a minor during the claim period, physical or mental incapacity during that period, and the claimant's death before the period expired. Every one of those paths is narrower and harder than presenting the claim on time.
When the government rules do not apply
- Property that is not the entity's. Section 830(c) defines property of a public entity to exclude easements, encroachments, and other property located on public property but not owned or controlled by the entity.
- A defect too small to be dangerous. Section 830(a) requires a substantial risk of injury to someone using the property with due care.
- Hazardous recreational activity. Section 831.7 immunizes the entity against participants in listed activities, subject to exceptions including a failure to warn of a known dangerous condition and negligent maintenance of structures or equipment.
- A private operator inside a public building. The concession, the contractor, or the tenant may be an ordinary private defendant on the two-year clock.
- Federal property. A federal facility is not covered by the California Government Claims Act and runs on its own separate procedure.
What to do first
Identify the entity, then present the claim, then turn to value. That order matters, because everything else in the case depends on a written claim arriving at the right office inside six months. Photograph the condition, get medical care documented from day one, and present the claim early rather than at the end of the window, where a wrong entity or a curable defect can still be fixed.
If the property was privately run, the deadline and the proof are different, and our guide to what a premises liability case is worth explains how damages are calculated. If the injury came out of an assault at a transit station or public housing, read negligent security as well, because both sets of rules apply at once.