Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
These claims arise from a fall on a public sidewalk, a curb ramp, a park path, a transit platform, or the grounds of a public building in Los Angeles County. Falls inside a private business are covered in our store and supermarket falls guide. The overview sits on our Los Angeles slip and fall accident lawyer page.
The six month claim deadline comes first
Most people believe they have two years. Against a public entity that is wrong from the first day. Government Code section 911.2(a) requires that a claim relating to a cause of action for death or for injury to a person be presented not later than six months after the cause of action accrues, which for a fall means the date of the fall. All other claims get a year. A government claim is a formal written notice presented to the entity itself, not a lawsuit and not a phone call to a hotline.
The entity's response starts the second clock. Section 945.6(a) gives you six months to file suit after a written rejection notice is personally delivered or deposited in the mail. If no written notice is given in the form the statute requires, subdivision (a)(2) gives you two years from accrual. Silence from the agency therefore leaves you more time than a letter does.
| Step | When | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Present the written claim | Within 6 months of the fall | Gov. Code 911.2(a) |
| Application for leave to file late | Within 1 year of the fall | Gov. Code 911.4(b) |
| Sue after a written rejection | Within 6 months of the notice | Gov. Code 945.6(a)(1) |
| Sue when no written rejection came | Within 2 years of the fall | Gov. Code 945.6(a)(2) |
Who owns the ground you fell on
A Los Angeles sidewalk sits between a public street and a private lot, and the answer to who is responsible depends on what broke it. The City of Los Angeles owns the public right of way and can be liable for a dangerous condition of its property. The abutting property owner, the owner of the lot next to the sidewalk, carries a maintenance duty under Streets and Highways Code section 5610. That section says owners of lots fronting on any portion of a public street shall maintain any sidewalk in such condition that the sidewalk will not endanger persons or property.
That duty tightens when the owner has done something to the walkway. CACI No. 1007 in the Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions, 2025 edition tells the jury that an owner, occupier, or one who controls property must avoid creating an unsafe condition on the surrounding public streets or sidewalks. CACI No. 1008 goes further for an altered sidewalk. It asks whether the owner or a previous owner altered the portion that caused the harm, whether the alteration benefited that property alone, and whether it served a purpose different from ordinary sidewalk use. A driveway apron, a planter, a vault cover, or a private drain line is that kind of alteration.
The third defendant is a different agency entirely. Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Los Angeles Unified School District are their own public entities with their own claim procedures and their own six month clocks. A fall at a Metro station is not a claim against the City, and presenting it to the wrong agency does not stop the deadline for the right one.
| Where you fell | Look at first | Also consider |
|---|---|---|
| Sidewalk cracked by a street tree | The city that owns the right of way | The abutting owner if the tree is on private land |
| Sidewalk across a driveway apron | The abutting owner, CACI 1008 | The city, for notice of the defect |
| Curb ramp or gutter | The city | The contractor that built the ramp |
| Metro station, platform, or stairway | Metro, as its own public entity | A concessionaire that controls the space |
| County building or school campus | The county or school district | A maintenance contractor on site |
What to prove against the government
Ordinary negligence is not the test. Government Code section 835 makes a public entity liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property only 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 incurred. Finally, either an employee's negligent act created the condition, or the entity had actual or constructive notice, meaning it knew or should have known, long enough before the injury to have protected against it.
A dangerous condition has a statutory meaning. CACI No. 1102, drawn from Government Code section 830(a), defines it as a condition of public property that creates a substantial risk of injury to members of the general public when the property is used with reasonable care and in a reasonably foreseeable manner. It adds that a condition creating only a minor risk is not one.
Notice works much as it does against a store, with one addition that favors you. CACI No. 1104, based on Government Code section 835.2(b), tells the jury it may consider whether the entity had a reasonable inspection system and whether a reasonable system would have revealed the condition. An agency with no inspection program at all is answering the same question a supermarket answers about its sweep log, and it answers it with its own maintenance and complaint records.
The city's own repair list is evidence
The City of Los Angeles runs Safe Sidewalks LA, described on the program's site as a 30-year, $1.4 billion program to make sidewalks accessible to everyone. It includes a Sidewalk Rebate Program that reimburses eligible property owners for part of the cost of a repair. It takes damage reports by dialing 311 within the city, 213.473.3231 from outside the greater Los Angeles area, TTY 213.473.5990, or by email to sidewalks@lacity.org.
That matters to a claim for two reasons. Reports made through those channels create a dated record that the city was told about a specific location, which is the raw material of constructive notice. A rebate application by a property owner shows who took responsibility for that stretch of walkway. Reporting the defect after your fall does not help your own case, but it is often how the next person's case gets proved.
Public property falls that are not cases
The trivial defect. Government Code section 830.2 lets a trial or appellate court, viewing the evidence most favorably to the plaintiff, decide as a matter of law, meaning by the judge without a jury, that a condition is not dangerous. That applies where the risk created was of such a minor, trivial or insignificant nature that no reasonable person would conclude it created a substantial risk. A small height difference between two slabs, in daylight, on a clear walkway, is the classic example. Lighting, debris, glare, and a history of complaints are what move a defect out of that category.
The wrong agency, or no agency. Many walkways that look public are privately owned: a shopping center forecourt, a homeowners association path, an apartment complex frontage. Those are ordinary premises claims with a two year deadline, and our guides to apartment and stairway falls and Los Angeles premises liability cover them. The expired claim. Past one year from the fall, with no claim presented and no application filed, there is no path left against the entity.
What to do now
Record the location before anything else. Photograph the defect with something in frame for scale, get the nearest address and cross street, and note which direction you were walking. Then identify the owner of that specific piece of ground, because the deadline you are running against belongs to that agency and not to the one whose name is on the nearest sign.
If a fall on public property left a head injury or a fracture that needed surgery, the medical file and the six month claim run on the same calendar, and the claim will not wait for the treatment to finish. Serious head injuries are handled through our Los Angeles brain injury practice. There is no fee unless we recover.