The California Government Claims Act requires you to file a written administrative claim with a government agency before you can sue it for money or damages. The deadline is six months from the incident for personal injury, wrongful death, and damage to personal property or crops, and one year for most other claims, including contract disputes. Miss the filing window, or leave out something the statute requires, and a court will almost certainly dismiss your lawsuit before reaching the merits.
The rules live in Government Code sections 810 and following. They apply whether you’re suing the state, a county, a city, a school district, a special district, or a public employee who injured you on the job.
Who and What the Act Covers
Every level of California government falls under the Act, and so do public employees acting within the scope of their duties. Government Code 815.2 makes a public entity liable for injuries its employees cause on the job whenever the employee would be personally liable in the same situation.1California Legislative Information. California Government Code 815.2 A claim against a police officer, a public hospital nurse, or a city road crew moves through the same administrative process as a claim against the agency that employs them.
Government Code 945.4 states the prerequisite bluntly: no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity until a written claim has been presented and either acted on or deemed rejected.2California Legislative Information. California Government Code 945.4 Typical claims include vehicle accidents involving government-owned vehicles, slip-and-fall injuries on public property, dangerous road conditions, misconduct by public employees, flooding caused by faulty public drainage, damage from public construction, and unpaid invoices or breached agreements with public agencies.
The Filing Deadline
Two deadlines cover almost everything under Government Code 911.2:3California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.2
- Six months from the date the cause of action accrued for claims involving death, personal injury, or damage to personal property or crops.
- One year for all other claims, including contract disputes and pure financial losses.
These are short. They start running from the incident, not from the day you decide to hire a lawyer or the day you finish medical treatment. Treat them as firm.
What the Claim Must Contain
Government Code 910 sets the required contents, and incomplete claims risk rejection:4California Legislative Information. California Government Code 910
- Your name and mailing address, and a separate address for notices if you want them sent elsewhere.
- The date, location, and circumstances of the incident.
- A general description of the injury, damage, or loss so far as it’s known when you file.
- The name of any public employee who caused the harm, if you know it.
- The amount claimed, handled two different ways depending on size. If your total claim is under $10,000, you must state a specific dollar amount and the basis for it. If it exceeds $10,000, you must not include a dollar figure, but you must indicate whether the case would qualify as a limited civil case.
That dollar-amount rule catches people out constantly. Claimants either put a specific number on a large claim (which they shouldn’t) or leave the amount off a smaller one (which they must include). Getting it wrong gives the agency a basis to treat the claim as deficient.
Many agencies offer their own claim forms. Using them isn’t required, as long as what you submit contains everything section 910 demands. Under Government Code 910.8, the agency has 20 days after receiving a claim to notify you of any deficiency, but that notice is optional on the agency’s part.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 910.8 Plenty of agencies stay silent, so don’t count on the government to flag what you missed.
Where to Deliver the Claim
Government Code 915 requires that the claim reach the agency’s clerk, secretary, auditor, or governing body. A claim sent to the wrong office may not satisfy the filing requirement unless one of those designated recipients actually receives it. Personal delivery or mail to the agency’s principal office both work. Certified mail isn’t required by statute, but it gives you proof of delivery and the date, and that proof can matter later.
What Happens After You File
The agency’s board has 45 days to act on your claim.6California Legislative Information. California Government Code 912.4 You and the agency can extend that period by written agreement; otherwise the clock is firm. If the agency does nothing within the 45 days, the claim is deemed rejected by operation of law on the last day of the period.
The board can reject the claim, approve it in full, approve part and reject the rest, or negotiate. When it rejects a claim in whole or in part, it must send a written notice, and that notice must include a specific warning that you have only six months from the date it was mailed or delivered to file suit, along with advice to consult an attorney immediately.7California Legislative Information. California Government Code 913 Whether that warning was included changes your lawsuit deadline dramatically.
Deadline to Sue After Denial
Government Code 945.6 sets two different lawsuit deadlines depending on what notice you received:8California Legislative Information. California Government Code 945.6
- If the agency sent a proper rejection notice with the required warning, you have six months from the date the notice was personally delivered or deposited in the mail.
- If no proper notice was sent, or if the claim was deemed rejected by silence, you have two years from the date the cause of action accrued.
The two-year window is not a fallback you can plan around. It applies only when the agency failed to include the section 913 warning language or sent no notice at all. Where the agency does send a properly worded notice, the six-month deadline controls, and courts enforce it strictly. In Munoz v. State of California, the court refused to excuse a plaintiff’s failure to meet the six-month window even though the delay was partly attributable to counsel.9FindLaw. Munoz v. State of California
If You Missed the Filing Deadline
Government Code 911.4 lets you apply to the agency for permission to file a late claim. The application must be filed within a reasonable time and no later than one year after the incident. You have to explain why the claim wasn’t filed on time and attach the proposed claim to the application.10California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.4
If the agency denies the late-claim application, or ignores it for 45 days (which counts as denial), your last option is petitioning the superior court under Government Code 946.6. A court can grant relief only on specific grounds:11California Legislative Information. California Government Code 946.6
- Mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect caused the delay, and the public entity won’t be prejudiced by allowing the late claim.
- The claimant was a minor during some or all of the filing period.
- Physical or mental incapacity prevented timely filing.
- The claimant died before the filing deadline expired.
Courts take these petitions seriously but not generously. Ignorance of the law rarely qualifies as excusable neglect. In Munoz, relief was denied where both the plaintiff and her attorney had delayed filing without a reasonable excuse.9FindLaw. Munoz v. State of California
Claims That Don’t Go Through This Process
Some claims against government entities skip the administrative process entirely. Government Code 905 lists more than a dozen exempt categories.12California Legislative Information. California Government Code 905 The ones that most often matter to individuals:
- Workers’ compensation claims by public employees injured on the job.
- Tax refund and assessment disputes, which follow Revenue and Taxation Code procedures.
- Public employee claims for unpaid fees, salaries, wages, or mileage.
- Childhood sexual assault claims brought under Code of Civil Procedure 340.1.
- Claims by one public entity against another.
Two other exemptions are easy to miss. Inverse condemnation claims, where government action damages your private property in a way amounting to a constitutional taking, require no pre-lawsuit claim under Government Code 905.1.13California Legislative Information. California Government Code 905.1 Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 are also exempt; you can go directly to court.
One catch: under Government Code 935, local agencies can adopt ordinances requiring claims for some categories that are otherwise exempt.14California Legislative Information. California Government Code 935 Check the specific entity’s rules before assuming your claim skips the process.
Minors and Incapacitated Claimants
Being under 18 does not automatically extend the filing deadline. The six-month clock generally runs even while the injured person is a minor.15California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.4 Where minor status helps is with late-claim applications and court petitions. Under Government Code 946.6, a court may grant relief if the claimant was a minor during any part of the six-month filing period, provided the application is made within six months of turning 18 or one year after the claim arose, whichever comes first.11California Legislative Information. California Government Code 946.6
Additional tolling applies when a minor is a dependent child of the juvenile court, has no guardian ad litem for civil actions, and the public entity with custody fails to report the injury as required by law. The filing period is tolled for the length of the reporting delay. Mentally incapacitated claimants who lack a guardian or conservator also get tolling during the period of incapacity.
Public Hospitals and Government Doctors
Suing a public hospital or government-employed provider for medical negligence triggers two separate sets of requirements. You must file a Government Claims Act claim with the public entity within six months. You must also comply with the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, which requires giving the healthcare provider at least 90 days’ written notice before filing suit under Code of Civil Procedure 364.
The timelines interact in ways worth watching. Serving a 90-day MICRA notice within 90 days of the statute of limitations expiring extends the litigation deadline by 90 days, but that extension applies only to the Code of Civil Procedure deadline. It does not extend the Government Claims Act’s six-month window for the administrative claim. Both clocks have to be tracked separately.
Government Immunities Still Apply
Following the procedure perfectly gets you into court. It does not guarantee you win. California’s default rule under Government Code 815 is that public entities are not liable for injuries unless a specific statute creates liability.16Westlaw. California Government Code 815 Other statutes then carve out exceptions.
The immunity invoked most often is discretionary immunity under Government Code 820.2, which shields public employees from liability for acts or omissions resulting from the exercise of discretion, even where that discretion was abused.17California Legislative Information. California Government Code 820.2 It covers policy decisions, enforcement priorities, and resource allocation. It does not cover routine operational work carried out negligently, like a city worker leaving an open trench unmarked. Other immunities cover legislative and judicial acts, decisions about whether to inspect property, and the failure to provide police or fire protection to specific individuals. Comparative fault also reduces recovery when the claimant is partly responsible. These defenses are where government tort cases most often get complicated, and they’re the main reason claimants in this system frequently look for experienced counsel.