How to File a Government Tort Claim: Deadlines, Limits, and Exclusions

To file a government tort claim, you submit a written administrative claim, with a specific dollar amount of damages, to the agency whose employee caused the harm, and you do it before the filing deadline runs out. Only after the agency denies the claim, or sits on it long enough to count as a denial, can you take the case to court. Skip the administrative step or miss the deadline, and you lose the right to recover anything.

The Administrative Claim Comes First

You cannot sue the government the way you sue a private driver or business. Congress waived the federal government’s immunity through the Federal Tort Claims Act, which makes the United States liable for employee negligence roughly the way a private person would be under state law.¹ Every state has passed a comparable waiver for claims against state and local agencies.

The waiver comes with a condition. Before you can file a lawsuit, you must present a written claim to the responsible agency and let it investigate, settle, or deny. If you file in court without doing this first, the court will dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. It is not a technicality a judge can overlook.²

The Deadlines That Decide Your Case

Missing a deadline is the single most common way people lose these claims. At the federal level, you have two years from the date of the injury to present your written claim to the right agency. Miss it, and the claim is “forever barred” no matter how strong the facts are.³

Two years sounds generous until you try to use it. You still have to identify the right agency, collect medical records, calculate lost wages, and get repair estimates. If you are hospitalized or in extended recovery, those weeks are running against you.

State and local deadlines are often far shorter. Many states require an initial notice of claim within 90 to 180 days of the incident. That is the total window, not a first step with more time to follow. This is where getting a lawyer involved early matters most; by the time many injured people feel well enough to research the process, the state deadline has already passed.

Finding the Right Agency

Filing with the wrong agency does not pause the clock. Your first job is to determine whether the harm came from a federal, state, county, or municipal entity. A pothole on a city street is a local issue. The same pothole on an interstate highway may involve the state transportation department. A collision with a government driver requires you to confirm which specific agency employs that driver, not guess from the vehicle.

When ownership or employment is unclear, public records requests, county assessor records, and the relevant public works office can tell you who maintains the property or employs the worker. For vehicle incidents, agency decals and the driver’s identification are the starting points.

The Contractor Problem

The federal government is not liable for harm caused by independent contractors. The FTCA excludes contractors from its definition of a federal agency.⁴ If a private company was doing road work under a government contract and its crew caused your crash, you sue the contractor directly as a standard personal injury case. Courts look at whether the government controlled the day-to-day physical work; funding a project or hiring the company is not enough. Resolve the employee-versus-contractor question before filing, not after.

What the Claim Must Contain

A government tort claim is not a letter describing what happened and asking for help. It is a formal demand with required elements, and leaving one out can get the claim rejected outright.

For federal claims, most people use Standard Form 95, available from the Department of Justice or the agency involved.⁵ The SF-95 is not technically mandatory, but it is the simplest way to cover every required element. It asks for:

Your name, address, and the contact information of any legal representative
The date, time, and location of the incident
A factual description of what happened, with enough detail for the agency to investigate
A sum certain: the specific dollar amount you are claiming

The Sum Certain

This catches people off guard. You cannot write “a reasonable amount” or “to be determined.” The claim is not legally valid until you state a specific dollar figure for your total damages.⁶ The number matters beyond formality: you generally cannot later sue for more than the amount on your administrative claim, unless you discover new evidence that was not reasonably available when you filed.²

Set the number too low and you cap your own recovery. Set it unreasonably high and you may undermine your credibility with the reviewer. The practical approach is to document all your medical treatment, get repair estimates, and calculate lost wages before you file. If treatment is ongoing and the full cost is still uncertain, filing closer to the two-year deadline (with a safe buffer) produces a more accurate figure. Many attorneys wait until a client reaches maximum medical improvement for exactly this reason.

Supporting Documentation

Attach everything that backs your dollar figure: medical bills with dates of service, repair estimates or invoices, pay stubs or employer statements for lost income, and photographs of the scene and your injuries. The agency is deciding whether to pay without a trial, and a complete file gets taken more seriously than a bare-bones filing that forces the agency to come back asking for more.

How to Submit and What Comes Next

Send your completed claim form and documentation to the agency by certified mail with return receipt requested. The return receipt is your proof of filing date, which matters if a deadline dispute arises later. Some agencies now accept electronic submissions through online portals, which generate instant confirmation. There is no filing fee for federal administrative tort claims.

Once the agency has the claim, the waiting begins. It will investigate, review your documentation, and decide whether to pay, settle for less, or deny the claim outright. No statute forces the agency to respond quickly, but the law gives you an escape: if the agency has not reached a final decision within six months of your filing, you can treat the silence as a denial and go to federal court.²

If the agency formally denies the claim in writing, you have six months from the mailing date of that denial letter to file suit in federal district court.³ Six months goes fast when you are hiring an attorney, drafting a complaint, and pulling more evidence together. Do not sit on a denial letter.

Claims the Government Will Not Pay

Some categories are off the table no matter how clear the negligence looks. These are statutory walls, not arguments.

Discretionary Function

The government is not liable for injuries that flow from policy decisions or judgment calls by agencies and employees, even when those decisions turn out to be wrong. This is the discretionary function exception, and it blocks more federal tort claims than any other exclusion.⁷ If an agency chose a road design based on budgetary and safety analysis and that design contributed to your crash, the decision is likely protected. If a maintenance crew failed to follow a mandatory safety protocol, that failure involves no discretion and may be actionable.

Intentional Torts

The FTCA generally does not cover intentional wrongdoing such as assault, false arrest, or defamation. One significant exception applies to federal law enforcement officers: if a federal agent assaults you, falsely arrests you, or maliciously prosecutes you, the FTCA does apply.⁷ The officer must be someone legally empowered to execute searches, seize evidence, or make arrests for federal violations.

Military Service Injuries

Active-duty service members cannot sue the federal government for injuries that arise from or relate to military service. The Supreme Court established this rule in 1950, and courts have applied it broadly to cover almost any injury tied to a service member’s military status.⁸ Military families and civilian employees injured on military installations are not barred.

Other Carve-Outs

The FTCA also bars claims arising from postal delivery losses, tax and customs enforcement, quarantine orders, and certain admiralty matters.⁷ Some of these have separate compensation systems; a tort claim is not the right path for any of them.

Damages, Caps, and Attorney Fees

Government tort claims pay compensatory damages only. The federal government will not pay punitive damages or pre-judgment interest.¹ Your recovery covers medical expenses, lost income, property repair costs, and pain and suffering. Nothing meant to punish the government for its conduct is available, even where a jury in a comparable private case might have awarded a large punitive figure.

Most states impose explicit dollar caps on recoveries from state and local agencies. These commonly run from $100,000 to $500,000 per person, with some states allowing $1 million or more per occurrence. If your actual damages exceed the cap, the cap is still the ceiling.

Attorney fees in federal cases are capped by statute. A lawyer can charge no more than 20 percent of an administrative settlement and no more than 25 percent of a court judgment or litigation settlement.⁹ Those limits sit below the typical one-third contingency fee in private injury cases, which makes some attorneys reluctant to take smaller government claims.

If the Claim Goes to Court

If the agency denies your claim or you invoke the six-month deemed-denial option, the next step is a lawsuit in federal district court. FTCA cases are decided by a judge, not a jury.¹⁰

The sum certain you listed on your administrative claim sets the ceiling for the lawsuit too. You generally cannot ask for more than that amount unless you have newly discovered evidence or intervening facts that justify a higher figure.² That is why getting the administrative claim right the first time matters so much. The administrative phase sets the boundaries for everything that follows.

You have six months from the written denial to file suit, and that deadline is as absolute as the two-year deadline for the original claim.³ Courts dismiss late filings routinely, regardless of how egregious the underlying conduct was.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2674 – Liability of United States
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2671 – Definitions
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Civil Division Documents and Forms
6
General Services Administration. Standard Form 95 – Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2680 – Exceptions
8
Congressional Research Service. The Feres Doctrine: Congress, the Courts, and Military Servicemember Lawsuits Against the United States
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2678 – Attorney Fees; Penalty
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2402 – Jury Trial in Actions Against United States