If you were hurt on land or inside a building owned by a federal, state, or local government, you can bring premises liability claims on public and government property only through a specific statute that waives sovereign immunity, and only if you follow its notice rules, deadlines, and damages limits exactly. These cases use the same basic negligence ideas as a slip-and-fall at a private store, but the procedural track is narrower, the clock is shorter, and the government has defenses no private landowner can raise.
Why Government Cases Work Differently
Sovereign immunity is the default rule that you cannot sue the government unless the government has agreed to be sued. Without a statute opening the door, an injury on federal, state, or municipal property leaves you with no remedy at all. Every claim starts with identifying the statute that waives immunity for your type of injury.
At the federal level, 28 U.S.C. ยง 2674 makes the United States liable for tort claims “in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances.”1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2674 – Liability of United States The government is judged by the negligence standard of the state where the injury happened. If a broken handrail in a federal courthouse would make a private building owner liable under local law, the federal government is liable too.
Most states have their own tort claims acts covering state agencies, cities, counties, and school districts. The details vary, but the structure is the same: immunity is the starting point, and the statute spells out what claims are allowed, how they must be filed, and what damages are available. The waiver is never unlimited.
The Deadlines That Destroy Most Claims
The single biggest difference between suing a private property owner and suing the government is the filing deadline. For federal claims, you have two years from the date of injury to file an administrative claim with the responsible agency. The statute is blunt: a tort claim “shall be forever barred” unless presented in writing within that window.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States The clock starts on the date of injury or when you reasonably should have discovered it.
State and local deadlines are often far shorter. Many jurisdictions require a formal notice of claim within 90 days of the incident, with the range across all states running roughly from 30 days to a few years. Ninety days passes quickly when you are dealing with medical treatment, and most people do not realize the clock is already running. Filing one day late is treated the same as never filing at all.
If the federal agency denies your claim, a second deadline starts. You have six months from the date the denial letter is mailed to file suit in federal district court.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States Miss that window and the claim is permanently barred, even if the original two-year period has not yet run out. State tort claims acts impose similar post-denial litigation windows that vary by jurisdiction.
Filing a Federal Tort Claim
Federal claims start with Standard Form 95 (SF 95), the official document used to present a tort claim against the United States. The form is available through the General Services Administration, and claims go directly to the federal agency whose employee was involved in the incident.3General Services Administration. Standard Form 95 – Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death If more than one person was injured, each claimant must submit a separate form.
The form requires you to state a specific dollar amount, broken down by property damage, personal injury, and wrongful death. This is where many people underestimate their claim. The amount on the SF 95 generally becomes the ceiling for what you can recover. You also have to describe the facts of the incident in detail, identify the people and property involved, and pinpoint where and how the injury happened.
Supporting documentation strengthens the claim. For personal injuries, include a written report from your treating physician describing the nature and extent of the injury, the treatment provided, any permanent disability, and your prognosis. Attach itemized bills for medical expenses you have actually incurred.3General Services Administration. Standard Form 95 – Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death For property damage, submit at least two itemized repair estimates from independent businesses, or receipts if you have already paid for repairs.
Once the claim is filed, the agency has six months to investigate and respond. If it fails to act in that time, you can treat the silence as a denial and proceed to court.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence You cannot file a lawsuit while this review period is active. Courts routinely dismiss cases filed prematurely for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, and starting over may mean the filing deadline has already passed.
Filing Against a State, City, or County
Claims against municipal, county, school district, or state agency defendants follow each state’s tort claims act, not the federal process. The first step is almost always a formal notice of claim served on the correct government entity within the state’s deadline. Identifying the right entity matters more than you might expect. A pothole on what looks like a city street may actually belong to a county road commission or a state transportation agency depending on who owns and maintains that stretch of road. Serving the wrong entity does not pause the clock.
Most states require notice by certified mail with a return receipt, though some allow hand delivery to a designated office such as the city attorney or clerk. The notice typically must include your name and contact information, a description of the hazardous condition, the date and location of the injury, and an estimate of damages including medical bills and lost wages. Errors or omissions can result in dismissal before anyone looks at the merits.
State review periods range widely, commonly between 60 and 180 days, during which you cannot file suit.
Defenses the Government Can Use That Private Owners Cannot
Even when you file everything correctly and on time, the government has a set of defenses private owners never get. These can eliminate an otherwise strong claim.
The Discretionary Function Exception
The most powerful federal defense bars any claim based on a government employee’s exercise of a “discretionary function or duty,” regardless of whether that discretion was abused.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2680 – Exceptions If the government made a policy-level decision about how to allocate maintenance resources, design a building, or prioritize repairs, you generally cannot sue over the consequences of that decision. The exception protects choices that involve judgment and policy considerations; it does not protect routine operational failures like a janitor ignoring a spill. The line between policy choice and operational negligence is where most federal premises cases are won or lost.
Recreational Use Statutes
All 50 states have recreational use statutes that reduce the duty of care owed to people using land for recreational purposes without paying a fee. When someone is injured on a public trail, in a park, or on open government land used for recreation, the government may invoke these statutes to argue it owed a lower duty than it would to someone visiting a government office building. The protection typically disappears if the government charged an entry fee or if the injury resulted from a willful or malicious failure to warn of a known hazard.
Open and Obvious Hazards
Governments frequently argue that the condition was open and obvious, meaning visible enough that a reasonable person would have noticed and avoided it. If the hazard would have been apparent to anyone paying ordinary attention, the duty to fix it or post a warning is reduced or eliminated in many jurisdictions. Ice on an outdoor staircase during a snowstorm, a clearly visible step-down, or an obviously wet floor near a building entrance are typical examples. The defense fails when the hazard was hidden, partially concealed, or in a location where a visitor’s attention would naturally be elsewhere.
Comparative Fault
Most states apply some form of comparative negligence, so your recovery is reduced by your share of fault. Under the FTCA, the law of the state where the injury happened governs this, so the same federal building might produce different results depending on whether its state bars recovery entirely when you are more than 50 percent at fault or simply reduces damages proportionally.
What You Can Actually Recover
The government never pays the way a private defendant does. Federal law prohibits punitive damages entirely in FTCA cases, and the government cannot be charged pre-judgment interest.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2674 – Liability of United States Recovery is limited to compensatory damages: medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and similar losses.
At the state level, many jurisdictions impose hard dollar caps on recovery from a government entity. These range from as low as $25,000 for some property damage claims to several million dollars per occurrence in a handful of states, with a common range between $200,000 and $750,000 per person. Roughly a third of states impose no statutory cap at all. The cap applies regardless of injury severity, so a catastrophic injury that would produce a multi-million-dollar verdict against a private defendant may be limited to a fraction of that amount against the government.
Attorney fees in federal cases are also capped. If your claim is resolved through administrative settlement before any lawsuit is filed, your attorney cannot charge more than 20 percent of the award. If it goes to litigation and results in a court judgment or post-filing settlement, the cap rises to 25 percent.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2678 – Attorney Fees; Penalty An attorney who exceeds these limits faces a fine of up to $2,000, imprisonment up to one year, or both. These caps sit below the typical 33 to 40 percent contingency fee in private injury cases, which is one reason fewer attorneys take on government claims unless the damages are substantial.
Proving the Government Knew About the Hazard
Proving the hazard existed is not enough. You must show the government either knew about the dangerous condition or should have known about it through reasonable inspections. Actual notice means someone reported it or a government employee observed it. Constructive notice means the hazard existed long enough that routine maintenance should have caught it. A pothole that formed overnight is harder to pin on the government than one that has been deteriorating for months.
Most claims rise or fall here. Governments keep maintenance logs, inspection records, and complaint databases. If you can show the city received three complaints about the same broken sidewalk panel in the six months before your fall, constructive notice is easy to establish. If the hazard appeared the same morning and no one had reported it, the government’s argument that it had no opportunity to fix it becomes much stronger. Documenting the condition immediately after an injury (photographs, witness statements, even a call to the city’s 311 line that creates a contemporaneous record) is the most valuable thing an injured person can do in the first hours after an incident.
Where These Injuries Typically Happen
Municipal sidewalks are probably the single most common source of government premises liability claims. Uneven pavement, tree root upheaval, crumbling curbs, and ice accumulation create trip-and-fall hazards that cities are expected to monitor and repair. Public parks and recreational facilities generate claims from playground equipment failures, poorly maintained trails, and inadequate lighting. Government office buildings such as courthouses, motor vehicle offices, and social services buildings see injuries from wet floors, broken stairs, malfunctioning elevators, and inadequate handrails.
Public schools and state university campuses are their own category, with large daily populations and extensive flooring, walkways, athletic facilities, and parking lots to maintain. Public transit infrastructure like bus stops, train platforms, and airport terminals rounds out the list. Any space the government owns, maintains, or controls can give rise to a premises liability claim if a hazardous condition injures someone who had a right to be there.