A tort claim notice is the written claim you have to send to a government agency before you’re allowed to sue it for an injury, a death, or property damage. The federal government and nearly every state and local government require one, and the rules are strict: the notice has to reach the right agency, within a short deadline, with specific information and a definite dollar amount. Get any of those pieces wrong and a court will throw the lawsuit out before it starts.
What the Notice Has to Contain
For a federal claim, the government supplies Standard Form 95 as a template, but any written notification with the right information will satisfy the requirement.1Department of Justice. Civil Division Documents and Forms Whether you use the form or draft your own letter, the notice needs to cover five things:
- Your full legal name, address, and phone number.
- The date, time, and location of the incident, plus a clear factual account of what happened. Vague descriptions slow the review and invite skepticism.
- The government employees or agencies involved. If you don’t know names, describe the office or department as specifically as you can.
- A specific dollar demand. The government calls this a “sum certain,” and it has to be a definite number.2General Services Administration. Standard Form 95 – Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death
- Supporting details: police report numbers, medical facility names, repair estimates, anything an investigator can verify.
State and local forms vary but follow the same pattern: who you are, what happened, who’s responsible, how much it will cost. A few states don’t require a specific dollar figure, but including one is almost always wise, for the reason in the next section.
Why the Dollar Figure Locks You In
Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, you cannot later sue for more than the amount written on your administrative claim. The only exceptions are newly discovered evidence that wasn’t reasonably available when you filed, or facts that change after filing in a way that affects the claim’s value.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence Many states take the same approach.
The practical effect is severe. If you put $50,000 on the notice and later learn your injuries will cost $200,000 to treat, you may be stuck at the lower figure. Lowballing to seem reasonable can permanently cap your recovery. Wildly inflated numbers, on the other hand, hurt your credibility in settlement talks. The move is to be thorough: document what you’ve already spent, get written medical estimates where you can, and leave room for treatment you can reasonably anticipate.
How Long You Have to File
Tort claim deadlines are far shorter than the statutes of limitations that apply to lawsuits between private parties, and courts almost never grant extensions when they’re missed.
Federal Claims
You have two years from the date of the injury to present a written claim to the appropriate federal agency. Miss that window and the claim is “forever barred” by statute.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States The clock starts on the date of the incident, not the date you figure out how serious the injury is, with limited exceptions for harm that’s genuinely latent.
State and Local Claims
State deadlines are shorter and vary dramatically. Some states give as few as 60 or 90 days from the date of injury; others allow a year or more. Most impose deadlines well under the two-year federal window, with 120 to 180 days a common range for claims against municipalities. Because the deadline turns on your state’s tort claims act and sometimes on which type of government entity you’re suing, check it within days of the incident rather than weeks.
How to Submit It
Delivery matters, because the entire claim can turn on proving the agency received your notice on time. Certified mail with a return receipt is the standard: it creates a paper trail showing exactly when the document arrived and who signed. Hand-delivering the form to the designated clerk’s office and getting a date-stamped copy also works.
For a federal claim, the SF-95 or equivalent letter goes to the agency whose employee caused the harm. A postal truck collision goes to the U.S. Postal Service. A slip-and-fall at a VA hospital goes to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sending the notice to the wrong agency can create real problems, so confirm the right recipient before you mail. The government’s own denial notices are required to go out by certified or registered mail, which gives a sense of how formally this process is treated on both sides.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence
What Happens After You File
Filing starts a mandatory waiting period. You cannot sue while the agency is reviewing the claim. At the federal level, the agency has six months to investigate and decide. If it doesn’t act within that time, you can treat the silence as a denial and go to court.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence
Three outcomes are possible once the waiting period runs:
- A settlement offer. The agency agrees the claim has merit and offers payment. If you accept, the matter ends without a lawsuit.
- A formal denial. The agency sends a written denial by certified mail. From the mailing date of that denial, you have six months to file suit in federal district court. Miss that window and the claim is permanently barred.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
- No response. If six months pass with no offer and no denial, you can file suit at any point after that.
The six-month post-denial deadline is one of the most commonly missed deadlines in FTCA practice. People assume they have years to file after a denial, the way they would with a standard lawsuit. They don’t. Six months, and it’s gone.
When the Notice Won’t Save Your Claim
A properly filed notice doesn’t guarantee the government will pay or even consider the claim. The FTCA keeps immunity in place for broad categories of conduct, and no paperwork works around them.
The discretionary function exception shields decisions that involve judgment or policy choices. If a federal official allocated safety inspection resources to one region instead of another and someone got hurt in the neglected region, that policy call is protected.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2680 – Exceptions The exception doesn’t cover employees who violate mandatory safety requirements, only genuine judgment calls.
Intentional torts by government employees are generally barred, including assault, battery, false arrest, defamation, fraud, and interference with contract rights.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2680 – Exceptions There’s one carve-out: if a federal law enforcement officer commits assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, abuse of process, or malicious prosecution, an FTCA claim is available. Defamation and fraud claims stay barred even against law enforcement.
The statute also blocks claims arising from military combat, tax and customs enforcement, quarantine orders, certain postal operations, and injuries that occur in a foreign country.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2680 – Exceptions Punitive damages are never available under the FTCA; recovery is limited to actual compensatory damages even when the government is found liable.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2674 – Liability of United States
One more trap catches people: the FTCA covers only employees of the government. The statute specifically excludes independent contractors from its definition of “federal agency.”7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2671 – Definitions If a private security guard at a federal building or a contracted maintenance crew at a national park injures you, a tort claim notice to the federal agency may go nowhere. The test is whether the government controls the day-to-day details of the work, not just the end result. When the worker operates independently under a contract, the claim usually has to be brought against the contractor directly through a standard civil lawsuit.
When in doubt about whether an entity counts as a government body, file the notice. Submitting an unnecessary one costs you nothing. Failing to submit a required one can cost you the entire case.