To sue a state or local government agency under the California Tort Claims Act, you must first file a written administrative claim with that agency — within six months of the incident for injury or personal property damage, within one year for most other claims — and wait for it to be denied before you can go to court. Skip that step, miss the deadline, or send the claim to the wrong office, and a judge will dismiss your lawsuit without ever looking at what happened to you. The California Tort Claims Act (Government Code §§ 810–996.6) sets this process, defines when a public entity can be held liable at all, and shields certain government decisions from suit entirely.
When the Government Can Be Sued
California does not treat public agencies the way it treats private defendants. Under Government Code § 815, a public entity is not liable for any injury unless a specific statute makes it liable.1California Legislative Information. California Government Code 815 General negligence principles are not enough. You need a statutory hook.
Three pathways cover most claims:
- Employee negligence under § 815.2. A public entity is liable when one of its employees causes injury while acting within the scope of employment, provided the employee would be personally liable for the same conduct. If the employee is immune, so is the entity.2California Legislative Information. California Government Code 815.2
- Breach of a mandatory duty under § 815.6. When a statute imposes a mandatory duty on the entity to protect against a specific type of injury, the entity is liable if it fails to carry out that duty with reasonable diligence.3California Legislative Information. California Government Code 815.6
- Dangerous condition of public property under § 835. The entity is liable if the condition created a foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred, and either an employee created the condition or the entity had notice and enough time to fix it.4California Legislative Information. California Government Code 835
Potholes, broken railings at public parks, unlit stretches of highway — these are the typical § 835 claims against cities and counties. The claimant has to show the entity knew about the hazard or should have known with reasonable inspection.
Filing Deadlines
Deadlines are where most claims die. The Act splits them by category:
- Six months from the date the claim accrued, for death, personal injury, damage to personal property, or damage to growing crops.
- One year from the date of accrual for all other claims, including breach of contract and damage to real property.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 910-911.2
A frequent misreading: the one-year window does not cover personal property damage. If a city truck backs into your car, that is the six-month deadline, not the one-year. The one-year window is for real property, contract, and other non-injury claims.
Accrual generally means the date you knew or should have known of the injury and its connection to the government. For a collision, that is the day of the crash. For something latent, like contaminated water, accrual may begin later, when the harm becomes apparent.
What the Written Claim Must Contain
The claim must go to the specific public entity responsible for the harm. Many agencies have their own forms. If no form exists, you draft one. Either way, the claim must include:
- Your name and mailing address.
- An address for notices (yours or your attorney’s).
- The date, location, and circumstances of the incident.
- A general description of the injury, damage, or loss.
- The name of any government employee involved, if known.
- The dollar amount claimed if under $10,000, with the basis for the calculation. If over $10,000, state whether the eventual lawsuit would be a limited civil case (under $35,000) or unlimited.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 910-911.2
The statute calls for “a general description” of the loss “so far as it may be known at the time.” You do not need an exhaustive account. You do need enough detail that the agency can investigate: which road, which building, which employee, what happened, and what it cost you. Vague claims invite rejection, and rejection burns time you may not have.
What Happens After You File
The agency has 45 days from receipt to accept, reject, or settle the claim. The claimant and the entity can agree in writing to extend that period.6California Legislative Information. California Government Code 912.4 During the 45 days the agency typically reviews incident reports, inspects the site, or talks to employees involved.
If the agency rejects the claim, it must send written notice explaining your right to sue. If the agency does nothing within 45 days, the claim is deemed denied on the last day.6California Legislative Information. California Government Code 912.4
Then comes the deadline that catches people off guard. After a written rejection, you have six months from the date of that notice to file suit. If the claim was deemed denied because the agency never responded, you have two years from the date of the incident to file suit.7San Diego Law Library. Suing State and Local Government Agencies: Claims The six-month post-rejection window is much shorter than most civil deadlines Californians are used to. Mark it the day the denial letter arrives.
Missing the Deadline
Missing the six-month or one-year claim deadline is not always fatal, but the path back is narrow. You can submit an application for leave to present a late claim, which itself must be filed within one year of accrual, with the proposed claim attached and an explanation of the delay.8California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.4
The entity must grant the application if you meet one of these grounds:
- Mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, and the entity was not prejudiced by the delay.
- You were a minor during all or part of the original filing period.
- You were physically or mentally incapacitated during all or part of the original filing period.
- The injured person died before the original deadline expired.9California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.6
If the entity denies the late application, you can petition the superior court within six months of that denial. The judge applies the same grounds.10California Legislative Information. California Government Code 946.6 Once a full year passes from accrual without a late claim application on file, the door closes in most situations. No petition can reopen it.
Immunities the Government Will Invoke
Even when a statute creates liability, the Tort Claims Act layers immunities on top that can defeat the claim.
Discretionary Acts
A public employee is not liable for injuries resulting from the exercise of discretion vested in the employee, even if the discretion was exercised poorly.11California Legislative Information. California Government Code 820.2 This protects policy choices — resource deployment, program design — but not ministerial acts that follow set procedures. Much of the litigation over this immunity turns on which side of that line the conduct falls.
Approved Designs
Neither a public entity nor its employees are liable for injuries caused by the plan or design of a public improvement if the design was approved in advance by a legislative body or other authorized decision-maker, and a reasonable person could have approved it.12California Legislative Information. California Government Code 830.6 Design immunity can erode if conditions change so dramatically that the original approval becomes irrelevant and the entity ignores the increased danger.
Natural Conditions and Prisoner Injuries
Public entities are generally not liable for injuries caused by natural conditions on unimproved public property. A fall on a natural trail typically does not produce a claim. Separately, public entities are not liable for injuries to prisoners, with limited exceptions for dangerous conditions of public property and for medical malpractice by healing-arts practitioners employed by the entity.13California Legislative Information. California Government Code 844.6 An individual employee can still be personally liable for conduct that injures a prisoner, but the entity itself is shielded.
What You Can Recover
Successful claims under the Act can produce both economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, repair costs) and non-economic damages (pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship). The Act does not impose a general statutory cap on non-economic damages for most claims against public entities, though specialized statutes may affect damages in particular contexts, such as medical malpractice when care was provided by a public entity.
One category is flatly off the table. Government Code § 818 bars any award of punitive or exemplary damages against a public entity, with no exceptions.14California Legislative Information. California Government Code 818 An individual employee may face punitive exposure personally, but the public treasury is not available for that purpose.
Boundaries: What the Act Does Not Cover
The Tort Claims Act applies to California state and local entities — cities, counties, school districts, state agencies. Two neighboring situations run on different rules, and treating them as CTCA cases is a costly mistake.
Claims involving federal employees or federal agencies — a VA hospital, a military base, the U.S. Postal Service — fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act (28 U.S.C. § 2675). That process requires an administrative claim to the responsible agency within two years of the injury. The agency then has six months to investigate. If denied or ignored, you have six months from the denial to sue in federal court. Only money damages are available.
When a state or local government employee violates a constitutional right — excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs in a county jail, retaliation for protected speech — a federal civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 may be available alongside or instead of a state tort claim. Section 1983 does not require filing an administrative claim first and allows recovery of attorney’s fees, which the CTCA generally does not. It also requires proving a constitutional violation, not ordinary negligence. Some incidents involve both tracks, and the procedural requirements for each run separately.