How to Fill Out and File the Oregon Tort Claim Notice Form

The Oregon tort claim notice form is the written notice you must deliver to a state agency, city, county, school district, or other public body before you can sue it for injury or property damage caused by a government employee. For most claims you have 180 days from the date of the incident to deliver that notice. Wrongful death claims get one year. Miss the deadline and a court will dismiss your case no matter how strong it is.¹

The Filing Deadline

The clock starts on the date of the incident, not the date you discover the damage. For most tort claims against a public body, you have 180 days to deliver formal notice. Wrongful death gets one year.¹

If you were physically unable to give notice because of the injury itself, or because you are a minor or legally incapacitated, the statute adds up to 90 more days. That pushes the outer limit to 270 days for a standard claim, and one year plus 90 days for wrongful death.¹ This tolling does not extend the separate two-year deadline for filing an actual lawsuit, which is covered further down.

There is no grace period. If day 180 falls on a weekend, mail it well before then, because delivery dates control, not postmarks.

What the Form Must Contain

ORS 30.275(4) spells out what formal notice has to say, and the form tracks those requirements closely. You need three things.¹

Your full legal name and a mailing address where the public body can send correspondence.
A clear statement that you are asserting, or will assert, a claim for damages against the public body or a specific officer, employee, or agent.
A description of the time, place, and circumstances of the incident, “so far as known to the claimant.” You don’t need every detail, but give enough that the agency can identify and investigate what happened.

Writing the Incident Description

This is where most people either say too little or drift off the facts. Stick to what happened: date, time of day, exact location (street address, highway milepost, building name), what occurred in sequence, and who was involved. Name the agency and any employees you can identify. If a state snowplow hit your parked car on January 15 at milepost 42 on Highway 26, say that.

Skip the legal conclusions. “The ODOT driver negligently operated the vehicle” is an argument. “The ODOT plow crossed the center line and struck my vehicle” is a factual description. The second version is more useful to you and to the claims adjuster, and it’s what the statute asks for.

Picking the Right Public Body

This trips people up more than you’d expect. Oregon’s tort claims framework covers the state and its agencies, but also cities, counties, school districts, special districts, and other local public bodies.² A pothole on a state highway is ODOT’s responsibility; the same pothole on a city street belongs to the city. Sending notice to the wrong entity doesn’t satisfy the statute, and the 180-day clock keeps running while you sort out your mistake. Confirm who owns or operates the road, building, or service involved before you file.

Documents Worth Attaching

The statute doesn’t require you to attach evidence. The three elements above are legally sufficient. In practice, documentation strengthens the claim and speeds up the review. Gather what you can:

Itemized medical records and bills for emergency care, follow-up treatment, physical therapy, and prescriptions tied to the incident.
Written repair estimates from licensed professionals for vehicle damage, structural repairs, or replacement of destroyed property.
Photographs of the scene, your injuries, and any damaged property, taken as close to the incident date as possible.
Any police or agency incident report that documented the event. Oregon public records law requires public bodies to respond to records requests as soon as practicable.

Send copies with the form and keep originals plus a complete duplicate set for your file. The damages figure on the form should reflect the total of your documented losses (medical costs, property repair, lost wages) rather than an unsupported round number.

Where to Send the Form

Where it goes depends on who you’re claiming against. The two routes are different and getting them confused is a common way to blow the deadline.

State Agencies

For claims against the state of Oregon or any state officer, employee, or agent, formal notice goes to the Director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services.¹ In practice, the Director has delegated claim intake to the Risk Management division within DAS.³

DAS Risk Management offers an online filing portal, with separate submission links for non-vehicle and vehicle-damage claims on its forms page.⁴ If you file by mail, send your completed form and attachments to:

Risk Management, Department of Administrative Services
PO Box 12009
Salem, Oregon 97309⁵

Use certified mail with return receipt requested. That signed receipt is your proof of delivery if the state later disputes whether you met the deadline. Hand delivery works too; ask for a date-stamped copy as your receipt.

Cities, Counties, and Other Local Bodies

For claims against a city, county, school district, or special district, don’t send the form to DAS. Deliver formal notice to the local public body at its principal administrative office, to any member of its governing body, or to the attorney the governing body has designated as general counsel.² For a city, that usually means the city manager’s office or city attorney; for a county, the county administrator or county counsel. Call the entity’s main office if you’re not sure who handles claims, but don’t let the research push you past the deadline.

How Much You Can Recover

Oregon caps the amount you can recover from a public body no matter how large your actual losses are. The State Court Administrator adjusts the caps annually for inflation. For causes of action arising between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the limits are:⁶

State agencies:

Personal injury or death, single claimant: $2,637,500
Personal injury or death, all claimants combined: $5,275,100
Property damage, single claimant: $144,200
Property damage, all claimants combined: $721,000

Local public bodies (cities, counties, school districts):

Personal injury or death, single claimant: $879,200
Personal injury or death, all claimants combined: $1,758,300
Property damage, single claimant: $144,200
Property damage, all claimants combined: $721,000

These caps matter when you fill in the damages section. You can request up to the applicable limit, but a court cannot award more than the cap even if your proven losses exceed it. The property damage limits are much lower than the injury limits, so a claim involving both should itemize them separately.

After You File

Once Risk Management (for state claims) or the local public body receives your notice, a claims adjuster reviews your submission and supporting documents. The adjuster may contact you for more records: medical authorizations, supplemental repair estimates, or clarification about what happened. Oregon law doesn’t set a specific statutory deadline for the public body to respond or resolve the claim, so timelines vary with the complexity of the incident.

The process ends one of three ways: a settlement offer, a denial, or extended silence. If you accept a settlement, the matter is resolved. A denial or silence brings you to the lawsuit stage.

The Separate Two-Year Lawsuit Deadline

If the public body denies your claim or you can’t reach a settlement, you can sue in circuit court. The statute of limitations for tort actions against public bodies is two years from the date of the alleged loss or injury, regardless of when you filed your notice or when any denial arrived.¹ That two-year clock runs independently of the 180-day notice deadline. Filing notice early doesn’t extend the time to sue.

In practice, if you were injured on January 1, your notice must arrive by June 30 and any lawsuit must be filed by December 31 of the following year. Waiting until the last day to file notice leaves you only about 18 months to negotiate and, if necessary, prepare and file a complaint. Filing notice early gives you breathing room.

Mistakes That Sink Otherwise Valid Claims

Claims adjusters see the same errors over and over. Avoiding them gives your claim its best shot at a fair review:

Sending the form to the wrong public body. Filing against the state when the responsible entity is a city or county doesn’t stop the 180-day clock, and by the time you refile correctly the deadline may have passed.
Vague descriptions. “I was injured at a government building” tells the adjuster nothing. Include the building name, the specific hazard (wet floor, broken handrail, icy steps), and exactly how you were hurt.
Missing the deadline by days. There is no grace period, and postmark dates can be disputed while delivery dates cannot.
No proof of delivery. Regular mail with no record leaves you with nothing if the agency later says it never got your notice.
Inflated or unsupported damages. Listing a large round number without documentation invites skepticism. Tie every dollar to a bill, estimate, or pay stub.

One footnote on timing: Oregon also recognizes “actual notice” (an oral report or other communication that reaches an authorized person with the right information within the deadline) as a backup way to satisfy the requirement.¹ Don’t plan around it. The burden of proving notice falls on you, and a certified mail receipt is far easier to produce than the content of a phone call. Use the form.

The form itself is straightforward. The hard part is getting it to the right place, with the right information, before the clock runs out. When you’re unsure whether your claim qualifies or which entity is responsible, consult an attorney, but file the notice first and sort the details out after. A late filing is the one mistake no attorney can fix.

1
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code ORS 30.275 – Notice of Claim; Time of Notice; Time of Action
2
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code Chapter 30 – Actions and Suits in Particular Cases
3
Cornell Law. Oregon Administrative Code 125-150-0000 – Claims Against the State Liability Fund
4
State of Oregon. Risk Management – Forms
5
State of Oregon. Claims Overview – Risk Management
6
Oregon Judicial Department. Annual Adjustments to Various Limits and Amounts Based on the Consumer Price Index