If a public entity hurt you, the most dangerous thing you own is a calendar with the wrong deadline on it. Most California injury cases allow two years. Cases against cities, counties, and the state generally require a written government claim within six months, before any lawsuit is possible. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles, and every one of our public entity cases began the same way: with a claim filed on time.
The Short Answer
Two clocks control almost every injury case against a California public entity. First, a written claim generally must be presented to the entity within six months of the injury under Government Code section 911.2. Second, once the entity rejects that claim in writing, Government Code section 945.6 generally allows six months to file the lawsuit. Miss either one and the merits of your case may never matter. This page walks through both clocks, what the claim must say, and the traps we see kill good cases every year. It is part of our complete guide: dangerous condition of public property.
One more framing point before the details. The claim requirement is not a formality bolted onto your case. It is the gate. No timely claim, no lawsuit, with narrow exceptions no one should ever plan to need. That is why the first phone call after an injury on public property matters more than almost anything else you do.
The Claim
The claim is a written document presented directly to the public entity, before and separate from any court filing. Think of it as the government's demand for a first look: who was hurt, when, where, how, what injuries and losses followed, and where the entity should send its notices. The statutes spell out the required contents, and many entities publish their own claim forms and portals. Using the entity's form correctly, or drafting a claim that satisfies every required element, is part of doing this right.
Two things about the claim's wording deserve respect. First, accuracy. The claim is an early sworn-adjacent statement about your case, and the defense will read it side by side with everything you say later. Second, scope. The lawsuit that follows is generally measured against what the claim described, so a claim that tells the story too narrowly can box in the case before a lawyer ever shapes it. We draft claims the way we draft complaints: with the trial in mind, stating facts we can prove, and framing the condition and the injuries so the case keeps every theory it may need.
Where does it go? To the entity that owns or controls the property or employs the person who hurt you: the city clerk, the county board, the state, the school district, the transit agency. Not to an adjuster, not to a hotline, not to whoever answered the phone. Presenting the right claim to the wrong entity is one of the classic ways this system eats cases.
The Sequence
In order, from the day of the injury:
A sidewalk, the parkway beside it, and the street beside that can belong to different entities. So can an intersection, a median, and the signal above it. Each candidate entity gets its own claim, because guessing wrong is not a defense to the deadline.
Government Code section 911.2 sets the general six-month window for injury claims, measured from the injury. The claim must be complete, accurate, and presented to the right office. This step is the gate to everything else.
The entity has a short window to act on the claim, and most serious injury claims are rejected. Do not read anything into it. Rejection is the expected move, and it is the event that starts the next clock.
Government Code section 945.6 generally gives six months from the written rejection notice to file the lawsuit. If the entity never sends a proper written rejection, a different and longer window can apply, but treating that as a plan is how cases die. We calendar the shortest possible deadline and beat it.
Example: Ana presents her claim to the city in month two after a fall in a public plaza. The city mails a written rejection in month four. Her lawyer files suit in month eight, four months after the rejection.
Conclusion: Both clocks were honored: the claim went in well inside the six months allowed by Government Code section 911.2, and the lawsuit was filed well inside the six months that Government Code section 945.6 generally allows after a written rejection. Nothing about the rejection hurt her case. The calendar, handled correctly, simply became a non-issue, which is exactly what a calendar should be.
Hurt on public property? Assume a six-month clock is already running.
Free Case ReviewThe Traps
The same handful of mistakes accounts for most of the public entity cases that never get filed. Learn them once and they lose their power.
The two-year assumption. Everyone knows someone who says injury cases have a two-year deadline. Against a private defendant, generally true. Against a public entity, the six-month claim comes first, and waiting even a few months to get advice can spend most of it.
The "under investigation" lull. Claims offices investigate, request records, and sound cooperative. None of it pauses the deadline. An open file at the claims office is not a filed claim, and a friendly adjuster is not a tolling agreement.
The wrong entity. The road belongs to the state, the signal to the county, the sidewalk to the city, and the bus that stopped there to a transit agency. We identify every candidate and put a claim into each one, because ownership fights get resolved in discovery, not before the deadline.
The homemade claim. A claim that misstates the location, guesses at fault, or minimizes the injuries follows the case forever. If a streetlight was out or a signal was dark, the claim should describe the condition the way the evidence will, which is why our page on streetlight and signal failures pairs with this one.
Example: Marcus is thrown from his bicycle by a deep pothole on a city street and fractures his wrist. The city claims office tells his wife the matter is under review and asks the family to send medical records when treatment ends. Treatment runs long. In month eight, the family calls a lawyer to ask when the city will make an offer.
Conclusion: Nothing the claims office said stopped the clock, and no written claim was ever presented. The six-month window of Government Code section 911.2 has passed, and the family is now limited to a late-claim application, a path that is narrow, condition-heavy, and never assumed. The case that existed in month one has been replaced by a fight about the calendar. That trade is avoidable, and avoiding it is the entire point of this page.
Missed It?
Call anyway, today. California law allows an application to present a late claim in limited circumstances, and the one universal rule about that path is speed: the application itself must be made promptly, and every week of additional delay makes it harder. Whether relief is available depends on the reason for the delay, what happened during it, and how fast you move once you learn the rule. We will tell you honestly whether a path back exists. What we will not do is tell you it is fine to wait, because it never is.
And if it turns out your injury happened on private rather than public property, the deadlines change completely, and so does the case. Our premises liability practice covers that side of the line, and our sidewalk trip and fall page walks the public-versus-private question in detail.
Why It Takes a Trial Firm
Public entities read claims the way defense lawyers read complaints: for weaknesses. A claim drafted by a firm that has actually taken a city to verdict reads differently, and it gets treated differently. In our signature case, a pedestrian was struck on the head by a falling municipal light-pole cap; we tried the case against the City of Los Angeles for fourteen days, and the jury returned a $22.6 Million verdict. That case, like every government case, began as a claim on a deadline.
If you are another attorney holding a government claim with the clock running, we accept referrals and co-counsel arrangements on dangerous condition matters throughout California. Start at our referral page, or call (626) 888-2223 and talk to Tom directly.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
For the first and most important step, yes. Before you may sue a California public entity for an injury, a written claim generally must be presented to that entity within six months of the injury under Government Code section 911.2. The lawsuit comes later, on its own clock. People who assume they have the two years most injury cases allow routinely lose good cases without ever seeing a courtroom.
Generally, yes. Cities, counties, the State of California, school districts, transit agencies, and special districts are all public entities with claim-presentation requirements. Each entity involved in your injury needs its own claim, presented to the right office. A sidewalk, a median, and the road beside them can belong to three different entities, which is why identifying every possible entity is the first task, not an afterthought.
The statutes spell out required contents. In practical terms: who was hurt, when and where it happened, how it happened, what injuries and losses resulted, and where the entity should send notices. Many entities publish their own claim forms. Accuracy matters more than volume, because the lawsuit that follows is generally measured against what the claim described. We draft claims with the trial in mind.
The entity has a short window to act, and most claims are rejected. Rejection is normal and is not a verdict on your case; it is the starting gun. After a written rejection, Government Code section 945.6 generally allows six months to file the lawsuit. If the entity never sends a proper written rejection, a different and longer window can apply, but no one should plan around that. Calendar the shortest deadline and beat it.
Not automatically, but the road narrows fast. California law allows an application to present a late claim in limited circumstances, it must be made promptly, and relief is never assumed. Whether a path back exists depends on the reason for the delay and how quickly you act once you learn the rule. If you are reading this after the six months, call today, not next week.
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