GET A FREE CONSULTATION
310-750-4149
By David Gammill · Last reviewed: August 16, 2026
Government Code § 911.2 gives most California injury victims six months to present a written claim to a public entity before any lawsuit can be filed. If a city, county, school district, transit agency, Caltrans, or the State of California caused your injury, you cannot simply sue within the usual two years. You must first deliver a written claim to the right government office, and the deadline for that claim is six months from the injury.
The full current text of Government Code § 911.2 (the deadline rule is subdivision (a); subdivision (b) covers filing mechanics for claims against the State):
(a) A claim relating to a cause of action for death or for injury to person or to personal property or growing crops shall be presented as provided in Article 2 (commencing with Section 915) not later than six months after the accrual of the cause of action. A claim relating to any other cause of action shall be presented as provided in Article 2 (commencing with Section 915) not later than one year after the accrual of the cause of action.
(b) For purposes of determining whether a claim was commenced within the period provided by law, the date the claim was presented to the Department of General Services is one of the following:
(1) The date the claim is submitted with a twenty-five dollar ($25) filing fee.
(2) If a fee waiver is granted, the date the claim was submitted with the affidavit requesting the fee waiver.
(3) If a fee waiver is denied, the date the claim was submitted with the affidavit requesting the fee waiver, provided the filing fee is paid to the department within 10 calendar days of the mailing of the notice of the denial of the fee waiver.
Source: Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2, California Legislative Information (verified August 16, 2026).
In plain English: if your claim is for death, personal injury, or property damage, you have six months to present it. “Presented” means delivered to the entity in the way the law requires, not just written or mailed somewhere. “Accrual” means the date the claim comes into existence, which is usually the injury date. For a wrongful death claim, it is the date of death. Most other kinds of claims (a contract dispute, for example) get one year. Subdivision (b) matters only for claims against the State itself: it fixes the official filing date around the $25 fee paid to the Department of General Services.
California’s Government Claims Act (Government Code § 900 and the sections that follow) sets conditions you must meet before suing any public entity. Government Code § 945.4 states the core rule: no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity until a written claim has been presented to it and the entity has acted on the claim or the claim is deemed rejected.
The California Supreme Court treats this as a true barrier, not a technicality. In State of California v. Superior Court (Bodde) (2004) 32 Cal.4th 1234, the court held that “failure to timely present a claim for money or damages to a public entity bars a plaintiff from filing a lawsuit against that entity.” Compliance is part of your case: your complaint must allege facts showing you presented a timely claim, or a legally valid excuse. Without that, the case can be dismissed at the pleading stage.
The same requirement protects public employees. Under Government Code § 950.2, if you never presented a proper claim to the employing entity, your claim against the employee for on-the-job conduct is barred too. You cannot skip the claim by suing the bus driver instead of the transit agency.
More of them than most people expect. The claim requirement applies to nearly every government body in California:
If there is any chance a public entity is involved in your injury, treat the deadline as six months and confirm the details with a lawyer early. Waiting to find out is how strong cases die. If a crash is involved, our guide on what to do immediately after a car accident covers the evidence steps that also feed a government claim.
Government Code § 910 lists what the claim must show: your name and mailing address, an address for notices, the date, place, and circumstances of what happened, a general description of the injury or loss, the names of the public employees involved if you know them, and information about the amount claimed. Many entities publish their own claim forms, and using the entity’s form is usually the safest path.
Delivery is just as important as content. Under Government Code § 915, a claim against a local entity must be delivered or mailed to its clerk, secretary, auditor, or governing body. A claim against the State goes to the Department of General Services. Getting this wrong is dangerous. In DiCampli-Mintz v. County of Santa Clara (2012) 55 Cal.4th 983, an injury notice was hand-delivered to a county hospital’s risk management department, the office that actually handles claims. The California Supreme Court held that was not enough: a misdirected claim counts only if “[i]t is actually received by the clerk, secretary, auditor or board of the local public entity” (Gov. Code § 915(e)(1)). Close does not count. The right document must reach the right office.
The entity has 45 days to act on the claim under Government Code § 912.4. If it does nothing, the claim is deemed rejected (treated by law as rejected) on the last day of that period. Most serious injury claims are rejected. Rejection is not the end of your case. It is the doorway to the lawsuit, and it starts a new clock.
If the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, Government Code § 913 requires the notice to warn you in substantially these words: “Subject to certain exceptions, you have only six (6) months from the date this notice was personally delivered or deposited in the mail to file a court action on this claim.” That warning is real. Calendar the date the notice was mailed, not the date you read it.
Government Code § 945.6 sets the filing deadline for the lawsuit itself. The key subdivision, verbatim (subdivisions (b) and (c), which address claimants in state prison, are at the official source linked below):
(a) Except as provided in Sections 946.4 and 946.6 and subject to subdivision (b), any suit brought against a public entity on a cause of action for which a claim is required to be presented in accordance with Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 900) and Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 910) of Part 3 of this division must be commenced:
(1) If written notice is given in accordance with Section 913, not later than six months after the date such notice is personally delivered or deposited in the mail.
(2) If written notice is not given in accordance with Section 913, within two years from the accrual of the cause of action. If the period within which the public entity is required to act is extended pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 912.4, the period of such extension is not part of the time limited for the commencement of the action under this paragraph.
Source: Cal. Gov. Code § 945.6, California Legislative Information (verified August 16, 2026).
Two tracks, in plain English. If the entity sent a written rejection, you have six months from the day that notice was personally delivered or put in the mail. If the entity never sent proper written notice, you have two years from the injury. Never plan around the two-year track: entities almost always send the written rejection precisely because it shortens your time.
| Step | Deadline | Governing law |
|---|---|---|
| Present written claim to the entity | 6 months from injury (or death) | Gov. Code § 911.2 |
| Entity acts on the claim | 45 days, or the claim is deemed rejected | Gov. Code § 912.4 |
| File suit after a written rejection | 6 months from the date the notice was delivered or mailed | Gov. Code § 945.6(a)(1) |
| File suit if no written notice was given | 2 years from accrual | Gov. Code § 945.6(a)(2) |
| Apply to present a late claim | A reasonable time, never more than 1 year from accrual | Gov. Code § 911.4 |
| Petition the court if the late-claim application is denied | 6 months from the denial | Gov. Code § 946.6 |
You may still have a path, but it is narrow and it moves fast. Government Code § 911.4 lets you apply to the entity for leave (permission) to present a late claim. The application must be filed within a reasonable time and never more than one year after the claim accrued.
Government Code § 911.6 tells the entity when it must grant the application. The main grounds: the delay was caused by mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect and the entity is not prejudiced by it; the injured person was a minor for the entire six-month period; the injured person was physically or mentally incapacitated for the entire period and that is why no claim was filed; or the injured person died before the deadline ran.
If the entity denies the application, Government Code § 946.6 lets you petition the court for relief. That petition has its own deadline: six months from the denial. Courts apply these rules strictly, and “I didn’t know about the deadline” is not by itself excusable neglect. If you are anywhere in this territory, get counsel involved now.
For most injury claims, yes: CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, is the general rule. But when the defendant is a public entity, the six-month claim deadline comes first, and missing it usually kills the case long before the two years matter.
One more trap deserves its own warning. The tolling rules that pause the two-year statute for minors do not rescue government claims: Code of Civil Procedure § 352(b) expressly withholds minority and incapacity tolling from actions that require a government claim. A 16-year-old hurt on a school campus still faces the six-month claim deadline. The late-claim process gives minors a strong ground for relief, but relief must be applied for. It is not automatic.
Deadlines in fatal cases stack the same way. A family pursuing a wrongful death claim against a public entity faces the six-month claim deadline measured from the date of death. Our complete guide to the California wrongful death filing deadline covers how these rules interact.
In our area, the hardest question is often not the deadline. It is naming the right entity. The same pothole injury points to the City of Torrance if it is a city street, to Los Angeles County in an unincorporated pocket, and to Caltrans if it is a state highway, and road segments have been transferred between agencies over the years. Torrance Transit is a City of Torrance department, so a bus injury claim there runs to the City; LA Metro is a separate agency with its own claim process. A school injury may involve Torrance Unified or another district, which is separate from the City itself. Presenting a timely claim to the wrong entity is the DiCampli-Mintz problem all over again, and it is one of the most common ways South Bay government claims fail. When in doubt, claims are presented to every plausible entity before the six months run.
Yes. The rules on this page reflect California law as of the review date above. Section 911.2 was last amended in 2016 (SB 836), a change to state-claim filing-fee mechanics that did not touch the six-month deadline. Section 945.6 was last amended in 1971. The six-month claim deadline and the post-rejection six-month suit deadline are both long-settled, current law.
If a government vehicle, property, or employee injured you or took a family member, anywhere in Torrance or the South Bay, the safest move is to have a lawyer identify every responsible entity and get the claims out early. Talk to a Torrance personal injury attorney about your case, or start with our Torrance car accident attorney page if a crash brought you here. Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
Disclaimer: This article is educational and informational in nature. It does not constitute legal advice for any specific situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Government claim deadlines are fact-specific and unforgiving; consult a licensed California attorney about your own dates and circumstances.