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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 1, 2026
If a police officer or sheriff’s deputy in Torrance or the South Bay used excessive force on you, arrested or detained you without legal cause, or retaliated against you for exercising a right, California and federal law both give you a civil claim for money damages. The deadlines are short: a state-law claim against a city or county must be presented in writing within six months. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a Torrance trial firm, led by a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, that handles civil rights and police misconduct cases across the South Bay. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
If this happened to you or someone in your family, call 310-750-4149 now. The first conversation is free and confidential, and the six-month clock may already be running.
Police have authority to stop, detain, search, arrest, and use force, but every one of those powers has a legal limit, and crossing it is a civil rights violation you can sue over. The most common claims we see in the South Bay fall into four groups. Excessive force: force that a reasonable officer would not have used in the same circumstances, measured under the Fourth Amendment and, since 2020, California’s own standard in Penal Code § 835a; our guide to what is excessive force under California and federal law explains the test. Unlawful detention and false arrest: being held without reasonable suspicion, or arrested without probable cause; our guide to your rights when police detain you without probable cause walks through when a stop becomes illegal. Unlawful searches of your home, your car, or your phone. And retaliation: being arrested, cited, or roughed up because you filmed an officer, asked for a badge number, or said something an officer did not like.
Two laws carry these claims. The federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, lets you sue an officer who violated a constitutional right while acting under color of law, and lets you sue the city or county itself when a policy, custom, or failure to train caused the violation. California’s Tom Bane Civil Rights Act, Civil Code § 52.1, adds a state claim when an officer interferes with your rights through threats, intimidation, or coercion, and under state law the public employer is generally liable for what its officers do on duty. Our FAQ answers the direct question, can I sue the police for excessive force in California, in plain terms. Most cases plead both.
Six months, for the state-law part of the case. Under Government Code § 911.2, a claim for money against a public entity, which includes the City of Torrance, every other South Bay city, and the County of Los Angeles, must be presented in writing to that entity within six months of the incident. No lawsuit on the state claims can be filed until the claim has been presented and rejected or deemed rejected. Filing it late, or filing it with the wrong entity, can end the state claims before they start. Our guide to the California government claim deadline explains the form, the timing, and the late-claim rules.
The federal § 1983 claim does not go through the government claim process, and it borrows California’s two-year personal injury limitations period under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Two years sounds like time to spare. It is not. Body camera footage, 911 audio, and nearby surveillance video are kept on short retention schedules, witnesses move, and officers’ memories harden around the report they wrote. The practical deadline is the first few weeks.
The agency decides who receives your government claim and whose records you need, so it is the first fact we pin down. Torrance has its own police department, so an incident with a Torrance officer means a claim to the City of Torrance. Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Palos Verdes Estates each run their own police department, and the claim goes to that city. Carson, Lomita, Lawndale, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates contract their policing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, so an incident with a deputy in those cities means a claim to the County of Los Angeles, not to the city, even though the deputies work out of a local station. The same rule covers county jail custody and transport. California Highway Patrol officers on the freeways are state employees, and the claim goes to the State. Get the agency wrong and the six-month clock does not stop while you fix it.
Most South Bay agencies record their stops, and that recording is usually the single most important piece of evidence in the case. California law makes certain footage public on a set clock, gives the person on the video and their family a right to see it, and sets minimum retention periods, but none of that helps if the file is overwritten before anyone asks. Our first step in nearly every case is a written preservation demand to the agency covering body camera, dash camera, dispatch audio, and jail video, followed by a public records request. Our guide to police body camera footage in California explains how to request it, how long agencies must keep it, and what happens when the camera was off. Officer discipline and use-of-force records, once sealed, are now partly public under state law, and the rest come through the lawsuit.
A civil rights case recovers the same categories of loss as any injury case: medical care, lost wages and earning capacity, and non-economic damages for the pain, fear, and humiliation of the incident. Two things set these cases apart. First, punitive damages, which exist to punish and deter, can be awarded against an individual officer whose conduct was malicious or oppressive, although California does not allow them against the city or county itself. Second, both the Bane Act and the federal statute let the court order the defendants to pay your attorney’s fees when you win, which is one reason these cases can be brought by families who could never afford to pay a lawyer by the hour. If the incident took a life, the family’s claim becomes a wrongful death and survival action with its own rules.
The honest answer is that it depends on what your case needs, and there are three things worth checking before you hire anyone. First, trial experience against public entities: cities and counties rarely pay fair value until they believe a jury will hear the case, and a lawyer who has actually tried cases to verdict is priced differently by the other side. Second, familiarity with how police cases are built: the government claim, the preservation demand, the records statutes, and the qualified immunity defense that officers raise in federal court are their own body of law, and a general injury practice may not handle them often. Third, the fee arrangement in writing: a contingency fee means you pay nothing unless the case recovers. Ask any lawyer you are considering about all three.
We know the other side of the table. David Gammill, a former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, has tried over 100 cases to verdict, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. A former prosecutor has worked alongside police officers, read thousands of their reports, and knows how a use-of-force report is written and where it tends to diverge from the video. The firm’s results include a $1 million recovery in an excessive force case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We prepare every civil rights case for trial from the first call, because that is what moves a city or a county to settle. The consultation is free, there is no fee unless we win, and the firm answers calls in English and Spanish. South Bay families have trusted this firm with cases against the agencies that police their own neighborhoods.
It depends on the claims. A case built on the Bane Act and other state claims is filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court; for an incident in Torrance or the South Bay that is the Southwest District, at either the Torrance Courthouse or the Inglewood Courthouse. A § 1983 claim can be filed in state court or in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in downtown Los Angeles, and cases that plead both are often moved to federal court by the defendants. Which forum is better for you is a judgment call that depends on the facts, the agency, and the judge, and it is one of the first strategic decisions we make with you.
Often, yes. If the charges were dismissed or you were acquitted, the civil case proceeds on its own. If you were convicted, or pleaded to something, some civil claims are barred where winning them would contradict the conviction, while others, especially excessive force claims, can survive. The order matters: talk to a civil rights lawyer before accepting a plea deal if you believe your rights were violated, because a plea taken to make the criminal case go away can quietly end the civil one.
No. An internal complaint to the department is not a government claim and does not satisfy the six-month deadline under Government Code § 911.2. You can file one, and it sometimes produces useful records, but it is not a substitute for the written claim to the city or county, and anything you say in it can be used in the civil case.
Then the public entity is the County of Los Angeles, and the government claim goes to the County, not to the city where it happened. This is true in the South Bay cities that contract with the Sheriff’s Department, and in county jail custody. The deputy can also be sued individually.
Nothing upfront and nothing unless we win. We work on a contingency fee, which means the fee is a percentage of the recovery and is paid only out of the recovery. Our page on what a personal injury lawyer costs explains the arrangement in detail.
Our office is in Torrance, and we represent people in civil rights cases from across the South Bay: Torrance, Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Carson, Inglewood, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For injury cases of every other kind, start with our Torrance personal injury attorney page, or see every South Bay city we serve.
Gammill Law represents people whose rights were violated by police across the South Bay. A free, confidential conversation will tell you whether you have a claim, which entity must receive it, and how much time you have. We work on a contingency fee under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law, so there is no fee unless we win.
Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149. You will speak with people who handle these cases, and you will pay no fee unless we win.
This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
