Most Californians know they have two years to file a personal injury lawsuit after an accident. What far fewer people know is that if the at-fault party is a government entity, that window shrinks to six months, and missing it almost always ends your case permanently.
This is not a technicality that courts overlook. It is a hard statutory deadline under California Government Code section 911.2, and judges enforce it without sympathy. We have seen injured people with strong, well-documented cases lose every penny of their potential recovery simply because they did not realize a city, county, or state agency was involved until it was too late.
In 2026, California’s legislature passed somewhere between 700 and 900 new laws covering topics from MICRA damages caps to artificial intelligence disclosures. The government claims deadline was not among them. It remains exactly where it has been for decades, which makes it one of the most persistent traps in California personal injury law.
If you were hurt in an accident involving a pothole, a public transit vehicle, a government-owned building, or a police pursuit, this article is for you.
Why the 6-Month Rule Exists and Why It Hits So Hard
California’s Government Claims Act, codified in Government Code sections 810 through 996.6, reflects the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The state and its subdivisions historically could not be sued at all. Modern law changed that, but the legislature built in procedural protections for government defendants, and the 6-month pre-suit claim requirement is the most consequential one.
Under Government Code section 911.2, you must file a written claim with the responsible government entity within six months of the date your injury occurred. This is not the lawsuit itself. It is a formal notice that must be submitted before you can even think about filing suit.
Once the entity receives your claim, it has 45 days to accept or reject it. If it rejects the claim, you then have six months from the date of that rejection to file your lawsuit in court, under Government Code section 945.6. If the entity ignores your claim entirely, it is deemed rejected by operation of law after 45 days, and your six-month litigation window begins running from there.
Compare that to the standard two-year statute of limitations under California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 for claims against private defendants. The difference is not marginal. It is the difference between having time to recover, understand your injuries, and consult an attorney versus racing against a clock that most injured people do not even know is running.
How to Spot Government Liability in Your Accident
The first step is recognizing when a government entity might be responsible. This is not always obvious at the scene of an accident.
Road and highway defects. If you were injured because of a pothole, a broken traffic signal, missing signage, a dangerous road design, or a poorly maintained shoulder, the responsible party may be Caltrans, a city public works department, or a county transportation agency. California Government Code section 835 creates liability for public entities when a dangerous condition of public property causes injury and the entity had notice of the condition.
Public transit accidents. Collisions involving buses operated by agencies like LA Metro, BART, AC Transit, or any municipal transit district involve government defendants. The same six-month rule applies.
Government vehicles. If a city-owned truck, a county maintenance vehicle, or a state agency car caused your accident, you are dealing with a government defendant even if the driver looked like any other motorist.
Police pursuits. California Vehicle Code section 17004.7 governs liability for injuries caused during police pursuits. These cases involve complex immunity questions, but the six-month claims deadline still applies.
Public property falls. Slip and fall accidents on sidewalks, in public parks, in government buildings, or on school grounds may involve municipal or state liability.
Public school incidents. Injuries occurring on school grounds or involving school district employees fall under the Government Claims Act, with school districts treated as public entities.
The practical rule is this: if the property, vehicle, or employee involved in your accident belongs to any city, county, state agency, special district, or public university, assume the six-month deadline applies and act accordingly.
The Tolling Exceptions Are Narrow, Not a Safety Net
When people learn about the six-month deadline, the next question is usually whether there are exceptions. There are some, but they are narrower than the tolling provisions that apply to private-party claims, and courts interpret them strictly.
Under Government Code section 911.4, if you missed the six-month deadline, you may file a late claim application within one year of the date of injury. The government entity can grant or deny that application. If it denies the application, you must then petition the court for relief under Government Code section 946.6, and you must show one of the following: mental incapacity, minority (being under 18), mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.
Courts do not treat “I did not know about the deadline” as excusable neglect. The California Supreme Court and appellate courts have consistently held that ignorance of the law does not qualify. If you simply did not know the rule existed, you will likely be denied relief.
Minority tolling does apply. Under Government Code section 911.4, a minor has until six months after turning 18 to file a claim. But for adults, the exceptions are genuinely narrow.
The lesson here is not to rely on tolling. The lesson is to identify government involvement early and file on time.
Step-by-Step: What to Do After an Accident Involving a Government Entity
Step one: Identify all potentially responsible parties at the scene. Look at the vehicles involved. Note whether any are marked with government insignia, agency names, or fleet numbers. If you were injured on public property, photograph the location and any signage indicating government ownership or maintenance responsibility.
Step two: Request the incident report immediately. If police responded, request the traffic collision report as soon as it becomes available. If the accident involved a transit agency, request the agency’s internal incident report. These documents often identify the employing agency of the at-fault driver or the entity responsible for maintaining the property.
Step three: Document your injuries and the accident scene thoroughly. Photograph everything. If you were injured by a road defect, photograph the defect from multiple angles with something in the frame for scale. If you fell on public property, photograph the hazard and the surrounding area. Time-stamp your photos.
Step four: Seek medical attention immediately and follow through with treatment. This matters both for your health and for your legal claim. John Reardon spent 20 years as a chiropractor before becoming a personal injury attorney, and one pattern he saw repeatedly in clinical practice was patients who delayed care after accidents, only to discover weeks later that what felt like minor soreness was a herniated disc or a soft tissue injury requiring months of treatment. Early medical documentation creates the timeline that connects your injuries to the accident.
Step five: Contact a personal injury attorney within days, not weeks. The six-month clock starts on the date of injury, not the date you figure out who was responsible. An attorney can investigate the responsible parties, identify government involvement, and prepare the formal claim while you focus on recovering.
Step six: File Form 101 with the correct entity. The government claim must be submitted in writing to the specific entity responsible. California’s Judicial Council provides a standard form, often called the Government Tort Claim Form or Form 101. The claim must include your name and address, the date and location of the incident, a description of the circumstances, a description of your injuries, and the dollar amount you are claiming if it is under $10,000. For larger claims, you state that the amount exceeds $10,000. Filing with the wrong entity or submitting an incomplete claim can create additional complications, which is another reason to have an attorney handle this step.
What Happens After You File the Claim
Once the government entity receives your claim, it has 45 days to respond. It may accept the claim and offer to settle, reject the claim outright, or simply not respond. A non-response is treated as a rejection after 45 days.
If the claim is rejected, you have six months from the date of the rejection notice to file your lawsuit in superior court. If you miss that second deadline, your case is barred just as surely as if you had missed the original six-month filing window.
During the period between filing the claim and filing suit, your attorney should be building the evidentiary record. That means gathering maintenance records for the defective road or property, identifying prior complaints or incidents that put the government entity on notice of the dangerous condition, obtaining expert opinions on causation, and documenting the full scope of your damages including future medical needs.
Because John Reardon practiced as a chiropractor for two decades before transitioning to law, we approach the medical documentation side of these cases differently than most firms. We understand how to read imaging studies, how to interpret treatment records, and how to explain the relationship between a specific mechanism of injury and a specific diagnosis in terms that resonate with adjusters, mediators, and juries. That background matters in government liability cases, where the defense often challenges both causation and the severity of the claimed injuries.
Do Not Let the Deadline Decide Your Case
Government entities are defendants in a significant share of California personal injury cases. Roads, sidewalks, transit systems, and public buildings are part of everyday life, and when they are negligently maintained or operated, people get hurt. The law provides a path to compensation, but that path closes at six months.
The two-year deadline that applies to private defendants gives most injury victims time to recover, reflect, and then pursue their legal options. The six-month government claims deadline does not offer that luxury. It requires you to act while you are still dealing with the immediate aftermath of your injury.
If you were hurt in an accident and there is any possibility that a government entity was involved, contact us. We will evaluate your case, identify all responsible parties, and make sure the proper claims are filed before any deadline expires. The consultation is free, and you owe us nothing unless we recover compensation for you.