Suing the City or County in California: The 6-Month Claim Deadline

Let’s say you trip on a broken sidewalk in Los Angeles. You fall hard. Your knee hurts. You cannot work for a while.

Who pays for that?

What if the sidewalk belongs to the city?

You might think, “I was hurt because the city failed to keep the sidewalk safe. I should just sue.”

Not so fast.

California has special rules for claims against cities, counties, and other public agencies. One of the biggest rules involves time. For many injury claims, you have six months to present a claim to the government. Miss that step, and you may have a serious problem before your lawsuit even gets started.

That is why knowing about suing the city or county in California matters. The first question may not be, “Can I sue?” It may be, “Did I take the right step in time?”

Why can’t you treat a city like any other defendant?

Because California has a special law for claims against public agencies. It is called the Government Claims Act.

The basic idea is simple.

If you want money from a city or county because of an injury, you usually must tell the government about your claim first.

And you cannot wait forever.

For most personal injury claims, California Government Code section 911.2 gives you six months from the date your claim accrues to present the claim.

Think about it this way.

You fall on a broken sidewalk on January 10.

Six months later, July 10 is around the end of that first window. You cannot assume you have another six months just because you have not filed a lawsuit yet.

That is why the California government claim statute of limitations can be confusing. The first deadline concerns the claim you present to the government. A later deadline may control when you can file your lawsuit.

Those are two different steps.

What exactly do you have to do?

Think of the process as a short line of dominoes. You need to knock them down in the right order.

1. Find out who may be responsible.

Was it the City of Los Angeles? Los Angeles County? A school district? A transit agency?

The answer matters.

2. Find the right deadline.

For many injury claims, the deadline is six months.

But not every government claim follows the same rule. Other types of claims can have different deadlines.

3. Prepare the claim.

A personal injury claim normally includes basic facts about what happened. Who got hurt? Where did it happen? When did it happen? What injury or loss occurred?

4. Give the claim to the right public agency.

This step sounds easy. It can become a problem if the claim goes to the wrong place or does not meet the legal rules.

5. Wait for the government to respond.

The agency generally has 45 days to act on the claim. If the agency does nothing within those 45 days, the claim is generally treated as rejected under Government Code section 912.4.

6. Watch the next deadline.

If the agency rejects the claim in writing, another clock usually starts. Government Code section 945.6 generally gives you six months to file the lawsuit after the written rejection is delivered or mailed. If the agency never sends a written rejection, the deadline to sue is generally two years from the date the claim accrued.

So, yes, there can be two important six-month periods.

The first concerns presenting the claim.

The second can concern filing the lawsuit.

That distinction matters.

Let’s make this real.

Suppose Maria walks down a city sidewalk. A large crack catches her foot. She falls and breaks her wrist.

She takes photos. She goes to the doctor. She misses work.

What does she do next?

First, she needs to ask a bigger question:

Who owns and controls that sidewalk?

If a city owns it, Maria may have a claim against the city. But she still has to meet the Government Claims Act rules.

She may also need to show that the sidewalk created a dangerous condition and that the city had a legal basis for responsibility.

Now think of something else.

Maria knows the city already received several complaints about the broken sidewalk.

Does that mean she can skip the claim process?

Not necessarily.

Knowing about a dangerous sidewalk and receiving Maria’s legal claim are not the same thing.

A recent Los Angeles case makes this point very clearly.

In Harland v. City of West Hollywood, Michelle Harland fell on a West Hollywood sidewalk in October 2022. Her lawyer mailed a claim two days before the six-month deadline. But Harland filed her lawsuit before the city received the claim and before the 45-day response period ended.

The California Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of her case. The court said she had to complete the claim process before suing the city.

That is a powerful lesson.

Filing a lawsuit and presenting a government claim are not the same thing.

The California Supreme Court has also explained how the Government Claims Act works.

In Tesoro Refining & Marketing Co. LLC v. City of Carson, decided in 2026, the California Supreme Court examined the claim rules in detail. Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero was part of the unanimous court, and the decision explained that a government claim must follow the statutory rules about timing, content, and presentation.

The case did not involve a sidewalk injury. It involved a tax-refund dispute.

So why does it matter here?

Because the Court explained the larger system behind government claims. The law does not simply ask, “Were you hurt?” It also asks whether you followed the required process before bringing a money claim against a public entity.

What if the defendant is not obviously a city or county?

That can matter too.

In Stone v. Alameda Health System, California courts considered how to treat a hospital system created by a county. The California Supreme Court concluded that it was a public entity, which meant certain Labor Code wage-and-hour rules did not apply to it. That case was about employment law, not injury claims. But it shows that an organization that does not look like a city or county can still be a public entity with its own special legal rules.

Then there is Brown v. City of Inglewood, decided in 2025. That case involved a different kind of claim involving an elected city treasurer and whistleblower law. It did not decide the six-month injury deadline. But it shows why you should not assume every claim against a government defendant follows the same legal path.

The details matter.

The defendant matters.

The type of claim matters.

And the dates matter.

This is where things can get uncomfortable.

What if you were badly hurt but did not know about the government claim rule?

What if you spent months dealing with your injury?

What if you thought the city already knew what happened?

Can you simply file the claim later?

Sometimes, California law gives people a way to ask for permission to file a late claim.

Government Code section 911.4 allows a person to apply for leave to present a late claim in certain situations. That application generally must come within one year after the claim accrues.

But this is not a magic reset button.

You still need to meet the legal requirements for late-claim relief.

And what happens after the government rejects your claim?

That creates another important date.

Under Government Code section 945.6, a written rejection generally gives you six months to file the lawsuit. If no written rejection is ever sent, you generally have two years from the date the claim accrued.

So, think about this:

January 10: You suffer an injury.
By about July 10: You generally need to present the injury claim.
45 days after the claim is presented: If the city has not acted, the claim is generally treated as rejected.
After a written rejection: You generally have six months to file suit.
No written rejection: You generally have two years from the injury to file suit.

The exact dates can change based on the facts. That is why guessing can be risky.

• Many personal injury claims against California cities and counties have a six-month claim deadline.
• Presenting a government claim is different from filing a lawsuit.
• A government agency generally has 45 days to act on a properly presented claim. If it does not act, the claim is generally treated as rejected.
• A written rejection generally gives you six months to file a lawsuit. Without a written rejection, the deadline is generally two years.
• Missing a deadline does not always end the analysis, but late-claim rules are strict and depend on the facts.

A broken sidewalk may look like the whole story.

It isn’t.

There may be another story hiding behind it.

When did you fall? Who owned the sidewalk? When did the city receive your claim? Did the city reject it? When did that rejection arrive?

Those questions can matter just as much as the injury itself.

California gives people a path for seeking compensation from public entities. But that path has rules, and the clock matters.

If you were injured because of a city, county, or other public agency, Blair & Ramirez LLP can help you understand your legal options, the deadlines that may apply, and what a free case review may tell you about your situation. Contact Blair & Ramirez LLP to discuss your case.