Step 1: presenting a claim within 180 days
Before a lawsuit for money damages can be filed against any California public entity — a city, county, school district, or state agency — a formal written claim must first be presented to that entity. Under Government Code § 911.2, this claim must be presented within 180 days (six months) of the date the cause of action accrues for a personal injury or wrongful death claim. This is a genuine condition precedent — failing to present a compliant, timely claim bars the lawsuit entirely, regardless of the underlying merits.
Step 2: the public entity has 45 days to respond
Once a claim is properly presented, the public entity has 45 days under Government Code § 912.4 to accept, reject, or compromise it. If the entity takes no action within that window, the claim is deemed rejected by operation of law on the 45th day — the process moves forward either way.
Step 3: the lawsuit deadline depends entirely on what happened in Step 2
This is the part that genuinely surprises people, because the answer isn't a single fixed number — it depends on how the entity responded:
- If the entity serves a written notice of rejection: under Government Code § 945.6(a)(1), the lawsuit must be filed within six months of the date that notice is served — personally delivered or deposited in the mail.
- If the entity never responds and the claim is rejected by operation of law, with no written notice ever served: under Government Code § 945.6(a)(2), the deadline instead becomes two years from the original accrual date — the same as the ordinary personal injury rule.
In other words, silence from the government entity can actually leave considerably more time to sue than an active rejection would — a genuinely counterintuitive result that makes it essential to track exactly what notice, if any, was actually served, and precisely when.
Late-claim relief: a narrow, uncertain safety valve
Someone who misses the initial 180-day claim deadline can petition for late-claim relief under Government Code § 911.4, but this relief is discretionary and success is genuinely not guaranteed — California courts enforce these deadlines strictly in the large majority of cases. Treating the 180-day window as the real, operative deadline from day one is far more reliable than counting on this narrow exception.
Why this genuinely matters
Because this entire process runs on a considerably shorter and more complex timeline than the ordinary two-year rule, and because missing the very first step can permanently end a claim before a lawsuit is ever an option, anyone whose injury might involve a government entity in any way should identify that fact immediately, rather than assuming the familiar two-year figure applies.