A notice requirement, genuinely extended
Claims against a Maine governmental entity fall under the Maine Tort Claims Act, and 14 M.R.S. § 8107 requires a claimant to file written notice of the claim before suing. For years, that window was just 180 days. The legislature extended it to 365 days — a full year — for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2020, giving claimants genuinely more breathing room than the older rule allowed.
What the notice itself must contain
The written notice must include the name and address of the claimant, the time, place, and circumstances of the act or occurrence complained of, and the name and address of any governmental employee involved, if known. Maine courts have recognized that substantial compliance with these requirements can be sufficient, but the governmental entity generally must be able to show actual prejudice from any defect before strict, technical perfection becomes necessary.
A separate, longer deadline to actually file suit
The notice requirement is distinct from the deadline to file the lawsuit itself. Under a separate provision, 14 M.R.S. § 8110, every claim against a governmental entity is forever barred from Maine's courts unless the action itself is begun within two years after the cause of action accrues. In other words, a claimant must both give timely notice under § 8107 and file suit within the separate two-year window under § 8110 — two different clocks running toward two different deadlines.
Minors get their own measuring point
If the claimant was a minor when the cause of action accrued, both the notice period and the suit-filing deadline are measured from the minor's 18th birthday instead of the date of the underlying incident — giving a minor claimant the full benefit of both deadlines once they reach adulthood.
Why the good-cause exception is a narrow one
Maine law does allow notice to be presented after the 365-day deadline in limited circumstances, where the claimant shows good cause why notice could not reasonably have been filed on time. But Maine's courts have described this exception as interpreted narrowly, since the Maine Tort Claims Act itself represents only a limited relaxation of the state's traditional sovereign immunity. Treating the 365-day window as a hard deadline, rather than relying on this narrow exception, remains the safest approach.