How to File a Government Claim Against the Police in California: When, Where, and How to Do It Right

You can have a strong case against the police and still lose it before a judge ever hears the facts, not because you were wrong about what happened, but because you missed a deadline that has nothing to do with your criminal case. For many claims against a California city, county, or the officers who work for them, the clock is as short as six months, and it usually starts running on the date of the incident, not the day your charges get dropped.

I have watched this happen to good cases. Someone calls me the week their criminal charges are finally dismissed, certain and often correct that the police did something wrong, and I have to tell them the state-law deadline already closed months earlier. It is one of the most preventable ways a real claim dies, and it happens because the process is genuinely confusing. Here is how to keep it from happening to you.

The short answer

Before you can sue a California city, county, or their police department for most state-law claims (negligence, battery, false arrest) you generally have to put that public entity on written notice first, by presenting a formal “government claim.” This is a separate, older step than filing a lawsuit, and it has its own short deadline: often six months from the date the claim accrued, which for a use-of-force or false-arrest claim usually means six months from the incident itself. Miss it, and your state claims may be barred no matter how strong they are.

Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 run on a different track. They generally do not require this government-claim step at all. That is exactly why you evaluate both tracks together, immediately, rather than picking one and hoping it covers everything.

GREG KIRAKOSIAN’S LEGAL EYE VIEW

Here is the part people miss: an internal-affairs complaint, a citizen complaint, or a call to a supervisor is not a government claim. Those go to the department. A government claim has to go to the entity’s legally designated recipient (often a city or county clerk, not the police at all) and it has to happen fast. I tell every new client the same thing in the first conversation: do not wait for the criminal case to resolve before we look at this deadline, because by the time it resolves, the deadline is often already gone.

The three deadlines that control this process

Think of it as three dates in sequence, not one.

Deadline one: present the claim. Government Code § 911.2 generally requires claims involving personal injury to be presented within six months after the claim accrues. Other types of claims may get a full year. For a police use-of-force or false-arrest case, accrual is typically on or near the date of the incident, not the date criminal charges are dismissed or a case is resolved. A malicious-prosecution claim has its own accrual rule tied to a favorable outcome in the criminal case, but that does not push back the deadline for separate force, detention, or false-arrest claims arising from the same incident.

Deadline two: the entity’s response window. Once you present the claim, the public entity generally has 45 days to accept it, reject it, partially accept it, ask for more information, or simply do nothing which functions as a rejection by law. Do not assume silence helps you; it starts the next clock.

Deadline three: file suit after rejection. When the entity sends a legally sufficient written rejection, Government Code § 945.6 generally gives you six months from the date that notice is personally delivered or mailed to file the actual lawsuit. Different rules can apply if the rejection notice is defective, if there was no written rejection at all, if you are dealing with a late-claim application, or if the claimant is a minor. Do not calculate this date from memory, have the rejection letter and envelope reviewed.

Timely presentation is not a formality; California’s Supreme Court has held it is generally a required element of a lawsuit against a public entity. State of California v. Superior Court (Bodde), 32 Cal. 4th 1234 (2004).

Where the claim actually goes, and why it is not the police department

This trips up more people than the deadline itself. A government claim is not an internal-affairs complaint, a citizen complaint, a police report, a call to a supervisor, or a civilian-oversight filing. Those may matter for other reasons, but none of them satisfy the Government Claims Act, and none of them start or stop this clock.

The claim has to reach the entity’s statutorily authorized recipient. Depending on who employed the officer, that may be:

• A city clerk, secretary, auditor, or governing body, for a city police department.
• A county clerk, clerk of the board of supervisors, or designated claims office, for a sheriff’s department.
• The Department of General Services Government Claims Program, for the California Highway Patrol or another state agency.
• A district’s clerk or governing board, for school, transit, or special-district police.

Delivering the claim to the wrong office can create a real dispute over whether you complied at all. The California Supreme Court has stressed how much the correct recipient matters. DiCampli-Mintz v. County of Santa Clara, 55 Cal. 4th 983 (2012). The safest approach is to go to the entity’s own current official website, search for its “Claim for Damages” form, and confirm the recipient, address, and submission method directly from that source, not from an old blog post or a form saved from a prior case.

Why go through this at all, what a timely claim preserves

A timely government claim keeps state-law theories alive: negligence, assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, certain emotional-distress claims, and claims under California’s Bane Act, Civil Code § 52.1 (we cover the Bane Act itself in depth elsewhere, this post is only about the procedural gate that sits in front of it).

Federal § 1983 claims generally do not require this step, but that is not a reason to skip the claim. The same police conduct often supports both a state claim and a federal one, excessive force is both California battery and a federal Fourth Amendment claim; an arrest without probable cause is both false arrest and unlawful seizure. Preserving both tracks matters because the remedies differ. A prevailing § 1983 plaintiff may recover attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, and a successful Bane Act plaintiff may recover fees under Civil Code § 52.1 most ordinary state tort claims do not carry that on their own. The liability rules differ too: Government Code § 815.2 can make a public entity vicariously liable for an employee’s conduct within the scope of employment, while municipal liability under § 1983 requires the harder showing set out in Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978). You want every door open before you decide which one to walk through.

What the claim needs to say

A government claim usually has two parts: the entity’s own claim form, and a written attachment that supplies the facts the short form has no room for. Government Code § 910 spells out what a written claim must contain even without an official form, but using the entity’s current form is the safer path.

The attachment should lay out, in plain chronological order: what happened, what each officer did, any detention, search, arrest, or force used, the injuries or losses that resulted, and the employees involved by name where known. The facts matter more than the labels naming potential theories like negligence, battery, false arrest, or the Bane Act can help give fair notice, but a list of legal buzzwords without the underlying conduct does not satisfy the statute. Whatever facts go in the claim should match the facts you later put in a lawsuit, since the two generally have to correspond.

One more detail that trips people up: the damages section. Government Code § 910(f) treats claims above and below a statutory dollar threshold differently below it, you generally state the amount and how you calculated it; above it, you generally state only whether the case would be a limited or unlimited civil matter, not a specific number. That threshold changes, so confirm the current figure before filling anything in.

Keep proof of everything: a complete copy of what you sent, mailing or delivery confirmation, and later, the rejection notice and its envelope. A claim sent by mail can sometimes count as presented on the mailing date itself under Government Code § 915.2, but confirm the current wording before relying on that.

Already past six months? You may still have options

Missing the original window does not necessarily end the case.

Federal § 1983 claims generally are not subject to California’s claim-presentation rules at all. Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988); Williams v. Horvath, 16 Cal. 3d 834 (1976). Their own filing period depends on separate accrual and tolling rules, so do not assume every § 1983 claim automatically has two years from the incident.

For the state claims, Government Code § 911.4 allows an application for leave to present a late claim in qualifying circumstances, typically within one year of accrual. If that application is denied, Government Code § 946.6 can allow a petition to the superior court for relief. Both procedures are technical and carry their own tight deadlines, so this is not something to sit on.

The mistake that runs out the clock

Here is a hypothetical, not a real client’s case, because it is the single most common way people lose a state claim without realizing it. Someone is arrested and allegedly hurt by excessive force on March 1. The criminal case drags on and is finally dismissed on October 15. The person calls a civil rights lawyer the next week more than seven months after the incident. The government-claim period for the force and arrest likely started running in March, not October, and by the time the phone call happens it may already be closed. Federal claims may still be alive; the state claims may not be. The lesson is simple: never wait for the criminal case to end before you find out where your civil deadlines stand.

What to do if you think you have a claim

• Do not treat an internal-affairs complaint, a citizen complaint, or a call to a supervisor as a substitute for a government claim. It is not.
• Do not wait for your criminal case to resolve before checking the civil deadline. The clock is likely already running.
• Find the current official claim form on the entity’s own website, not a saved copy or third-party form site.
• Confirm the correct recipient and delivery method before you send anything.
• Describe the incident fully and factually in any attachment; name the legal theories that fit the facts, but do not pad the claim with theories the facts do not support.
• Keep a complete copy, proof of mailing or delivery, and later, the rejection notice and envelope.
• Calendar all three deadlines the moment you present the claim, do not rely on memory for any of them.
• Get a lawyer involved promptly, especially if the injuries are serious or the facts are complicated. A missed recipient, a missed date, or a claim that does not match your later lawsuit can each be fatal on their own.