Most people injured on public transit assume they have two years to act, because that is the deadline they have heard applies to car accidents in California. They are wrong by eighteen months, and every Daly City Personal Injury Attorney has watched otherwise strong cases end because of it. Suing a public agency requires presenting a written claim to that agency first, within six months of the injury, and courts enforce the rule strictly. Miss it and the lawsuit is generally barred no matter how badly the bus driver was at fault.
When exactly does the six-month clock start?
On the date the injury occurs, in almost every case. Government Code section 911.2 requires that a claim for death, personal injury, or damage to personal property be presented within six months of the date the cause of action accrues, which for a transit collision or a fall means the day it happened.
Only claims for other kinds of harm get a longer window. Damage to real property and contract disputes fall under a one year deadline in the same statute. Injury cases do not. The six months runs on calendar months, so an injury on March 14 means a claim due September 14, not 180 days later.
Which agency do you file with, and what happens if you pick the wrong one?
You file with the specific public entity that caused the harm, and filing with the wrong one does not stop the clock. This trips up Peninsula riders constantly because several agencies operate within a few blocks of each other.
- Muni and SFMTA injuries go to the City and County of San Francisco, which accepts claims through the Controller’s Office.
- BART injuries, including escalator and platform incidents at Daly City and Colma stations, go to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District through its Office of the District Secretary.
- AC Transit injuries go to the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District.
- SamTrans injuries go to the San Mateo County Transit District.
- A fall on a public sidewalk in Daly City goes to the City of Daly City, not to any transit agency.
Someone who slips on a wet stairway inside Daly City BART and files with the City of Daly City has filed nothing that counts. Verify each agency’s current filing address or online portal before submitting, since these change.
What has to be in the claim form for it to be valid?
Government Code section 910 sets the required contents, and an incomplete claim can be rejected as insufficient. The claim must give the claimant’s name and mailing address, an address where notices should be sent, the date, place, and circumstances of the incident, a general description of the injury or loss, the names of the public employees who caused it if known, and the amount claimed if it is under $10,000 along with how that figure was calculated. If the claim exceeds $10,000 you do not state a dollar amount, but you must indicate whether the case would be a limited or unlimited civil matter.
Under section 910.8 the agency has 20 days to notify you that a claim is defective. Write the circumstances broadly enough to cover the theories you may later plead, because California courts will not allow a lawsuit to allege a factual basis substantially different from the one presented in the claim.
What happens after the claim is filed?
The agency has 45 days to act on it under Government Code section 912.4. If the board takes no action within that period, the claim is deemed rejected by operation of law on the 45th day.
The deadline that follows is the one people miss twice. Under section 945.6, once the agency mails or personally delivers a written rejection notice, you have six months from that date to file suit. If the agency never sends a proper written notice, the window stretches to two years from the date the injury accrued. Two different six month periods therefore exist in the same case, one before the claim and one after rejection, and blowing either ends the matter.
Can the deadline ever be extended?
Sometimes, through a formal process rather than an informal excuse. Section 911.4 allows an application to file a late claim, but it must be submitted within a reasonable time not exceeding one year after the cause of action accrued. Section 911.6 lists the grounds the agency must consider, including mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, the claimant being a minor during the six month period, physical or mental incapacity, and death of the claimant.
Injured children deserve particular attention. The ordinary rule tolling a minor’s deadline until age 18 does not apply to the six month government claim requirement. A parent who waits for a child to grow up will find the claim gone. If the agency denies a late claim application, section 946.6 permits a petition to the superior court for relief, filed within six months of the denial.
Why does a Daly City Personal Injury Attorney check for a public entity in every case?
Because the public defendant is often invisible at first. A crash caused by a driver who swerved to avoid a Muni bus, a bicycle fall caused by a poorly maintained roadway, or a pedestrian injury involving a malfunctioning signal all bring a government entity into a case that looked entirely private. The claim against the private driver has two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. The claim against the agency has six months, and it is usually the agency that carries meaningful coverage.
Public property cases add their own proof burden. Government Code section 835 requires showing the property was in a dangerous condition, that the risk was foreseeable, and that the entity either created the condition or had actual or constructive notice with enough time to fix it.
If you were hurt on a bus, a train, a platform, or a city street anywhere between Daly City and downtown San Francisco, talk with a Daly City Personal Injury Attorney well inside the six month window rather than near the end of it. Gathering incident reports, video, and maintenance records takes time, and a claim filed on day 179 with no supporting file behind it rarely produces a serious offer.