Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Reclaiming auto repairs from county due to unmarked hazard..

Before you can sue a public entity, you must first file a claim and have your claim rejected. If the street was the property of Riverside County, you will need to file a claim with Riverside County. You can obtain a claim form online by following the instructions here: http://www.treasurer-tax.co.riverside.ca.us/Unclaimed_FAQ.html

If the property was a road owned by the State of California, i.e. Caltrans, you will need to file a claim with the State of California. You can obtain the claim form here: http://www.boc.ca.gov/PubsGC/Forms/GCClaimForm.pdf

You will of course need Adobe Acrobat to read and print the forms.

Keep in mind that there are strict time requirements for filing a claim prior to filing a lawsuit. Any claim against a public entity must be presented to the appropriate governmental entity within 6 months of the accrual of your cause of action. (Gov't Code sec 911.2.)

The governmental entity has 45 days to accept or reject the claim unless you and the entity stipulate to extend this time. If the governmental entity fails to act within 45 days of presentation of the claim, the claim is deemed rejected by operation of law. (Gov't Code sec. 912.4.)

You have 6 months from the rejection to file suit (if it is accepted, you will not be filing suit). (Gov't Code sec. 945.6(a)(1).)

Good luck. There are some other rules you must watch. The Rutter Group has an excellent discussion of government claims in their book, Civil Procedure Before Trial, Chapter 1. You can locate this book at many county law libraries.

Very truly yours,