Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

As you probably know, the king was once immune from being sued in his own courts, and some of that governmental immunity tradition has slopped over into modern times. If you want to sue the State of California or ANY of its sub-governments, agencies, authorities, etc., you must comply with the claims procedures under the Government Claims Act, formerly known as the Tort Claims Act until our Supreme Court determined with finality that the Act applied to contract claims as well as tort claims and renamed it. Certain claims are exempt, primarily those arising under employment contracts.

The procedures are set forth in the Government Code, I think primarily around sections 917 to 921, but I don't remember for sure, and I'm away from the office.

As I recall, after you submit a claim, the governmental entity has a limited time within which to act on the claim, and may reject it either by formally stating reasons or by "pocket veto" (inaction). The claimant then has a limited time within which to bring suit on the denied claim. I believe it is six months, but I think you should confirm this.

The maximum claim in Small Claims is $7,500 (in some situations, only $5,000), and if your claim is $10,000, you'd have to limit your demand to $7,500, but that still leaves you better off than going to Superior Court in most cases, due to speed and much lower costs.

As to the reasons for denial, you can ask, but I'm not sure they have to give a reason.

Mr. Whipple is correct. Claims are almost always rejected, normally with a very brief reason given. You can call their claims Department to try to get more of an explanation but they will likely not tell you anything more. I believe the time periods stil are 6 mlonths to file after a direct denial of the claim and 2 years after the accident/incident if no letter of rejection received timely. Where you sue depends in part upon the nature of te case. Small Claim judges often do not award much in the way of pain and suffering and the public entitiy can appeal any adverse judgment [with the Superior Court often affirming the SCC judgment without out doing much analysis ofthe facts and law]. But Superior court is more costly and it will take at least 6-9 months after you file a complaint to go to trial or resolve the case.