Claims Against Caltrans and the State of California After a Highway Crash

Key Takeaways

• State claims go to the Department of General Services, not to Caltrans directly and not to any city or county. Claims against the State of California and its agencies are filed with the DGS Office of Risk and Insurance Management, Government Claims Program, at P.O. Box 989052, MS 414, West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052.
• The deadline is six months for personal injury and wrongful death claims involving a state agency, under California Government Code §911.2, measured from the date of the incident.
• A $25 filing fee is required with every claim to DGS (fee waiver available for those who cannot afford it). Materials submitted without the fee will not be processed.
• One narrow exception: if the claim is $12,500 or less and only against Caltrans, it can be filed directly with the Caltrans District Claims Office for the county where the incident occurred using form LD-0274, under Government Code §935.7. The six-month deadline under §911.2 still applies. (The LD-0274 form currently reads “$10,000 or less” while it is being updated; the statutory threshold of $12,500 controls.)
• Whether a road is state, county, or city maintained changes which agency to file against. Filing with the wrong entity does not stop the six-month clock from running against the correct one.

What Is a Claim Against Caltrans or the State of California?

Claims against Caltrans or the State of California start with a formal written notice presented to the State before a lawsuit can be filed. Under California Government Code §911.2, no one can sue a state agency for money damages without first submitting a proper written claim to the Department of General Services and waiting for the claim to be rejected (formally or by operation of law).

Claims against Caltrans are almost always claims against the State of California, because Caltrans is a state agency. The exception is a small-dollar direct-filing option under Government Code §935.7 for claims of $12,500 or less against Caltrans specifically. Every other highway claim, including every serious personal injury or wrongful death claim, goes through the Department of General Services.

Where Do You File Claims Against Caltrans and the State?

The California Department of General Services, Office of Risk and Insurance Management, Government Claims Program. Not Caltrans directly (except for the small-dollar carve-out below). Not the city or county where the incident occurred. Not the California Highway Patrol.

The correct filing address:

California Department of General Services Office of Risk and Insurance Management Government Claims Program P.O. Box 989052, MS 414 West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052 Phone: 1-800-955-0045

DGS also accepts online filing at dgs.ca.gov/en/ORIM/File-A-Claim, with the $25 filing fee payable by credit card or e-check at submission. Claims that cannot be filed online can be mailed to the P.O. Box above or hand-delivered to the drop box at:

Office of Risk and Insurance Management Government Claims Program 707 3rd Street, 1st Floor West Sacramento, CA 95605

Whichever method is used, the six-month deadline under §911.2 continues to run against the claimant until the claim is actually received by DGS.

The current form is DGS ORIM 006, Government Claim. A $25 filing fee must accompany every claim. Materials submitted without the fee will not be processed. A fee waiver is available for those who cannot afford the fee.

The Caltrans small-dollar exception. If the claim is against Caltrans only, and the total damages are $12,500 or less, the claim can be filed directly with Caltrans under Government Code §935.7 using form LD-0274. The route skips the $25 DGS fee. The six-month deadline under §911.2 still applies to personal injury, property damage, and crop damage claims filed on LD-0274. (A separate one-year window under §935.7 covers Caltrans equity claims filed on form ADM-3016 for goods/services disputes, which is not the same route and does not apply to accident cases.) LD-0274 is filed with the Caltrans District Claims Office for the county where the incident occurred, not to a single statewide address; the District Office directory is on Caltrans’s damage claim page at dot.ca.gov/online-services/submit-damage-claim.

Note that the LD-0274 form itself currently reads “$10,000 or less” in several places. Caltrans is mid-update on the form; the operative statutory threshold under §935.7 is $12,500, which is what controls. Serious injury and wrongful death claims almost always exceed $12,500 either way and must go through DGS.

What Is the Deadline for Claims Against Caltrans?

Six months from the date of the incident for personal injury and wrongful death claims, under California Government Code §911.2(a). This is the primary deadline. It is not two years.

The two-year statute of limitations for ordinary personal injury under California Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 does not apply as the operative deadline when a state agency is involved. Filing within two years is not enough. Under Government Code §945.4, filing a proper claim within six months and then waiting for the claim to be rejected is a mandatory prerequisite to any lawsuit. Skip the claim and any later lawsuit is generally barred.

The six-month clock is counted from the date the incident occurred. Not from the date medical treatment ended. Not from the date the injury was fully diagnosed. Not from the date an attorney was retained. Under §911.2, the deadline runs from “the accrual of the cause of action,” which for a highway crash generally means the date of the accident.

If the six-month deadline is missed, Government Code §911.4 allows a late-claim application within one year of the injury. The application must state the reason for delay and attach the proposed claim. Approval under Government Code §911.6 is discretionary and generally limited to mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect. Simply being unaware of the deadline is generally not enough.

When Is a Roadway Crash a Claim Against Caltrans?

When the crash was caused or contributed to by a dangerous condition of state-controlled roadway property. Under California Government Code §835, a public entity is liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if the plaintiff establishes:

• The property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury
• The dangerous condition proximately caused the injury
• The dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred
• Either a negligent act by a public employee created the dangerous condition, OR the public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition in time to have taken protective measures

For highway crashes, dangerous condition claims most commonly involve three theories:

Roadway design defects. The road was designed in a way that creates unreasonable risk: unsafe curve radii, inadequate sight distance, unsafe merge or lane configurations that contribute to car accidents, insufficient shoulder width, missing guardrails on raised or bridge sections. Design immunity under Government Code §830.6 can be a defense but is not automatic and can be overcome by changed conditions.

Maintenance failures. The road was allowed to deteriorate in a way that creates unreasonable risk: potholes, pavement failure, standing water from drainage failure, debris in traffic lanes, unrepaired damage to guardrails or median barriers, unmaintained shoulders.

Signage and traffic control failures. Warning signs are missing, obscured, or wrong. Traffic signals malfunction. Lane markings are worn away. Work-zone traffic control is inadequate. Under California Vehicle Code §21400, Caltrans has adopted the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (California MUTCD), and departures from those standards can support a dangerous condition claim.

How Do You Tell If a Road Is State, County, or City Maintained?

The three jurisdictions each control specific categories of roads. Getting this right is the difference between filing with the correct agency in six months and losing the claim entirely.

State-maintained roads (Caltrans): All Interstate highways (I-5, I-10, I-15, I-40, I-405, I-605, I-710, I-105, I-110, I-210, etc.), all U.S. Routes (US-101), and all State Routes marked with the “CA” or state-shield sign (SR-1 / Pacific Coast Highway, SR-14, SR-22, SR-27, SR-39, SR-57, SR-60, SR-71, SR-91, SR-118, SR-134, SR-170, and dozens more).

County-maintained roads: Unincorporated roads outside city limits, typically county highways and rural connectors. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works maintains most of these in LA County.

City-maintained roads: Local streets within a city’s boundaries. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services maintains city streets, sidewalks, and most intersections not on state or county-controlled corridors.

Ambiguous cases are common. A crash on Pacific Coast Highway (SR-1) is a Caltrans claim, but the same crash a few blocks off PCH on a Santa Monica city street is a City of Santa Monica claim. An off-ramp from I-405 is Caltrans; the surface street immediately after the off-ramp may be city-maintained. The California Road System Maps published by Caltrans are the authoritative source for state-route designations.

When in doubt, file with more than one agency to preserve all claims. Each agency has its own six-month deadline running simultaneously.

What Happens After the Claim Is Filed?

DGS has 45 days to act on the claim. Under Government Code §912.4, the Government Claims Program can approve the claim, reject the claim, or take no action within the 45-day window. If DGS takes no action, the claim is deemed rejected by operation of law. No formal rejection letter is required.

After rejection (formal or deemed), the claimant has six months to file a lawsuit under Government Code §945.6(a)(1). The six-month clock starts on the date the rejection notice is personally delivered or deposited in the mail. If DGS fails to send a proper written rejection notice, the lawsuit deadline extends to two years from the date of injury under §945.6(a)(2), though relying on that longer window is risky because proving that no notice was sent can become a factual dispute.

Most government tort claims are rejected. Rejection is procedural, not a judgment on the merits. It opens the door to filing suit against the State of California in the appropriate California Superior Court.

What Evidence Disappears Fastest in Highway Cases?

Highway crash cases turn on evidence that is time-sensitive and often controlled by third parties. Waiting to investigate is one of the fastest ways to lose a viable claim.

Physical roadway conditions. Skid marks fade or are washed away. Debris is cleared. Signs are replaced or repositioned. Pavement damage is patched. A pothole that caused a crash on Day 1 may be filled by Day 30, erasing the physical proof of the dangerous condition.

Traffic signal timing data and malfunction logs. Signal controllers keep short retention windows. If a malfunctioning signal contributed to the crash, the electronic record showing the malfunction can cycle off before anyone requests it.

Caltrans complaint and work-order records. Prior complaints about the same dangerous condition establish notice under §835. These records are subject to Public Records Act requests, but response times are slow and specific incidents can be hard to locate months after the fact.

Nearby surveillance and traffic camera footage. Most surveillance systems run 30 to 90 day rolling buffers that automatically overwrite. Business surveillance, CHP freeway cameras, and city traffic cameras all cycle out quickly unless a preservation request freezes them.

Witness memories. Highway crashes often involve witnesses in passing vehicles who never exchange contact information. The window to identify and contact them is short.

Vehicle event data recorder (EDR) data. Modern vehicles record speed, braking, throttle, and impact data from the seconds before a crash. If the vehicle is repaired, sold, or scrapped before the EDR is downloaded, the data is gone.

Weather and road-condition records. National Weather Service data for the specific location and time is available but must be pulled with the correct coordinates and timestamps.

Claims against Caltrans win or lose on evidence like this. The most effective step in the first days after a highway crash is a formal preservation demand to Caltrans, to CHP, and to any nearby business or agency that may hold relevant records. Ravan Law sends these letters within days of intake, before the retention windows close.

What About Multi-Entity Highway Crashes?

Many highway crashes involve more than one public entity, and sometimes private parties as well. A crash in a work zone on a Caltrans-controlled corridor may involve Caltrans, a construction contractor, and a subcontractor. A crash at the interchange between a state route and a county road may implicate both Caltrans and the County. A crash involving a public transit bus on a state highway may involve Caltrans and LA Metro (LACMTA). A truck accident in a Caltrans work zone can implicate the carrier, the contractor, and Caltrans all at once.

Each public entity is a separate defendant with its own claim procedure. Claims against Caltrans preserve nothing against the County, LA Metro, LAUSD, or any city, and the six-month deadline runs simultaneously against each of them. Filing with DGS does not preserve a claim against the County of Los Angeles, LA Metro, LAUSD, or any city. A separate claim to each agency is required.

For more on how the Government Claims Act works across California, see Ravan Law’s guide on what to do if you have been injured due to a government entity. For the deadlines that apply to ordinary personal injury claims where no public entity is involved, see the California Personal Injury Time Limits resource page.

Talk to a Los Angeles Injury Attorney Before Your Deadline Passes

The six-month deadline under California Government Code §911.2 is the single most important date in any claim against Caltrans or the State of California. Once it passes, no severity of injury, no clarity of fault, and no amount of documentation can revive the case.

Highway crash cases move quickly on the evidence side. Skid marks, signal data, camera footage, and complaint records all cycle out on retention schedules the State does not control for your benefit. At Ravan Law, government tort claims are a core part of the practice, not an occasional matter. Attorney Ted Ravan handles every case personally, because the six-month deadline under §911.2 and the two-form DGS/Caltrans routing are exactly what other firms miss and clients pay for. If the crash involved an interstate, US route, or state route, call Ravan Law today at (424) 465-2500 or book a free consultation.