Filing a Claim Against the Government

January 14, 2020

Video Transcript

Welcome to Legal Tip Tuesday, my name is Jeff Monzo. What I’d like to talk to you about today are the situations where you may be injured in a car accident or a fall down, and the person or thing you have the claim against is the government. Those types of situations may exist where you’re in a car accident and the person that hits you was a government employee, or you may be involved in a situation where you are outside of the state office building or a court house and you slipped and fell on a dangerous condition. Or a situation possibly where you’re on a roadway and there’s a defect in the roadway, whether that be a pothole or improper signage and you suffer injuries as a result of that. In those situations, you can still make a claim even though that other side is the government.

However, that kind of case presents unique challenges that you need to know about. And most importantly, you need to know that we have to provide notice to that government agency, or the government employee, within 6 months of the date of your accident. And there’s specific requirements of that notice, including what type of injuries you suffered, where exactly the accident happened, when the accident happened, potential witnesses that exist, and we have to provide all that information to the government entity that we are bringing the claim against within 6 months of the date of the accident. If you do not make that notice or present that notice within 6 months you may lose your right to sue and recover from your injuries or damages. The other unique part or issue in those types of cases is we are limited to being able to recover $250,000 for each individual person involved in that accident or 1 million dollars for the total claim if there are multiple people involved in the accident.

So those types of cases present unique challenges to us but we’re prepared to address those challenges for you, but if you, or a family member, or a close friend is injured as a result of something connected to the government; like I said, an employee, or a state office building, or a possible defect in the road, we can help you but there’s some unique challenges and requirements that we have to meet, and we’re prepared to do that here at QuatriniRafferty.