Wrongful Death Lawsuit California Deadlines: Two Years, and the Shorter Clock Families Miss

Most California wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within two years. But where a public entity may be responsible, such as a city, a county, a school district, a transit agency, or a state agency, two separate six-month clocks apply instead. First, a written claim generally must be presented to the entity within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Second, and this is the one families miss, once the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, section 945.6 gives only six months from that mailing to file suit. Not six months from when the letter arrived, and not the remainder of the two years.

Almost every page about California wrongful death deadlines mentions two years, and the better ones mention the six-month government claim. Very few mention what happens after the claim is rejected, which is where otherwise strong cases are lost. This article covers all of the clocks and how they interact. For who is eligible to bring a claim, see our California wrongful death page. To talk through a specific situation, call us at (877) 780-4727. The consultation is free.

Key Takeaways

• Two years is the general deadline for a wrongful death claim against a private party.
• Where a public entity may be responsible, a written claim generally must be presented within six months, and no suit can be brought until that claim has been acted on or deemed rejected.
• After a written rejection, the deadline to file suit is six months from when the entity delivered or mailed the notice, which can be far shorter than the time left on the two years.
• If the entity never sends a proper written rejection notice, a different and longer period applies.
• Missing the six-month claim deadline is not automatically the end. There is a statutory late-claim application procedure, with its own outer limit.

The Two-Year Rule, and What It Runs From

A wrongful death claim against a private party is generally governed by Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, which provides a two-year period for an action for injury or death caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. In a wrongful death case that period is generally measured from the death rather than from the underlying incident, and the two are not always the same date.

When a cause of action accrues can itself be a legal question in unusual circumstances, which is why “two years from the death” is the right starting assumption rather than a safe conclusion. What is safe to assume is that nothing about grieving, arranging a funeral, settling an estate, or waiting for a police report pauses it.

Shorter Clock One: Six Months to Present a Government Claim

If a city, county, school district, transit district, or state agency may share responsibility for the death, the ordinary two-year period is not the operative deadline. California’s Government Claims Act requires a written claim to be presented to the entity first.

Government Code section 911.2(a) provides that a claim relating to a cause of action for death, or for injury to a person or to personal property, must be presented not later than six months after the cause of action accrues. Claims relating to other causes of action get a year. Death claims are in the six-month category.

Two further points matter:

• The claim is a formal document, not a demand letter. The Act sets out what it must contain and where it must be presented, and getting that wrong can mean the claim does not count.
• No lawsuit until the claim is resolved. Government Code section 945.4 provides that no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity on a claim covered by the Act until a written claim has been presented and has been acted on by the board, or has been deemed rejected.

Six months is short. It runs while a family is still arranging a funeral and dealing with the immediate aftermath, and identifying which entity is even responsible for a roadway, a vehicle, or a facility can itself take weeks.

Shorter Clock Two: Six Months From the Rejection Notice to File Suit

This is the deadline that catches people, including people who did everything right up to this point.

Once a claim is presented and the entity rejects it, Government Code section 945.6(a)(1) provides that where written notice is given in accordance with section 913, the suit must be commenced not later than six months after the date the notice is personally delivered or deposited in the mail.

Read that carefully, because three things follow:

• The clock starts when the entity sends it, not when you get it. The statute measures from personal delivery or deposit in the mail. California appellate decisions interpreting this section have addressed exactly that point: the period begins when the rejection notice is mailed or delivered by the entity, not when it reaches the claimant or their lawyer. Postal time is your time.
• It replaces the rest of the two years. A family who presents a claim at month five and receives a rejection at month seven does not have seventeen months left. They have six months from the mailing of that notice.
• Rejection notices usually say so. Entities commonly include a warning on the notice itself that you have six months from delivery or mailing to file a court action, with a reference to section 945.6. That paragraph is easy to skim past while reading a denial.

If you have received a rejection letter from a public entity, the date on that envelope is now the most important date in the case.

If the Entity Never Sends a Proper Rejection

Entities do not always respond, and they do not always respond properly. Section 945.6(a)(2) addresses that: where written notice is not given in accordance with section 913, the suit must be commenced within two years from the accrual of the cause of action.

So silence is not the trap that a rejection is. But whether a notice was given “in accordance with section 913” is a technical question about what the entity sent and how, not something to eyeball. A claim can also be deemed rejected by operation of the Act when an entity fails to act within the time allowed, which is the mechanism that lets a case proceed when nothing comes back. Section 945.6 also addresses what happens when the entity’s time to act is extended.

The practical point: do not treat no news as more time without having someone check which branch of section 945.6 you are actually on.

If the Six-Month Claim Deadline Was Missed

This is not automatically fatal, and it is worth knowing before concluding that nothing can be done. Government Code section 911.4 provides that where a claim required to be presented within six months was not presented in time, a written application may be made to the entity for leave to present the claim. That application must be presented within a reasonable time, not exceeding one year after the cause of action accrued, must state the reason for the delay, and must have the proposed claim attached.

The one-year outer limit is firm, the application has to be justified, and the entity can refuse it, with its own consequences and further procedure. None of that makes it a formality. But a family who is at month eight and has been told they are out of time should get that checked rather than accept it.

All of the Clocks in One Place

Where both a public entity and a private party may be responsible, the clocks run in parallel. The shorter one governs the part of the claim it applies to, which means the whole case ends up paced by the government claim process.

Where Public Entities Come Up on the Peninsula

Families are often surprised that the Government Claims Act applies to their situation at all. On the Peninsula, the recurring scenarios include a collision involving a transit vehicle, a crash on a state highway or a county expressway, a dangerous condition on a city or county roadway or sidewalk, an incident at a public school or a County facility, and a death involving a publicly operated vehicle or property.

Working out whether an entity is involved, and which one, is early work. A stretch of road can be maintained by a city, the County, or the State, and that is not apparent from standing on it.

Two Related Timing Points

Claims involving a health care provider

Where the death is alleged to have resulted from a health care provider’s professional negligence, a different limitations framework applies under Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, with its own rules. If the provider is part of a public hospital or district, the Government Claims Act may apply as well, which is a combination worth identifying early rather than late.

The estate’s separate claim

A death usually produces two claims: the family’s wrongful death claim, and a survival action belonging to the decedent’s estate for what the decedent lost before dying. What a survival action can recover has been the subject of recent legislative change, so the categories available depend on the current state of the statute and on when the action is filed. That is a question for a lawyer to check against the statute at the time rather than something to read off an article.

What No Deadline Article Should Tell You

There is no reliable average wrongful death settlement in California, because many resolutions are confidential or unreported and published ranges combine cases with nothing in common. No lawyer can predict the outcome of a particular case. And California recognizes categories of loss rather than amounts, including the financial support the decedent would have provided, funeral and burial expenses, the value of household services, and the loss of the decedent’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support.

Any figure offered before an investigation is a guess. What can be established early, and what actually decides whether a family has a case at all, is which deadline applies.

How Vaksman Khalfin Can Help

On deadlines specifically, Vaksman Khalfin, PC can identify whether a public entity may be responsible and which one, prepare and present the government claim within its window, calculate the filing deadline from the rejection notice rather than from the calendar, assess whether a late claim application is available where the six months has passed, and preserve evidence while all of that is happening.

The firm’s California personal injury practice is led by Alan D. Khalfin, admitted in California. Wrongful death matters are handled on a contingency-fee basis: there is no upfront attorney’s fee, and attorney’s fees are owed only if there is a recovery. Case costs are a separate category from attorney’s fees, and how they are handled, including whether you may be responsible for them, is set out in the written fee agreement that is reviewed with you before anything is signed.

If you have a rejection letter from a public entity, bring the envelope. To speak with a California wrongful death lawyer, call (877) 780-4727 or schedule a free consultation.

Reviewed by Alan D. Khalfin, Partner and Managing Attorney, Vaksman Khalfin, PC (admitted in California). Last reviewed: 09/15/2026