Injury Claims Against A City Bus Agency In California

Attorney Answer

Before anything else, understand the calendar. A claim against a city or a public transit agency is not on the ordinary two-year track — it has to be presented to the agency within six months, and that is the deadline people miss. Everything else in your situation is workable. That one is not.

Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) requires a claim for death or for injury to a person or to personal property against a public entity to be presented not later than six months after the cause of action accrues. A city bus system is a public entity, so this applies. "Presented" means a written claim delivered to the entity, normally on the claim form it publishes; it comes before, and is separate from, any lawsuit. Cal. Gov't Code § 945.4 also requires that presentation to happen before a suit can be brought at all, and once the entity acts on the claim a further, separate and short deadline under Cal. Gov't Code § 945.6(a) starts running for going to court. Those two follow-on rules have their own statutes, and they are exactly the kind of thing to have a local attorney confirm rather than read off a website.

On the merits, the standard is ordinary negligence. Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) provides that everyone is responsible for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person. That reaches how a bus is driven and how a passenger's safety is handled while it is moving.

Expect the agency to argue that you should have been holding on. That argument does not end a claim in California. Applying § 1714(a), the Supreme Court in Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978), described a pure comparative system in which a plaintiff's recovery is reduced only to the extent his own lack of reasonable care contributed to his injury. Being found partly at fault reduces a recovery here; it does not wipe it out.

Your lingering symptoms are part of the claim, not an afterthought. Cal. Civ. Code § 3333 sets the measure: "For the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Code, is the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not." Reduced motion in a finger and continuing back pain are detriment, and they need to be documented by a doctor, not just described.

Finally, you mention a second accident. Treat it as a separate matter with its own deadline and its own responsible party. Do not assume one claim carries the other.

What you can do

1. Ask the transit agency for its claim form today and present a written claim. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) gives six months from accrual, and the form is free.

2. Present it to the transit agency and, if they are separate bodies, to the city as well. Keep proof of delivery and a copy of everything you send.

3. Write to the agency asking it to preserve the onboard and platform video, the driver's report, and the incident report for that route, run and date. Video is routinely overwritten in weeks.

4. See a doctor about the finger and the back specifically, and say the fall on the bus is the cause. Keep every record, bill and receipt, including the fire department's involvement.

5. Ask a local attorney which entity actually operates the bus, and about the deadline that follows the agency's response to your claim.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) is the controlling one: six months from accrual to present the claim to the public entity — far shorter than the two years Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 allows for an ordinary injury claim. When the six months started, whether it has run, and what deadline follows the agency's answer all depend on your facts. Have a local attorney check the dates now.