United States · California government claims
When must California government suit start without rejection notice?
Section 945.6(a)(2) ordinarily gives two years from legal accrual without qualified section 913 notice, excluding a qualifying board extension interval.
- Period
- 2 calendar years for the stated statutory branch
- Trigger
- Legally established accrual of the cause of action against the public entity
- Rule
- Government Code 945.6(a)(2)
Official text reviewed. (Amended by Stats. 1971, Ch. 438.)
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What starts the Government Code 945.6(a)(2) procedure?
Legally established accrual of the cause of action against the public entity
Accrual starts this branch. Claim presentation, board silence and deemed rejection do not start a fresh two-year period. The calculator does not decide when legal accrual occurred.
Responsible actor. The claimant commencing suit after required claim presentation and rejection. Use a properly presented claim already acted upon or deemed rejected, with no qualified section 913 notice, no section 912.4(b) extension, no relief exception and no other tolling. Resolve any electronic or disputed notice before using this no-notice component.
Government Code 945.6(a)(2)How is this court-filing period counted?
- Legally established accrual of the cause of action against the public entity
- Accrual starts this branch. Claim presentation, board silence and deemed rejection do not start a fresh two-year period. The calculator does not decide when legal accrual occurred.
- Count 2 calendar years forward from the legally established event. Government Code 6804 defines calendar months; section 6803 defines years and leap-day treatment. Intermediate closed days remain in the period. CCP 12a and 135 govern the final judicial-holiday adjustment, with actual whole-day closures reviewed under CCP 12b.
- Commence the action in the proper court after satisfying section 945.4 and within the applicable suit period. Preserve the claim, rejection or deemed-rejection basis and accepted complaint filing.
These court-filing components use calendar months or years, not a substitution of 180 days for six months. Government Code 6804 defines calendar months; section 6803 addresses years and leap days. CCP 12a includes Saturdays, CCP 135 judicial holidays and qualifying CCP 12b closures in its final-day adjustment. Intermediate closed days do not disappear from a month or year period. Rule 1.11 supplies the ordinary Friday or Monday observance of a weekend judicial holiday. The retained 2026 and 2027 calendar includes Lincoln Day, March 31, Juneteenth, Native American Day and Thanksgiving Friday, and December 31, 2027 observance of New Year. CCP 135 excludes Admission Day, Columbus Day, Lunar New Year, Diwali and Genocide Remembrance Day from ordinary judicial holidays. Additional actual closures require separate evidence.
Claim presentation, ordinary claim rejection and late-application denial are different events. Section 915.2(a) deems proper mail presented and received at deposit. Its subsection (b) provides specified mail-response additions but excludes the section 945.6 notice and post-denial complaint filing. Section 915.4 separately permits identified electronic notice. The six-month notice preset accepts only the qualified personal-delivery or mail-deposit branch; it does not resolve electronic notice. The petition preset accepts the independently established actual or deemed application-denial date, not a later notice-receipt date.
Official sections were reviewed. The three court-filing presets require triggers on or after January 1, 2024 and final dates within the retained 2026 or 2027 judicial calendar. The unchanged section 945.6 text and the current section 946.6 edition are retained. Every other referenced requirement must still apply to the actual facts. Earlier editions, later amendments, emergency orders, additional closures, disputed accrual, excluded intervals and relief branches require separate review. These software coverage limits do not establish that an actual filing is late.
Government Code 6800, exclusion of the first dayWhat does the independently derived example show?
Fictitious example
Use a properly presented claim already acted upon or deemed rejected, with no qualified section 913 notice, no section 912.4(b) extension, no relief exception and no other tolling. Resolve any electronic or disputed notice before using this no-notice component. Legal accrual is established, the required claim was rejected, and no qualified notice, written board extension or tolling applies.
| Step | What is counted | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Established statutory event | Legally established accrual of the cause of action against the public entity | August 2, 2025 |
| Disclosed court-filing boundary | 2 calendar years for the stated statutory branch | August 2, 2027 |
Fictitious facts within the stated coverage. No excluded interval, different notice branch, relief order, emergency or additional closure is assumed. The calculation does not establish accrual, adequate claim presentation, valid notice or entitlement to relief.
Try these dates in the calculatorWhich facts change this government-claims procedure?
- Written board-action extension excluded
- Section 945.6(a)(2) excludes the duration of a qualifying section 912.4(b) extension from this limitation. The two-year preset has no extension-interval input and does not calculate that branch.
- Later qualified notice
- A qualified section 913 notice requires assessing the six-month personal-delivery or mail-deposit branch. Missing a letter from one file is not proof that no qualified notice was given.
- Pre-suit and statutory exceptions
- Section 945.4’s claim-and-action prerequisite remains separate. Sections 946.4 and 946.6 and section 945.6(b) require their own facts and periods.
- Legal accrual
- Section 901 uses the otherwise applicable accrual law, including the distinct equitable-indemnity complaint-service event. The incident or claim date may differ.
- Presentation and notice methods
- Claim presentation, ordinary claim rejection and late-application denial are different events. Section 915.2(a) deems proper mail presented and received at deposit. Its subsection (b) provides specified mail-response additions but excludes the section 945.6 notice and post-denial complaint filing. Section 915.4 separately permits identified electronic notice. The six-month notice preset accepts only the qualified personal-delivery or mail-deposit branch; it does not resolve electronic notice. The petition preset accepts the independently established actual or deemed application-denial date, not a later notice-receipt date.
- Edition and judicial-calendar coverage
- Official sections were reviewed. The three court-filing presets require triggers on or after January 1, 2024 and final dates within the retained 2026 or 2027 judicial calendar. The unchanged section 945.6 text and the current section 946.6 edition are retained. Every other referenced requirement must still apply to the actual facts. Earlier editions, later amendments, emergency orders, additional closures, disputed accrual, excluded intervals and relief branches require separate review. These software coverage limits do not establish that an actual filing is late.
- Use a properly presented claim already acted upon or deemed rejected, with no qualified section 913 notice, no section 912.4(b) extension, no relief exception and no other tolling. Resolve any electronic or disputed notice before using this no-notice component.
- The component does not determine the excluded branches or prove completion of the required statutory acts.
Which documents, acts and proof must be preserved?
Questions about Government Code 945.6(a)(2)
When must California government suit start without rejection notice?
Can I count two years after the board’s forty-five-day silence?
No. Section 945.6(a)(2) measures from accrual and separately excludes a qualifying agreed board-extension interval.
Government Code 945.6(a)(2)Does a written extension leave the two-year computation unchanged?
No. The statute excludes the section 912.4(b) extension interval from this suit period. Establish its dates before choosing a final result.
Government Code 945.6(a)(2)Can I sue before the board acts merely because there is no notice?
Section 945.4 ordinarily requires the presented claim to have been acted upon or deemed rejected. Its stated exceptions require separate review.
Government Code 945.4Official claim, court-filing and calendar sources
Provisions used (20)
| Provision | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Government Code 945.6(a)(2) | The specific actor, statutory event, period and required act |
| Government Code 945.6(a)(2) | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 945.6(a)(1) | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 945.4 | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 901 | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 6800, exclusion of the first day | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 6804, calendar months | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 6803, years and leap days | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| CCP 12a, final judicial holidays | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| CCP 12b, actual whole-day office closures | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| CCP 135, judicial holidays and exclusions | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.11 | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| California judicial holiday schedule | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Superior Court of San Bernardino holiday schedule | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| CCP 1010.6, electronic court filing | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.259 | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.253 | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 915, presentation recipients and methods | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 915.2, mail presentation and response additions | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |
| Government Code 915.4, notice methods and addresses | The identified presentation, notice, calendar or relief qualification |