To sue a government agency (or city or county) in Oklahoma, you have to comply with the Governmental Tort Claims Act (GTCA). You first have to send notice of your claim to the government agency you’re suing; the agency has ninety days to approve or deny your claim. After the agency denies your claim, you then have 180 days to file suit. You may not recover beyond a certain prescribed amount, and for some government actions, you can’t recover at all. I will discuss these points in more detail below.
Background – sovereign immunity
The doctrine of sovereign immunity goes back to England, where a person could not sue the king. When the United States became independent, the doctrine of sovereign immunity continued to exist, in that no one could sue the government.
The doctrine of sovereign immunity still applies in many U.S. states, including Oklahoma. The Oklahoma legislature has passed the “Governmental Tort Claims Act” (GTCA). GTCA says that the state has sovereign immunity, but that the state has waived sovereign immunity only to the extent that the GTCA authorizes. Thus, you can’t sue the Oklahoma state government, or any government agency or political subdivision in Oklahoma, unless you comply with GTCA. “Political subdivisions” include all cities, counties, and school boards in Oklahoma. For a complete list of all the entities in Oklahoma that the law classifies as “political subdivisions” click here and scroll down to “political subdivision”.
So if you want to sue the state of Oklahoma, or any state agency, or any city, county, or school board in Oklahoma, you have to follow GTCA. (Note: If you’re suing a federal agency, then federal law, not Oklahoma state law, will govern your lawsuit. This post will only discuss state law for suing Oklahoma state agencies and subdivisions; I will not discuss federal law.)
What do you have to do to comply with the GTCA?
First, you have to provide written notice of the claim. If you’re suing the state or a state agency, you have to send this notice to the Office of the Risk Management Administrator of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. If you’re suing a political subdivision, you have to send written notice to the clerk of the political subdivision. You don’t have to send the notice via certified mail, but it’s a good idea to use certified mail, so you can have a record of when the state or political subdivision received notice.
In the notice, you have to give the following information:
· The date and time of the claim
· The location of the claim
· The circumstances of the claim
· Your name, address, and telephone number
· The name, address, and telephone number of any agent (such as your lawyer) who has authority to settle the claim for you
· Any information necessary to meet the reporting requirement of the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007
· If you’re claiming relief from personal injuries, you have to give the name and address of all health care providers who have treated you since the claim arose. You also have to give the state a HIPPA compliant authorization form for each health care provider.
· If you’re making a claim for loss of earnings, you have to provide documentation of your earnings since the claims arose
· If you’re making a claim for loss of property, you have to provide the amount of the loss, the method you use to calculate the loss, documentation you rely on in calculating the amount of the loss, and proof that you own the property.
If you don’t provide this information, that won’t render your claim invalid, unless you continue to refuse to provide this information after the state or political subdivision demands it.
What happens after you send your notice of claim?
After you send notice of your claim, the state or political subdivision has ninety days to approve or deny your claim. Often, the government won’t even respond. If the government doesn’t approve your claim within ninety days, then the claim is deemed denied at the end of the ninety day period. If you and the government agency are in the process of negotiating a settlement, you and the agency may agree, in writing, to extend the government’s deadline for denying your claim. If the government denies your claim, you have 180 days after the date of denial, to file a lawsuit in court.
Filing a lawsuit under GTCA
To file a lawsuit under GTCA, you first have to determine where to file. If you’re suing the state or a state agency, you may sue in the county where the claim arose, or in Oklahoma County. Any state agency may file a document with the Secretary of State, designating a county other than Oklahoma County as the proper venue. If you’re suing a political subdivision, you may sue in either the county where the “situs” of the political subdivision is located, or in the county where the claim arose. If you’re suing a city or town based on the construction, maintenance, or operation of a dam, you have to sue in a county where a major part of the dam is located.
After you file your suit, you have to serve notice of the suit. If you’re suing a state agency, you have to serve this notice by sending certified mail to:
· The Oklahoma Attorney General
· The head of the state agency you’re suing, and
· The Risk Management Administrator of the Purchasing Division of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services
If you’re suing a political subdivision, you have to serve notice on the “administrative head” of the subdivision. You may serve them through delivery by a deputy sheriff, a licensed process server, or certified mail.
How your lawsuit will proceed
The GTCA says that “laws and statutes of the State of Oklahoma and the Rules of Civil Procedure, as promulgated and adopted by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma” will govern lawsuits under GTCA. This means that your lawsuit will proceed under the same laws as a typical Oklahoma lawsuit. To find out how a lawsuit proceeds under Oklahoma law, read my earlier post here.
How much can you recover?
The GTCA has certain limits of liability. In general, you can’t recover more than:
· $25,000 for a claim for loss of property arising out of one act or incident
· $100,000 for a claim against a resident physician or intern in a graduate medical education program at OU or the Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Medicine
· $125,000 for a claim for any other loss arising out of one act or incident. If you’re suing a city or county with a population of over 300,000, you can’t recover more than $175,000 for a claim for any other loss arising out of one act or incident. Currently only Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Oklahoma County, and Tulsa County have populations this large.
· $175,000 for a wrongful felony conviction resulting in imprisonment
· $200,000 for a claim of medical negligence against state university hospitals and state mental health hospitals
· $1,000,000 for any number of claims arising out of one act or incident.
Also, if you and the government agency agree on a settlement greater than $25,000, and the government’s insurance policy won’t pay the claim, a district judge has to approve the settlement before the settlement is effective.
When you can’t recover
The GTCA has certain “exemptions from liability”; that is, there are certain government actions for which you are not allowed to recover any judgment. For example, you can’t recover a judgment from any government agency for legislative functions, judicial or prosecutorial functions, or execution or enforcement of lawful court orders. There are 37 separate acts for which you can’t recover; click here to read the full list.
Do you have questions about suing a government agency? Contact the Persaud Law Office
At the Persaud Law Office, we’ve represented many clients in claims against the government. In some cases, we have been successful at getting our clients compensated for the government’s wrongs. If you have questions about whether you can sue a state agency, or how to go about the process, contact our office today.
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