For 20 years, the State of Arizona, its agencies and political subdivisions have held a secret weapon to thwart claims made against them for everything from breach of employment contracts to gross negligence in providing public services. The Arizona Notice of Claim Statute was enacted in 1994, and it has been a trap for the unwary ever since.
The Notice of Claim Statute lurks behind any claim made against the state, a state agency or a political subdivision of the state such as a city, a county, a board, a commission, or even the Salt River Project. It requires that anyone who wishes to make a claim against such a public entity must first provide the entity with notice of the claim within 180 days (about six months) after the claim has accrued. This is a much shorter time than allowed by statutes of limitations applied to claims against anyone else. If you are injured by a public entity’s negligence, for example, you do not have two years to sue. You have only 180 days to present your claim to the entity or risk losing it altogether.
The statute also requires that you serve your notice of claim upon a person who is authorized to accept service of process. This is not always an easy thing to determine. The notice is required to state: (a) sufficient facts that support the claim, and (b) a “specific amount for which the claim can be settled and the facts supporting that amount.” If this seems complicated and sounds like a lot of work, it is and does.
The statute provides that a notice of claim is deemed denied if not accepted within 60 days after it is submitted, and, regardless of whether it is accepted or denied, a plaintiff has no more than one (1) year after the claim has accrued to sue, a limitations period that in some cases may expire before or soon after a claim has been denied. This confusing matrix of deadlines has tripped up many a lawyer on his or her way to the courthouse.
The presumed purpose of these requirements is to give government entities time to evaluate and settle claims before they are dragged into court. Vasquez v. State, 220 Ariz. 304, 308, ¶9, 206 P.3d 753, 757 (App. 2008) (Notice of Claim Statute anticipates that government entities will investigate and assess claims and permits possible settlement). In real life, however, other than low-money claims for personal injury or property damage, few significant claims that are submitted for evaluation are either evaluated or settled, and the vast majority of them are...
