Federal Tort Claims Act: Form 95, Deadlines, and Exceptions

The Federal Tort Claims Act is the law that lets you seek money damages from the United States when a federal employee’s negligence causes injury, death, or property damage on the job. The process is not a normal lawsuit. You must first file a written administrative claim with the responsible agency within two years of the injury, wait up to six months for a decision, and only then can you sue in federal district court. Missing a deadline or filing in the wrong place can permanently end an otherwise valid claim.

What the FTCA Lets You Do

The United States is generally immune from lawsuits under sovereign immunity. Congress waived that immunity in 1946 through the FTCA, now codified primarily in 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b) and 2671–2680. It is the sole legal path for recovering money damages when a federal employee, acting within the scope of their job, negligently or wrongfully causes personal injury, death, or property damage.¹

The government’s liability mirrors that of a private person in the same situation, judged under the law of the state where the incident occurred.² That state-law hook matters. If you’re injured at a federal facility in a state that follows contributory negligence rules, even a small share of fault on your part could wipe out your recovery. In a pure comparative negligence state, your damages get reduced by your percentage of fault but aren’t eliminated.

You cannot separately sue the individual federal employee who hurt you. Under the Westfall Act, when the Attorney General certifies that the employee was acting within the scope of their job, the United States automatically replaces the employee as the defendant, and any case originally filed in state court against the employee is removed to federal court.³

The Two-Year Deadline To File Your Administrative Claim

Before you can file a lawsuit, you must submit an administrative claim to the federal agency whose employee caused the injury. Skip this step or file it late, and the case is permanently barred.⁴

The statute of limitations is two years from the date the claim accrues, which usually means two years from the date of the injury or the date you reasonably should have discovered it.⁵ Two years sounds generous. It isn’t. Claims against federal agencies often require substantial digging to identify the right agency, gather records, and assemble credible documentation. People who wait until year two to start routinely miss the deadline.

Preparing and Filing Standard Form 95

The standard vehicle for the administrative claim is Standard Form 95, prescribed by the Department of Justice under 28 CFR 14.2.⁶ Using this exact form isn’t technically required. Any written notification of the incident accompanied by a demand for a specific dollar amount will work. The form just organizes the information the agency needs and reduces the odds of a procedural rejection.

The single most important box is 12d: total amount of your claim. You must state a specific dollar figure, known as a “sum certain.” Leaving it blank or writing something vague like “to be determined” makes your submission invalid and can forfeit your rights entirely. This number also functions as a ceiling. If your case later reaches court, you generally cannot seek more than the amount you put on the SF-95 unless you can show newly discovered evidence that wasn’t reasonably available when you filed, or intervening facts that changed the scope of your damages.⁴ Estimate generously. You can settle for less; you almost never get to ask for more.

Documenting a Personal Injury Claim

For personal injury or wrongful death, agency reviewers expect your complete medical records for treatment related to the incident, both inpatient and outpatient. You’ll need itemized bills from every medical provider and a written report from your treating physician describing your injuries, any permanent disability, prognosis, lost earning capacity, and expected future treatment costs.⁷ A police or incident report, witness statements, and photographs strengthen the claim but are not substitutes for medical documentation.

Documenting a Property Damage Claim

If your property can be economically repaired, submit at least two signed, itemized repair estimates from disinterested businesses, or itemized receipts if you already paid. For property that’s destroyed or not worth repairing, provide statements showing the original purchase price, purchase date, and the property’s value before and after the incident, ideally from reputable dealers or qualified appraisers.⁸

What Happens After You Submit the Claim

Send the completed SF-95 and supporting documentation to the specific agency involved: the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Defense, or whichever agency employed the person who caused the harm. The clock starts when the agency physically receives the claim, not when you mail it.

The agency then has six months to investigate and reach a final decision: accept, deny, or offer a settlement. During that six-month window, you are legally barred from filing a lawsuit.⁴ A denial must come by certified or registered mail. If the agency simply doesn’t respond within six months, you can treat the silence as a denial and proceed to court any time after that period expires.⁹

Larger claims move slower. Federal regulations require the Attorney General’s written approval for any administrative settlement above $25,000 or the agency’s individually delegated authority, whichever is higher. Delegated thresholds vary: the Department of Defense and the VA can each settle claims up to $500,000 without DOJ sign-off; the Department of Homeland Security’s independent authority tops out at $50,000.¹⁰

Claims the FTCA Does Not Cover

The waiver of immunity comes with a long list of exceptions in 28 U.S.C. § 2680. Running into one doesn’t just weaken the case. It eliminates the government’s consent to be sued, and without that consent no court has jurisdiction.

The Discretionary Function Exception

This exception kills the most claims. The government is immune from liability when the conduct at issue involves a discretionary function or duty, whether or not the employee abused that discretion.¹¹ Courts apply a two-part test. First, did the employee’s action involve judgment or choice, as opposed to following a mandatory rule? Second, was that judgment grounded in policy considerations — social, economic, or political? If both answers are yes, the claim is barred no matter how badly the decision turned out.

Intentional Torts

The FTCA generally does not cover intentional wrongdoing. Claims based on assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, libel, slander, misrepresentation, deceit, or interference with contract rights are all excluded. One carve-out: claims for assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, abuse of process, or malicious prosecution are permitted when committed by a federal investigative or law enforcement officer, defined as anyone empowered by law to execute searches, seize evidence, or make arrests for federal offenses.¹¹ Libel, slander, misrepresentation, deceit, and interference with contract rights remain excluded even for law enforcement.

Other Major Exclusions

Foreign country claims: injuries occurring outside the United States are excluded entirely.
Combatant activities: claims arising from military or naval combat operations during wartime are barred.
Postal losses: lost or misdelivered mail is handled through separate postal claim procedures, not the FTCA.
Tax and customs disputes: claims related to the assessment or collection of taxes or customs duties are excluded, with narrow exceptions for property seized for forfeiture.
Quarantine damages: losses caused by a quarantine imposed by the United States cannot be recovered.

Military Servicemembers and the Feres Doctrine

Active-duty military members face a separate barrier. Under the Feres doctrine, named for the Supreme Court’s 1950 decision in Feres v. United States, the government is not liable under the FTCA for injuries to servicemembers when those injuries arise out of activity incident to military service.¹² Courts read “incident to service” broadly, covering nearly any injury connected to the person’s status as a military member.

Congress carved out one narrow exception in 10 U.S.C. § 2733a. Active-duty members can file administrative claims for medical malpractice by Department of Defense health care providers at covered military treatment facilities. The claim must be filed in writing within two years and follows its own DoD administrative process, not the standard FTCA path. If the Secretary of Defense finds the claim meritorious and the amount exceeds $100,000, the first $100,000 is paid by the Department and the balance is reported to Treasury for payment.¹³ Attorney fees are not covered, and the claim cannot duplicate recovery available under any other provision of law.

Filing a Lawsuit in Federal Court

You can file suit only after the administrative process has concluded, whether through a formal written denial or by treating six months of agency silence as a constructive denial. The case must be filed in the appropriate U.S. District Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over FTCA claims. Name the United States as the sole defendant, not the individual employee or the agency.¹

The deadline depends on how the administrative phase ended. If the agency mailed a formal denial by certified or registered mail, you have six months from the mailing date, not the date you received it, to file suit. Miss that window and the claim is permanently barred.⁵ If the agency never responded and you’re treating its silence as a constructive denial, the statute allows you to file “any time thereafter” with no express deadline. But if the agency later sends a formal denial letter, the six-month clock starts from that mailing date.⁴ Waiting indefinitely is technically permitted but risky, since the agency can issue a formal denial at any time and restart the clock.

Your lawsuit cannot seek more than the sum certain from the SF-95 unless you can show newly discovered evidence that wasn’t reasonably available when you filed, or intervening facts that changed the value of your damages.⁴ Courts enforce this cap strictly.

No Jury Trial, No Punitive Damages

Two restrictions surprise claimants used to litigation against private defendants. There is no right to a jury trial. FTCA cases are tried by a federal judge sitting alone, who acts as both finder of fact and decider of law.¹⁴ And the government is not liable for punitive damages or pre-judgment interest under any circumstances. Recovery is limited to actual compensatory damages: medical expenses, lost income, property repair costs, and pain and suffering to the extent state law allows.²

Because state law governs the substance of your claim, any damage caps that apply in the state where the injury occurred, such as caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, apply equally to FTCA claims. The limits vary widely by state, which affects how you value your claim on the SF-95.

Attorney Fee Caps

Federal law caps what your attorney can charge. For claims resolved during the administrative phase, before any lawsuit is filed, attorney fees cannot exceed 20% of the recovery. For claims resolved after a lawsuit is filed, the cap rises to 25% of the judgment or settlement amount.¹⁵ An attorney who charges more faces a fine of up to $2,000, up to one year in prison, or both. The caps apply only to the contingency fee, not to litigation costs like filing fees, expert witness fees, or deposition expenses, which are typically handled separately in the fee agreement.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1346 – United States as Defendant
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2674 – Liability of United States
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 2679 – Exclusiveness of Remedy
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
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U.S. Department of Justice. Documents and Forms
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Environmental Protection Agency. Federal Tort Claims Act Instruction Packet
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General Services Administration. Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death – Standard Form 95 Instructions
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Federal Register. Federal Tort Claims Act – Technical Changes
10
eCFR. Part 14 – Administrative Claims Under Federal Tort Claims Act
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 2680 – Exceptions
12
Congressional Research Service. The Feres Doctrine – Congress, the Courts, and Military Servicemember Lawsuits Against the United States
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 2733a – Medical Malpractice Claims by Members of the Uniformed Services
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2402 – Jury Trial in Actions Against United States
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2678 – Attorney Fees and Penalty