How do you sue a state agency?

Answer 1

i believe (and i could be wrong) that you would have to file in a federal court. you might be able to do it in a state superior court or supreme court if its an agency within the state and not the state itself. if its the state itself ten i think it has to be a federal court. and i think all claims against a state would be considered civil cases.

Answer 2

Yes, in fact the Constitution specifically contemplates this in Article 3, Section 2, Clause where it states the judicial power extends to cases ". . .between a State and citizens of another State. . ." This did not mean that a state could not be sued by its own citizens. It meant that federal judicial power took over when the dispute crossed the border. State governments do not enjoy full sovereign immunity (for that matter neither does the United States). They (and the US) can be sued.

Answer 3

Yes, you can sue the state, but only for reasons it allows and not in the same way that you can sue an individual or private business. The general rule is that the state has immunity from being sued unless its laws specifically permit lawsuits for specif types of claims. These are generally called Tort Claims Acts, although other states may have different names. A common provision in such laws is that the state may be sued for "proprietary" actions but not "governmental" actions. Each state law will have differences of some sort or another so you have to check the applicable state law. An example would be if a state built a road that was not able to handle all its traffic and an accident happened, the state most likely would be immune from suit because the decision on the design of the road is considered a governmental decision. However, if in the act of maintaining the road, a state maintenance crew does something negligent to cause an accident, then there would be no immunity, because maintaining the road is considered proprietary. In addition to specifically delineating the types of state actions that can be sued upon, Tort Claims Acts typically require some procedural steps that must be taken. Some laws forbid the filing of a lawsuit unless a written notice of the intention to file suit has first been given to the state. There are other procedural and substantive matters that make suing a state different than suing an individual too numerous to go into here. For more detail, the actual statutes have to be read.

Answer 4

You are going to have to hire an attorney. It is going to be very hard to win a case against the state government.

Answer 5

You can sue the U.S. government much as you'd sue any other individual or government agency. Simply hire a lawyer to fill out the paperwork for you and proceed from there.