Pothole, Bus, or City Truck Injury in Michigan: 120 Days

In Michigan, you have three years to sue a driver who hit you. You may have only 120 days to give the government notice when its pothole flipped your car. Nobody told you that at the ER.

You were handed a pamphlet about concussion symptoms. You were told to follow up with your primary. You were told to rest.

You were not told that a clock started ticking the moment you hit that pothole. A much shorter clock than the one for regular car accidents. A clock that, if you miss it, can end your case before it starts — no matter how broken your leg is, no matter how clear the dashcam footage, no matter how obvious the road defect.

This is the part of Michigan injury law that quietly destroys good cases. Let’s walk through it.

Why is suing a city different from suing a driver?

Because government agencies are immune from most injury lawsuits unless your claim fits a specific statutory exception — and those exceptions come with short notice deadlines.

When a regular driver runs a red light and T-bones you, you have three years to file suit in Michigan (MCL 600.5805(2)). That’s the standard personal injury statute of limitations, explained in Michigan’s 3-year clock. It gives you time to heal, see specialists, and figure out the full cost of what happened to you.

When a city bus runs that same red light, everything changes.

The city, the county, the road commission, the transit authority, the public university, the State itself — all of these are “governmental agencies” under Michigan’s Governmental Immunity Act. They start with a default rule: they cannot be sued in tort (a civil suit for harm they caused, like an injury).

That rule is softened by a handful of narrow exceptions written into statute — the highway exception (MCL 691.1402), the motor vehicle exception (MCL 691.1405), the public building exception, and a few others. If your claim fits squarely into one of those exceptions, you can sue. If it doesn’t, you can’t.

But fitting into the exception is only half the battle. The other half is the notice rule — and that’s where many claims die.

What is the 120-day highway notice (MCL 691.1404)?

If a defective road injured you, you must serve written notice on the responsible government agency within 120 days of the injury, or the claim is barred.

That covers a crater of a pothole, an unrepaired sinkhole, a collapsed shoulder, a crumbling bridge deck — defects in the road itself.

The statute doesn’t just require notice. It requires specific notice. Under MCL 691.1404(1), the notice must state:

• The exact location of the defect (not “near the corner of Main and 5th” — a location specific enough that an inspector could find it).
• The exact nature of the defect (the pothole’s size, the crack’s depth, whatever it was).
• The injury sustained (what happened to your body).
• The names of witnesses known at the time.

It must be served on someone who can lawfully accept civil process for the correct governmental agency — and this matters, because a road in your city might be maintained by the city, the county road commission, or the State. For a state trunkline (a state highway, such as an I-, US- or M-numbered route), the notice is filed in triplicate with the clerk of the Court of Claims (MCL 691.1404(2)). Serving the wrong entity can be the same as serving no one.

If the injured person was under 18, the deadline is 180 days, and a parent, attorney, next friend, or guardian can serve it (MCL 691.1404(3)).

The Michigan Supreme Court enforces this deadline as written; the agency does not have to prove it was harmed by late notice (Rowland v Washtenaw County Road Commission, 477 Mich 197 (2007)).

And the lawsuit deadline is shorter too: claims under the highway exception must be filed within 2 years, not 3 (MCL 691.1411(2)).

What notice applies if a bus or government vehicle hit me?

It depends on who owns the vehicle — and some of the deadlines are even shorter than 120 days.

The motor vehicle exception (MCL 691.1405) makes government agencies liable for injuries caused by the negligent operation of a vehicle they own: a city bus, a county snowplow, a garbage truck, a police car, a public works pickup.

The notice rules then depend on the owner:

• Public transportation authority (a transit agency organized under the state transit authority law): written notice of an injury claim must be served on the authority within 60 days (MCL 124.419).
• The State (for example, a state-owned vehicle): a verified written claim or notice of intent must be filed with the clerk of the Court of Claims within 6 months for personal injury (MCL 600.6431(4)).
• A city, village, or county: check the local charter and ordinances, which may impose their own written-notice requirements.

Sixty days is faster than most people finish their first round of physical therapy. It is faster than some orthopedists can get you in for a follow-up MRI.

And again — wrong entity, missing content, or late? The case can be gone.

One thing that does not change: your own no-fault benefits. Your PIP coverage still pays medical and Michigan PIP wage-loss benefits through the usual no-fault system. The government notice rules govern the separate tort claim for pain and suffering and excess losses (costs beyond what PIP pays) — the same third-party claim you’d bring against a private driver.

Is a demand letter the same as a statutory notice?

No. A demand letter is a negotiation tool; a statutory notice is a legal requirement with specific elements, a specific recipient, and a hard deadline.

Demand letters are what personal injury attorneys send every day. They lay out the facts, the injuries, the medical bills, the pain and suffering, and they ask for a settlement. They are not designed to check statutory boxes.

Courts don’t care what you called the document. They care whether it contained the elements MCL 691.1404 requires, whether it was served on the correct agency, and whether it arrived within 120 days (or 60 days, or 6 months, depending on the defendant).

A polished demand letter that mentions “a pothole on Jefferson Avenue” will not save your case if it doesn’t identify the defect’s location and nature as the statute demands. A letter that describes “severe injuries” in general terms risks failing the “injury sustained” requirement. A letter sent to the city when the road was a county road may not save your case at all.

How do strong claims get thrown out?

Usually by a notice sent to the wrong agency, missing a required element, or arriving late. Here is a hypothetical — not a real case — showing how that plays out.

A driver hits a deep, wide pothole on a state-maintained highway. Her front suspension snaps. The car rolls. She breaks her pelvis and her wrist. There is a police report. There are photos of the pothole. Other drivers had complained about the same hole that week.

Liability looks clear. The defect was known and documented. Her medical bills are large.

On day 95, her attorney — a general-practice lawyer who doesn’t regularly handle government claims — sends a detailed demand letter to the City. It describes the crash, lists the injuries in general terms, and attaches the police report.

The State moves to dismiss. The road was a state trunkline, not a city street, so notice belonged with the Court of Claims clerk. The letter described the location only loosely and the injuries only as “serious orthopedic injuries.” It was never framed as a statutory notice.

In a case like this, dismissal is a real risk — and the medical bills don’t go away.

What should I do right now?

Assume a short notice clock is already running, document everything, and get a lawyer who handles government claims to send the notice.

If a government vehicle, bus, road defect, or public property injury is anywhere in your story — even if you are still in the hospital, even if you haven’t decided whether to “make it a thing” yet — the notice clock is running.

Not the three-year clock you’ve heard about. 120 days for road-defect claims. As little as 60 days for a public transit authority. Six months for the State. All measured from the day you were hurt.

Documentation matters more here than in almost any other kind of injury case:

• Photograph the defect from multiple angles, with something for scale.
• Photograph the exact location. Cross streets. Mile markers. GPS coordinates if you can.
• Get the police report number.
• Note any witnesses and how to reach them.
• Save every receipt, every ER discharge paper, every imaging report.

Then find a lawyer who has done governmental-immunity notices before. These questions to ask a personal injury lawyer can help you check. This is statute-reading, agency-identifying, element-checking work. A mistake on the notice can be fatal in a way a mistake in a regular PI case usually isn’t.

What if I’m not sure my lawyer knows this rule?

Ask them directly, in writing, today — before the deadline, not after.

If you already have an attorney and the words “MCL 691.1404,” “120-day notice,” or “governmental immunity” have not come up in your conversations, ask. Keep the reply.

If the answer is vague, or if you’re told “we’ll handle it” without specifics, that is the moment to get a free second opinion — not after day 120. You have the right to change lawyers in Michigan at any point.

This article is general information about Michigan law, not legal advice for your situation.