MATTHIESEN, WICKERT & LEHRER, S.C. Hartford, WI ❖ New Orleans, LA ❖ Orange County, CA ❖ Austin, TX ❖ Jacksonville, FL Phone: (800) 637-9176
[email protected] www.mwl-law.com MUNICIPAL/COUNTY/LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY AND TORT LIABILITY IN ALL 50 STATES “Governmental immunity” concerns itself with the various legal doctrines or statutes that provide municipalities, local government entities, and political subdivisions immunity from tort-based claims, as well as exceptions from and limitations to that immunity. Generally, a state government is immune from tort suits by individuals under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Local governments, municipalities (cities), counties, towns, and other political subdivisions of the state, however, are immune from tort suits by virtue of governmental immunity. This is because the state grants them immunity, usually in the state’s Constitution. This chart deals with governmental immunity and liability of municipal, county, and local government in all 50 states. It should be noted that lawsuits against local governmental entities, their officers, and employees are frequently asserted under federal law, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 1983, or other similar statutes. This chart deals only with the separate body of law governing claims against local governments. It does not cover federal claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) (28 U.S.C. § 2674) or claims of negligence against state governments, the latter of which is the subject of another chart that can be found HERE. The broader doctrine of sovereign immunity traces its common law origins to the notion that the king made the laws, and thus anything the king did was perforce legal.