A metro claim form is the written notice you file with a transit agency after a bus, train, or station incident caused you injury or property damage, and it is the step that has to happen before any lawsuit against the agency can proceed. Fill it out with the exact date, time, and location of the incident, the vehicle and employee details, a factual description of what happened, an itemized damage amount, and your signature. Attach copies of medical records, repair estimates, photographs, and any police or incident report. Submit it by certified mail or in person so you can prove the agency received it before the deadline — which in some jurisdictions is as short as 90 days from the date of the incident.
The Deadline Comes First
The clock starts on the date of the incident, and it runs fast. State tort claims acts commonly give you between 90 days and one year to file notice, with six months being a frequent cutoff for personal injury and property damage claims. Federal tort claims must be “presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues.”1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
Missing the deadline usually means your claim is dead. Courts routinely dismiss lawsuits against transit agencies when the required claim form was never submitted on time, regardless of how strong the underlying case might be. A handful of jurisdictions allow a petition for permission to file a late claim, but those are granted sparingly. Treat the deadline as absolute and file well before it expires.
The requirement itself comes from federal and state tort claims acts. Under federal law, no lawsuit for injury or property loss caused by a government employee can proceed “unless the claimant shall have first presented the claim to the appropriate Federal agency.”2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite State and local transit agencies operate under equivalent rules.
Get the Right Form From the Right Agency
Every transit agency uses its own version of the claim form, so your first job is tracking down the correct one. Check the agency’s website under headings like Risk Management, Legal, Claims, or Customer Service — many agencies post a downloadable PDF. If you cannot find it online, call the agency’s main number and ask for risk management or legal. Some will mail you a physical copy.
For a federal entity, Standard Form 95 (Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death) is the universal form.3eCFR. 39 CFR Part 912 – Procedures to Adjudicate Claims for Personal Property Damage or Loss For state and local transit agencies, there is no single national form.
Make sure you are filing against the right entity. A bus accident might involve the city, the county, a regional transit authority, or a private contractor operating under a government contract. Filing with the wrong agency does not satisfy the requirement and can waste weeks you do not have.
What To Gather Before You Start
Pull everything together before you sit down with the form so you can complete it in one pass. Nearly every transit claim form asks for the same core information:
- Your full legal name, mailing address, phone number, and email.
- The exact date, approximate time, and precise location of the incident — station name, intersection, bus stop, or route number.
- Vehicle or equipment details, including the bus number, train car number, or any vehicle ID visible on the transit vehicle. This lets the agency match your claim to its crew schedules and surveillance footage.
- Names or badge numbers of any transit employees involved. If you did not get names at the scene, describe them and the agency can often identify them from the route and time.
- A factual, chronological description of what happened.
- A list of every physical injury and every piece of property damaged or lost.
- A specific dollar figure for your total claimed losses.
Under federal law, that dollar figure — a “sum certain” — is mandatory, and the agency cannot process a claim without one. State rules differ: some require an exact amount only when the claim falls below a certain threshold and let you categorize larger claims instead.4Department of Veterans Affairs. Claims Under the Federal Tort Claims Act
Supporting documents strengthen the claim. Attach copies — never originals — of medical records and bills, ambulance reports, repair estimates, photographs of injuries or damage, and the police or incident report if one was filed. Include witness names and contact information if you have them. Receipts for out-of-pocket expenses like prescriptions, taxi rides to medical appointments, and replacement items help show your actual losses.
Completing the Form
Fill out every field. A blank field invites the agency to return the form as incomplete, and that return eats into your deadline. If a field genuinely does not apply, write “N/A” rather than leaving it empty.
The narrative section is where most people either help or hurt themselves. Write a factual account in plain language. “The bus stopped abruptly at the corner of 5th and Main at approximately 2:15 p.m., and I was thrown forward into the handrail” is far more useful than “the driver was negligent.” Let the facts speak. Adjusters investigate thousands of claims and know what negligence looks like without you labeling it.
When calculating your damage amount, add up every cost you have incurred and every cost you reasonably expect to incur: emergency room and follow-up medical bills, lost wages for days you could not work, property repair or replacement costs, and ongoing treatment. Under federal law, you cannot later sue for more than the amount on the claim form unless you discover new evidence that was not reasonably available when you filed.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite If your medical treatment is still ongoing and you do not yet know the full cost, estimate high rather than low. You can settle for less than the claimed amount, but you generally cannot increase it later.
Sign and date the form. An unsigned claim will be rejected by virtually every agency. If someone is filing on your behalf — a spouse, a parent, an attorney — the form should state that representative’s authority and relationship to you.
Submitting the Form With Proof of Delivery
Delivery method matters because you need proof the agency received your claim before the deadline expired. Certified mail with return receipt requested is the most common and reliable approach. The green card you get back shows the date the agency received the envelope, and that date is your proof. Hand-delivery works too: bring an extra copy and ask the clerk to stamp it with the date received.
Some transit agencies accept claims through online portals that generate an electronic confirmation. If your agency offers this, use it and save the confirmation as a PDF. A few agencies accept fax, though fax is less reliable for proving receipt.
Address the form to the specific office the agency’s claim procedures designate. Common recipients include the agency’s clerk, secretary, risk management department, or general counsel. Find out exactly where it should go and send it there. Keep a complete photocopy of the signed form and every attachment for your own records.
What Happens After You File
Once the agency receives your claim, its risk management or insurance team opens an investigation. Adjusters review your documentation, pull surveillance footage from the station or vehicle, interview the employees on duty, and examine maintenance records. The quality of evidence you submitted directly affects how quickly and favorably they evaluate the claim.
Response timelines vary. Some state laws require the agency to respond within 45 days. Others give the agency longer. Under federal law there is no fixed response deadline; if the agency fails to act within six months, you can treat the silence as a denial and proceed to court.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite Many state tort claims acts have a similar “constructive denial” provision: if the agency does not respond within the statutory window, the claim is deemed rejected and you gain the right to sue.
The response generally falls into one of three categories. An approval means the agency agrees to pay your claimed amount or a negotiated figure. A partial approval means the agency acknowledges some liability but disputes the full amount, and you can accept the partial payment or reject it and go to court over the difference. A denial means the agency refuses to pay anything.
If the Claim Is Denied or Ignored
A denial letter opens the door to a lawsuit, but the window is short. Under federal law, you must file suit within six months of the date the denial notice was mailed.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States State deadlines vary but are often six months from the denial, with some jurisdictions allowing up to two years from the date of the original incident when the agency never responded at all.
Read the rejection letter carefully. It should state the reason for denial, and that reason tells you what you would have to overcome in court. Common grounds include insufficient evidence of the agency’s fault, a determination that the employee acted within proper protocols, or a dispute over whether your injuries were actually caused by the incident. If the letter does not clearly explain the reason, that itself may be a procedural deficiency worth discussing with an attorney.
Caps and Exclusions on Recovery
Even with a valid claim, government tort recovery is capped in ways private lawsuits are not. At the federal level, punitive damages are prohibited — the government “shall not be liable for interest prior to judgment or for punitive damages.”6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2674 – Liability of United States The vast majority of states impose the same restriction. Compensatory damages — medical bills, lost income, property repair, pain and suffering — are recoverable; punitive awards are not.
Most states also set a statutory dollar cap on total recovery from government entities. These caps vary widely, from around $200,000 per person in some states to over $1 million in others. A few states have no cap, and several have recently raised their limits. The cap applies regardless of how severe your injuries are, so a claim worth $2 million in a private lawsuit might be limited to a fraction of that against a transit agency. Check your state’s tort claims act for the specific ceiling.
Federal claims carry an additional exception: the government retains immunity for injuries arising from a “discretionary function,” meaning policy-level decisions about how to allocate resources or design services.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2680 – Exceptions A bus driver running a red light is not a discretionary function. A transit agency’s decision about how frequently to inspect vehicles might be.
Claims Involving Minors or a Missed Deadline
When the injured person is a child, many states extend or “toll” the filing deadline. Some pause the clock until the child reaches 18; others provide a narrower extension for very young children only. A parent or legal guardian files the claim on the child’s behalf, and the form should clearly identify the minor as the injured party and the adult as the representative. Because tolling rules vary so much, an attorney consultation is worthwhile for any transit claim involving a minor.
If you missed the standard deadline as an adult, a small number of jurisdictions allow you to petition for permission to file a late claim. Grounds that agencies recognize include physical or mental incapacity during the entire filing window, excusable neglect, and situations where the claimant died before the deadline passed. These petitions typically must be filed within one year of the incident, and agencies deny them more often than they grant them. A late-claim petition is a last resort, not a fallback plan.