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city claims faq's

CITY CLAIMS

Mailing Address

170 North Main Street, 5th Floor Memphis, TN, 38103

Phone

901-636-6616

Email

temiika.gipson
@memphistn.gov

M-F

8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m

Welcome to the City of Memphis Claims Department website. This is intended to facilitate the reporting of claims presented against the City of Memphis. The website encourages electronic filing of claims.  Filing electronically gives users the ability to immediately track progress of claims and allows users to submit claim information quickly and easily.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THOSE FILING CLAIMS FOR POTHOLE DAMAGE

Please read the following information if you are filing a pothole claim. If you are not filing a pothole claim, please disregard.

Please be advised that the fact that you hit a pothole in and of itself does not make the City of Memphis automatically responsible for any damages. Rather, those claims are governed by Tennessee State law, particularly The Governmental Tort Claims Act, T.C.A. 29-20-101, et seq. The provision of that statute that is applicable here is section 29-20-203. That section reads as follows:

§ 29-20-203. Highways, streets and sidewalks; unsafe conditions

  1. (a) Immunity from suit of a governmental entity is removed for any injury caused by a defective, unsafe, or dangerous condition of any street, alley, sidewalk or highway, owned and controlled by such governmental entity. “Street” or “highway” includes traffic control devices thereon.
  2. (b) This section shall not apply unless constructive and/or actual notice to the governmental entity of such condition be alleged and proved in addition to the procedural notice required

What this means is that for the City to be responsible to pay any damages for pothole claims, the City must be shown to have had notice of the pothole (i.e. known that the pothole was in the street) prior to it causing damage to your vehicle. The City also must have had a reasonable time in which to repair the pothole after receiving notice. That time is typically five (5) business days from the time the City obtains notice of the pothole.

In investigating your claim, the Claims Office sends inquiries to the City’s Emergency Management Agency, Mayor’s Citizen Service Center, 311 and Street Maintenance Department. These entities are responsible for collecting reports of dangerous road conditions. If the City did not find out about this pothole until after you hit it or the 5-day period mentioned above had not expired when you hit it, under the law cited above, the City will not pay your claim.

 

NOTICE OF CHANGES IN STREET MAINTENANCE RESPONSIBILTY

Effective July 1, 2018, the City of Memphis no longer maintains or handles pothole claims on State roads and streets within the City limits. The responsibility for handling pothole claims along these streets has shifted to the State of Tennessee through the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). If you have a pothole claim occurring on any of these streets, file your claim with TDOT. The phone number to file your claim is 901.578.4399. You may also obtain a TDOT claim form by clicking here.

The applicable State streets are shown on the map that you may click on below and are marked in red. The interstates are marked in blue and remain the responsibility of TDOT. The map is expandable and allows you to click on it to pinpoint your pothole location to help insure you file your claim in the appropriate office.

Once your electronic form is processed, City Claims personnel will contact you. If you have questions, please contact the Claims Department at 
(901) 636-6616.

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CITY CLAIMS FAQ'S

DISCLAIMER
This website is controlled by the City of Memphis. This website is identical in look and feel to the City’s official site, and all policies applicable to the official City site are applicable to this site, except as set forth below. By using this online service or by filing manually, users are agreeing to the following terms:

  • The acknowledgement of this claim in no way waives the immunity of the City of Memphis, as governed by the GTLA, nor is it an admission of liability on behalf of the City of Memphis and/or its employee(s).
  • *The filing of false claims may result in the denial of your claim.
  • The affirmation that users have read and understand the above-mentioned statements in regards to accessing the City of Memphis Online Claims Reporting System or filing manually.