Section 1983 Civil Rights Claim

The federal statute allowing someone to sue a state or local official personally for violating their constitutional rights.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of Civil Rights law firms.

What it means

Section 1983 is the vehicle for most constitutional claims against state and local government in the United States. It creates no rights of its own; it provides a way to enforce rights that already exist under the Constitution or federal law, against a person acting under color of state law - a police officer, a corrections officer, a school or county official.

Two features shape almost every case. The defendant must have been acting under state authority, which is what separates these claims from ordinary disputes between private parties. And a local government body is not liable simply because it employed the person: liability attaches where the violation followed an official policy, a custom, or a failure to train amounting to deliberate indifference, rather than on the ordinary employer-liability principle people expect.

The defense that decides many of these cases is qualified immunity, which protects an official unless the right violated was clearly established at the time in a way a reasonable official would have understood. It is frequently resolved before trial, and it is the reason two cases with similar facts can end very differently.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

These are specialist claims and the reasons to get advice early are evidentiary rather than tactical: body-camera footage, incident reports and dispatch records are retained under agency schedules that can be short, and a preservation request made early is sometimes the difference between a provable claim and an unprovable one. Notice requirements for claims against public bodies are also strict and separate from anything else - and they can be very much shorter than people expect.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find Civil Rights law firms in your state

Choose your state to see Civil Rights law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z. A state marked “Civil & Human Rights” has no Civil Rights listing yet and opens the broader page.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Alaska (Anchorage, Civil & Human Rights)
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

  • Gilbert
  • Glendale
  • Mesa
  • Phoenix
  • Scottsdale
  • Tucson
• Arkansas (Little Rock)
• California (Chula Vista)
  +19 other cities

  • Anaheim
  • Fontana
  • Fremont
  • Fresno
  • Irvine
  • Long Beach
  • Modesto
  • Riverside
  • San Bernardino
  • San Diego
  • San Jose
  • Santa Ana
  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
• Colorado (Aurora)
  +2 other cities

  • Colorado Springs
  • Denver
• Connecticut (Bridgeport)
• Delaware (Wilmington)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
• Florida (St Petersburg)
  +5 other cities

  • Hialeah
  • Jacksonville
  • Miami
  • Orlando
  • Tampa
• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu)
• Idaho (Boise, Civil & Human Rights)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Fort Wayne)
  +1 other city

  • Indianapolis
• Iowa (Des Moines)
• Kansas (Wichita)
• Kentucky (Lexington)
  +1 other city

  • Louisville
• Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
  +2 other cities

  • New Orleans
  • Shreveport
• Maine (Portland)
• Maryland (Baltimore)
• Massachusetts (Boston)
• Michigan (Detroit)
• Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Saint Paul
• Mississippi (Jackson)
• Missouri (Kansas City)
  +1 other city

  • St. Louis
• Montana (Billings, Civil & Human Rights)
• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

  • Omaha
• Nevada (Henderson)
  +2 other cities

  • Las Vegas
  • North Las Vegas
• New Hampshire (Manchester)
• New Jersey (Jersey City)
  +1 other city

  • Newark
• New Mexico (Albuquerque)
• New York (Buffalo)
  +2 other cities

  • New York City
  • Rochester
• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

  • Durham
  • Fayetteville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh
  • Winston-Salem
• North Dakota (Fargo, Civil & Human Rights)
• Ohio (Cleveland)
  +3 other cities

  • Cincinnati
  • Columbus
  • Toledo
• Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
  +1 other city

  • Tulsa
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
  +1 other city

  • Pittsburgh
• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls, Civil & Human Rights)
• Tennessee (Memphis)
  +1 other city

  • Nashville
• Texas (Arlington)
  +12 other cities

  • Austin
  • Corpus Christi
  • Dallas
  • El Paso
  • Fort Worth
  • Garland
  • Houston
  • Irving
  • Laredo
  • Lubbock
  • Plano
  • San Antonio
• Utah (Salt Lake City)
• Vermont (Burlington)
• Virginia (Chesapeake)
  +3 other cities

  • Norfolk
  • Richmond
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +2 other cities

  • Spokane
  • Tacoma
• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Entries on the same subject:

• Excessive ForceThe constitutional limit on how much force police may use in a stop, an arrest or a search - judged by what a reasonable officer would have done in the moment, and the reason body-camera footage decides more of these cases than testimony does.
• False Arrest and Malicious ProsecutionThe claims available to a person detained without probable cause or prosecuted without it - the state torts, their constitutional counterparts, and the favorable-termination rule that decides when a malicious-prosecution claim can be brought at all.
• Prisoners' Rights and the Prison Litigation Reform ActThe constitutional protections that survive incarceration - against cruel and unusual conditions, deliberate indifference to medical needs, and punishment without process - and the federal statute that makes a prisoner exhaust the prison's own grievance system before any of them can be enforced in court.

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• ADA Public Accommodations (Title III)The part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that applies to businesses open to the public - shops, restaurants, hotels, clinics, theaters, and in many courts their websites - requiring access, policy changes and communication aids, with the cost limits that shape what can be demanded.
• Disparate ImpactDiscrimination without a discriminatory intent - a neutral rule, test or practice that falls much harder on a protected group and cannot be justified by business necessity - and the statutes under which that theory is and is not available.
• Filing a Discrimination Charge (EEOC)The administrative step that must come before almost any federal employment-discrimination lawsuit - a charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state agency within a short statutory window, followed by a right-to-sue letter that starts the next clock.
• Housing Discrimination (Fair Housing Act)The federal law making it unlawful to refuse housing, or set different terms, because of who someone is.
• Reasonable AccommodationA change to a job, workplace or housing rule that lets a person with a disability participate equally - required unless it imposes undue hardship.
• Religious Freedom (RFRA and RLUIPA)The federal statutes that require government to justify any substantial burden on religious exercise by a compelling interest pursued in the least restrictive way - stronger than the constitutional rule, and the basis of most modern religious-liberty claims by prisoners, congregations and employers.
• Retaliation for Protected ActivityThe separate legal wrong of punishing a person for complaining about discrimination, reporting a violation, taking protected leave or helping in an investigation - a claim that often succeeds where the underlying complaint would not.

« All glossary terms