Summary. This checklist runs a § 1983 case from intake through the fee petition. It front-loads the two deadlines that destroy cases before anyone reaches the merits — the state notice-of-claim period and the body camera retention schedule — then works defendant selection, the pleading standards a qualified immunity motion will test, the clearly established precedent search that should happen before filing, the Monell discovery plan that determines value, and the damages and fee proof that determines what the case is worth.

What this checklist is for. Opening, pleading, and litigating a § 1983 case. For the doctrine, see Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation. For the practice sequence, see Bringing and Defending a Section 1983 Claim.

Phase 1 — Two deadlines, on day one

  • The state notice-of-claim deadline. Sixty, ninety, or one hundred eighty days in most states. Missing it bars the parallel state claims — including any respondeat superior theory against the entity, which § 1983 does not provide. Calculate and calendar it in the first meeting.
  • The video retention schedule. Body camera footage not flagged as significant may be deleted in thirty to ninety days; private surveillance overwrites in seven to thirty. Send preservation letters within days.
  • Also calendar: the § 1983 limitations period (the forum state's personal injury period, usually two or three years) and the accrual date for each claim, which differs — false arrest on legal process, malicious prosecution on favorable termination.

Phase 2 — Threshold screening

  • State or local actor? Federal officials are outside § 1983, and Bivens is effectively unavailable in new contexts after Egbert v. Boule, 596 U.S. 482 (2022). Consider the FTCA.
  • Under color of law? Authority invoked or exercised — badge, equipment, arrest, official capacity — even if contrary to state law, per Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961).
  • Which constitutional right, by amendment and doctrine?
  • Heck analysis — is there a conviction, and would success necessarily imply its invalidity? Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994).
  • Pending criminal case? If so, coordinate with criminal counsel before any testimony or plea.
  • Clearly established precedent search in the controlling circuit — do it before accepting the case.
  • Is there a Monell theory?
  • Does the state have its own civil rights statute without qualified immunity?
  • Is the plaintiff incarcerated? If so, apply 42 U.S.C. § 1997e: mandatory exhaustion, physical injury requirement, fee caps, three strikes.

Phase 3 — Preservation and public records

Preservation letter to the agency and its counsel demanding:

  • All body-worn and in-car video, every officer, activation to deactivation
  • Dispatch audio, CAD entries, radio traffic
  • 911 recordings
  • Booking, sally port, and holding cell video
  • All use-of-force reports and supervisory reviews
  • All incident, supplemental, and field interview reports, plus officers' handwritten notes
  • Personnel and internal affairs files for each officer
  • Taser logs, firearm discharge reports, early intervention records
  • Any physical evidence and the plaintiff's property

Separate letters to every private camera owner near the scene.

Public records requests — free and fast — for:

  • Use-of-force and crisis intervention policies in effect on the date
  • Training curricula, lesson plans, and attendance records
  • Aggregate complaint and force statistics
  • Consent decrees, monitor reports, and any government findings letters
  • Settlements and prior claims involving similar allegations

See Requesting Public Records and Challenging a Denial.

Phase 4 — Defendant selection

  • Individual officers by name, in individual capacity, for damages.
  • Doe defendants for unidentified officers, with a plan to name them before the limitations period runs and an analysis of relation back.
  • The municipality or county for a Monell claim — no qualified immunity.
  • Supervisors where personal involvement, direction, or deliberate indifference to a known pattern can be pleaded.
  • State officials in official capacity — injunctive relief only, under Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908).
  • Do not sue the state or a state agency for damages — Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989).
  • Private contractors performing public functions — correctional medical providers in particular.
  • Determine whether the entity is an arm of the state (immune) or a local body (not), under state law.

Phase 5 — Pleading

  • Facts, not conclusions — every fact bearing on reasonableness: time, distance, words, restraint status, what each officer could perceive.
  • Separate allegations per defendant. No group pleading.
  • Capacity stated expressly for each defendant.
  • Monell pleaded with facts:
  • Clearly established precedent cited in the complaint.
  • State-law claims added under 28 U.S.C. § 1367, with the notice of claim confirmed served.
  • Relief: compensatory, punitive (individuals only), nominal, injunctive where standing exists, and fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988.

Phase 6 — Qualified immunity

Opposing:

  • Define the right at the right level of specificity — matched to the precedent, broad enough to cover the facts.
  • Identify the closest analogous case in the Supreme Court and controlling circuit.
  • Argue the obvious-violation route of Taylor v. Riojas, 592 U.S. 7 (2020) in the alternative.
  • Oppose any stay of discovery, or seek narrow discovery on the immunity facts.
  • Emphasize factual disputes; on summary judgment the facts are taken in the plaintiff's favor.
  • Note that the municipality has no immunity, so Monell discovery should proceed.

Asserting:

  • Move at the earliest defensible point; move on the pleadings where the complaint is conclusory.
  • Frame the right narrowly; establish the absence of controlling precedent.
  • Move to stay discovery.
  • Preserve the interlocutory appeal from a denial on legal grounds.

Phase 7 — Monell discovery

  • Personnel and internal affairs files for each officer, all complaints regardless of disposition
  • Five years of use-of-force reports in reviewable format
  • All complaints of the same type, with dispositions and discipline
  • Training curricula, lesson plans, attendance, and certifications
  • Policies in effect, plus revisions before and after
  • Early intervention system records and thresholds
  • Prior lawsuits, claims, and settlements
  • Consent decrees, monitor reports, government findings
  • Supervisory review documentation for this incident and comparators
  • Rule 30(b)(6) deposition on policy, training, discipline, and force reporting — draft the topics carefully; this is where the claim is made. See Preparing and Defending a Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition.
  • Litigate privilege and officer-privacy objections early; they are the case.

Phase 8 — Damages and experts

  • Medical records and bills, past and projected
  • Lost income and earning capacity
  • Emotional distress — plaintiff, family, and coworker testimony describing specific changes, plus treatment records and, where warranted, a mental health expert
  • Loss of liberty, measured per day against comparable verdicts
  • Punitive damages evidence: motive, prior conduct, and departures from training
  • Experts: police practices; forensic pathology or biomechanics; video and audio analysis; treating physicians; life care planner
  • Confirm expert opinions are framed in standards and practices, not the ultimate legal conclusion

Phase 9 — Fees and Rule 68

  • Keep contemporaneous time records with auditable descriptions from day one.
  • Assemble rate evidence: declarations from comparable practitioners, prior fee awards, surveys.
  • Structure any settlement as a judgment or court-ordered consent decree to satisfy Buckhannon, 532 U.S. 598 (2001).
  • Anticipate a Farrar argument if only nominal damages are recovered.
  • Model the fee consequences of any Rule 68 offer before rejecting it.
  • Address any lump-sum-inclusive-of-fees proposal as a conflict, with documented client consent.
  • Apply the Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 (1983) lodestar framework and anticipate reductions for block billing, vague entries, and clerical time.

Phase 10 — Settlement terms beyond money

  • Policy changes, stated as specific obligations
  • Training commitments with defined content and audience
  • Data reporting and publication
  • Acknowledgment language, if the client wants it
  • Confidentiality — narrowly drawn or refused; public-fund settlements face records-act pressure toward disclosure
  • An enforcement mechanism and retained jurisdiction
  • Lien resolution and the client's written closing statement

Related documents

This checklist is educational and not legal advice. Section 1983 doctrine varies among the circuits and state notice-of-claim deadlines can be as short as sixty days. Verify every item against controlling law in the applicable jurisdiction.