---
titulo: "Suing the State in Panama: Patrimonial Liability 2026"
titulo_seo: "Suing the State in Panama: Damages Claims"
meta: "One year is all you get to sue the Panamanian State for damages. The three elements the Third Chamber demands, and the hurdle that ends most claims."
autor: "Diego Ospina Serna"
fecha: 2026-07-04
actualizado: 2026-07-04
materia: "Administrative Law"
idioma: "en"
par: "demandas-al-estado-responsabilidad-patrimonial-panama-2026"
resumen: "When and how to sue the Panamanian State for damages caused by its action or omission: patrimonial liability before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, the three elements the case law requires, the one-year deadline, and the access burdens that decide many cases."
tags: ["State Liability", "Administrative Law", "Litigation"]
orden: 20260702
---

When a public hospital, the police, a municipality or any State entity causes harm through its action — or its omission — the injured party may claim compensation: this is the **patrimonial liability of the State**. This guide explains when it applies and how it is claimed in Panama, backed by the analysis of the Court's own body of rulings.

> **Note:** general information current as of the date; each case is assessed individually. Confirm your case with a lawyer.

## Where you sue: the Third Chamber

Compensation claims against the State are filed before the **Third Chamber of Administrative Litigation of the Supreme Court of Justice**, through the **indemnity or direct-reparation** route (article 97 of the Judicial Code). It is not an ordinary civil suit: it is a specialized jurisdiction with its own rules.

## The three elements the case law requires

The Court has stabilized a **three-element test** that must all concur for the State to be liable:

1. **Failure of the public service** — its irregular, inefficient functioning or its absence (for example, an unjustified medical delay, a failure to supervise).
2. **The damage** — direct, certain and quantifiable; in its more elaborate form, an *unlawful* damage the victim had no duty to bear.
3. **A direct causal link** between the failure and the damage.

If any of the three is missing, the claim fails. The legal basis is threefold: **articles 17 and 18 of the Constitution**, **articles 1644 and 1645 of the Civil Code** (as amended by Law 18 of 1992, which established the State's **direct** liability) and article 97 of the Judicial Code.

## The deadline is short: one year

A point that loses many cases: the action **prescribes in one year** from when the injured party became aware of the damage (article 1706 of the Civil Code). It is a short window; acting promptly is decisive.

## The access burden that decides half the contest

Even before the merits, the Chamber requires the claim to **expressly invoke the correct legal basis** (the applicable paragraph of article 97). A significant share of claims are dismissed without a hearing on the merits for defects of this kind. Filing correctly — from the theory of attribution — is not a formality: it is the difference between being heard or not.

## Our edge: we know how the Court decides

At iurispa we work on the most complete repository of Panamanian case law. That lets us **anticipate how the Third Chamber has decided cases like yours** — which failures it has recognized, which damages it has compensated, which defenses it has accepted — and build the claim on precedent, not intuition.

> Related: [debt collection in Panama](/guias/debt-collection-in-panama-executive-process-2026/).

*Legal basis: articles 17-18 of the Constitution; articles 1644-1645 and 1706 of the Civil Code; article 97 of the Judicial Code. Informational content, not legal advice.*