Entities created by government statute, like cities, counties, school boards, . . ., etc., are legally considered to be "public corporations." Thus, when you sue one of these public entities, you do so similar to the same rules used when suing a private corporation.

This means that you sue the entity through its president or CEO (like a mayor or "city manager") or maybe through its Board of Directors (like a county board of commissioners).

There are, however, some major differences between suing a public governmental entity and a private corporation. The main distinction is that a private corporation is usually responsible for the actions (or inactions) of its individual employees. In this case, liability for wrongdoing is "imputed" to the private corporation. In the context of public entities, however, this rule of "respondeat superior" does not apply and a governmental entity is NOT liable in this way.

An entity is sued through its customs, policies, or procedures and/or through the actions (or inactions) of a "final policy-making official." Final policy-making officials, by definition, establish an entity’s customs and policies. Sometimes, this is obvious, as in the case of a Mayor.

In other situations, a department’s policy-making official decisions may be deemed to be those of the entity. For instance, if you are suing a municipality for police brutality, you might name the Police Chief, as a policy-making official for the police department, because of his/her individual decisions or decisions being the unconstitutional custom, policy, or procedure of the entity.

However, you have to careful about suing a County for the actions of its Sheriff and Sheriff’s Department, as sometimes the Sheriff is considered to be a creature of the state, as opposed to a County functionary. It depends on the reason you are suing the County.

Where the Sheriff is considered "the State," you cannot sue the County for the Sheriff’s Departments alleged unconstitutional custom, policy, or procedure, since the County is not deemed to have any control over the Sheriff. In these circumstances, the Sheriff would not be considered the final policy-making official for the County – this area of law is extremely fluid. Of course, if there were also individual deputies (not the actual Sheriff) who engaged in unconstitutional actions, the individual deputies can still be sued, even if the Sheriff and the County cannot.

Generally speaking, it is likely that if you are suing the entity, it is because of the decisions, actions, or lack thereof, of a policy-making official. However, liability is truly the result of the unconstitutional customs, policies, or procedures.

Thus, in theory, liability can arise from some other source, such as toleration of unconstitutional practices that become policy by the failure to take corrective measures, improper training, or, potentially, legislative actions of a governing body (like a city council).