Something you have to do before you can file suit. No suit of any kind has been filed yet. A claim merely has been made. It will go through the claims commission I assume and he may eventually be given a "right to sue letter".
You see, the doctrine of sovereign immunity says that we can't sue the state. The king is immune from suit and you can only sue the king if says you can sue him. So, to that end, states have set up tort claims acts that allow you to make a claim is you are harmed by the negligence of a state agent. Some states have claims commissions that you must go through in a quasi judicial process before you can sue, and some just allow you to go straight to court if you don't. The Feds do the same thing. If a US Marshall runs over you in his car, there is a claims process instead of going straight to court. If one goes through it and the claim is allowed, then it ends there.
Now, a federal suit in is a matter of one king allowing you to sue another king when your civil rights and due process were denied by an agent of the state under color of law. It is called a 1983 suit because it is found in a section of the US code entitled Section 1983.
I haven't been involved in too many 1983 suits so I not sure if going through the claims process where it exists is a condition precedent but I can see it being good strategy. Get the state on record and get sworn testimony from them. Make the stake out a position and a defense before filing federal suit. But it might be a condition precedent as that federal courts apply the law of the state in which the act or omission occurred in most instances.
