A government tort claim must be signed by the claimant (or someone acting on his or her behalf) and be sent by the claimant to the government entity. This decision holds that though plaintiff signed a government claim form at a chiropractor’s office where she received treatment for injuries from the traffic accident that was the basis for the government claim, plaintiff did not authorize the chiropractor to file the claim on her behalf. Also, she did not ratify that claim, but instead had her attorney file another claim within the six month period permitted for claim filing. And when she sued, she relied on the attorney-filed claim, not the chiropractor’s claim, to prove compliance with the Government Claims Statute. The chiropractor’s unauthorized claim was a nullity and the period for filing suit did not start to run from its denial. Also, plaintiff benefitted from the longer two year limitations period following denial of the attorney-filed claim because the defendant government entity did not mail it to plaintiff’s address but rather to her attorney. Gov. Code 915.4 clearly requires mailing to the claimant unless the claim expressly directs service elsewhere, which this claim didn’t.