> I am considering filing a civil suit against the City of Los
 > Angeles and County of Los Angeles for violating my 4th Amendment
 > rights. I would appreciate any advice on who to contact or how to
 > proceed.
Advice, often being worth precisely that which you pay for it, arrives
in the form of an overview of such lawsuits against municipalities, by
way of relevant citation, provided in the following messages.  Careful
reading of same may aid you in avoiding some of the pitfalls typically
encountered in filing such action.
Mr. Hirschfeld offers a valuable pointer by way of a Bivens action,
and while I defer to judgement derived from experience, from where I
sit an old-fashioned 42 USCS 1983 may be more appropriate given your
set of circumstances.
In Monroe v Pape, 365 US 167, 7 L Ed 2d 492, 81 S Ct 473 (1961)
(overruled on other grounds Monell v Dept. of Social Services, 436 US
658, 56 L Ed 2d 611, 98 S Ct 2018), it was held that police officers
who, in making an arrest, were clearly acting in violation of the
constitution and laws of Illinois and, consequently, could have been
subject to suit in the Illinois state courts, were nevertheless acting
under color of state law so as to be subject to suit in a court of
federal jurisdiction under 42 USCS 1983.
As a general rule, a resort to 1983 action does not require exhaustion
of available state remedies, and the federal court may incline toward
interpreting and applying the statutes and constitution of the state
in which the case is being heard.  Also, while it is true that many of
the doctrines developed under 42 USCS 1983 have carried over to Bivens
actions, such are generally regarded as more suited as against federal
officials, as opposed to state, county, or municipal officials.
In any event, I concur with Bob in that you must conduct some measure
of independent research.  I suggest that you consider intimately
familiarizing yourself with both American Law Reports and the Lawyers
Edition.  A good point of departure might be finding the annotations
referenced near the end of the following series of messages.
As a practical matter, it certainly wouldn't hurt to shop around for a
larger law firm, (as distinguished from a one man shop), which offers
free consultation.  Such a search is likely to provide difficulties,
as well as more than some discouragement.  I would encourage you to
continue to educate yourself, as you continue your search for a firm
to either represent you, else assist you in some of the more mundane
aspects of preparing your case.
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