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Where the Law Caps an Injury Award, and Where Courts Refused
Whether a damage cap touches your case depends on three things: the state, the claim type, and increasingly the year.
A few states cap noneconomic damages in every injury case. Most cap only medical malpractice, or only punitive damages, or nothing at all.
Nine state supreme courts have struck caps down, and five state constitutions prohibit them outright.
A newer wrinkle: several caps now rise on annual escalators, so the number depends on when the injury happened or when the case resolves.
The table below states each jurisdiction's rule with the citation, and the sections after it explain the patterns that decide real cases.
Last verified: August 14, 2026. Indexed figures are date-stamped; treat every number here as a starting point and confirm the current figure for your own case.
Call (888) 713-6653 for a free case review under your state's actual limits.
At-a-Glance: Damage Caps Nationwide
- Only a handful of states cap noneconomic damages in ordinary injury cases: Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, Maryland, Idaho, Colorado, and Hawaii in part
- Med-mal caps were struck down in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and elsewhere; Arizona's constitution bans caps entirely
- California, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, and Virginia now run caps on annual escalators
- Five states cap ALL damages in malpractice cases, economic losses included
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The 50-State Damage Cap Table, With the Statutes and Strike-Downs
"None" means no cap on compensatory damages for that claim type. Indexed figures carry the year they apply to.
| State | Ordinary Injury Cap | Medical Malpractice Cap | Punitive Damages | Key Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | None (cap struck 1991) | None (same ruling) | Greater of 3x or $500K; $1.5M physical injury; NO cap in wrongful death, which is punitive-only in Alabama | § 6-11-21; Moore v. Mobile Infirmary (1991) |
| Alaska | Greater of $400K or $8K x life-expectancy years; $1M tier for severe permanent impairment | $250K noneconomic; $400K death or severe disability | Greater of 3x or $500K; half of any award goes to the state | AS 09.17.010; 09.55.549; 09.17.020 |
| Arizona | None; caps constitutionally BANNED | None (same ban) | No cap | Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 31 |
| Arkansas | None; constitution bars them | None | No cap; statutory cap struck (2011) | Ark. Const. art. 5, § 32; Bayer CropScience v. Schafer |
| California | None | Escalating MICRA caps: $470K injury / $650K wrongful death for 2026, per defendant category, up to three categories; rising to $750K / $1M by 2033 | No cap | Civ. Code § 3333.2 (AB 35, 2022) |
| Colorado | $1.5M noneconomic for claims filed on/after 1/1/2025; wrongful death $2.125M | Noneconomic phase-in: $530K for 2026, stepping to $875K by 2029; wrongful death on its own schedule | Cannot exceed compensatory (1:1); 3x for continued misconduct | C.R.S. §§ 13-21-102.5, 13-64-302; HB 24-1472 |
| Connecticut | None | None | Common-law punitives limited to litigation costs | C.G.S. § 52-240b |
| Delaware | None | None | No cap | Common law |
| District of Columbia | None | None | No cap; high proof bar | Common law |
| Florida | None | Caps STRUCK (2014, 2017); sovereign claims capped $200K/$300K | Greater of 3x or $500K; 4x/$2M financial-gain tier; none for intentional harm | §§ 766.118, 768.28(5), 768.73; McCall; Kalitan |
| Georgia | None | Cap STRUCK (2010) | $250K, EXCEPT product liability, specific intent, or impaired defendant: no cap | § 51-12-5.1; Nestlehutt (2010) |
| Hawaii | $375K pain-and-suffering cap riddled with exceptions; in practice mostly a med-mal cap | $375K pain and suffering | No cap | HRS § 663-8.7 |
| Idaho | Noneconomic cap on ALL injury cases: $250K (2003 base) indexed to wages, roughly $510K now; no cap for willful/felony conduct | Same general cap | Greater of $250K or 3x | Idaho Code §§ 6-1603, 6-1604 |
| Illinois | None | Caps STRUCK (2010) | No statutory cap, but punitives BANNED in med-mal; newly allowed in wrongful death (2023) | Lebron (2010); 735 ILCS 5/2-1115; HB 219 (2023) |
| Indiana | None | TOTAL cap $1.8M, all damages; provider pays first $500K, Patient's Compensation Fund the rest | Greater of 3x or $50K; 75% to state fund | Ind. Code §§ 34-18-14-3, 34-51-3-4 |
| Iowa | None | Hard noneconomic caps since 2023: $2M vs hospitals, $1M vs other providers; +2.1%/yr from 2028 | No cap; 75% to state fund unless conduct aimed at plaintiff | Iowa Code §§ 147.136A, 668A.1 |
| Kansas | Noneconomic cap STRUCK (2019); statute unenforceable, not repealed | Unenforceable post-Hilburn | Lesser of $5M or defendant's highest annual gross income | K.S.A. 60-19a02; Hilburn (2019); 60-3702 |
| Kentucky | None; constitution bars caps on injury and death damages | None (same bar) | No cap | Ky. Const. § 54 |
| Louisiana | None | TOTAL cap $500K (1975 dollars, never indexed), future medical care excluded and paid as incurred; provider pays $100K, fund the rest | Not recoverable absent statute (e.g., drunk driving) | La. R.S. 40:1231.2; C.C. art. 2315.4 |
| Maine | None for injury; wrongful death loss-of-comfort capped $1M (deaths after 2023, CPI-adjusted) | None beyond the death cap | Common law; $500K within wrongful death | 18-C M.R.S. § 2-807 (2023) |
| Maryland | General noneconomic cap: $965K (10/2025 to 9/2026, rising $15K each October); wrongful death 150% with 2+ beneficiaries | Separate med-mal cap: $920K for claims arising in 2026, keyed to injury year | No cap; actual-malice standard | CJP §§ 11-108, 3-2A-09 |
| Massachusetts | None | $500K SOFT cap; inapplicable to substantial or permanent loss, which swallows it in serious cases; charitable hospitals: separate low caps | Statutory contexts only | c. 231, § 60H; c. 231, § 85K |
| Michigan | None | 2026 figures: $596,400 standard / $1,065,000 higher tier (paralysis, cognitive impairment, reproductive loss); adjusted annually | Not recoverable (exemplary only) | MCL 600.1483; Treasury notice 1/2026 |
| Minnesota | None | None | No cap; motion gate to plead them | §§ 549.20, 549.191 |
| Mississippi | $1M noneconomic cap on ordinary injury cases | $500K noneconomic | Tiered by net worth, $2M to $20M | §§ 11-1-60, 11-1-65 |
| Missouri | None for common-law claims | $400K / $700K catastrophic (2015 base), +1.7%/yr: roughly $490K / $857K in 2026 | Greater of $500K or 5x; struck for common-law claims (2014), alive for statutory ones | §§ 538.210, 510.265; Watts; Lewellen |
| Montana | None | New escalator (2025): $350K for 2026, stepping to $500K by 2029, then +2%/yr | Lesser of $10M or 3% of net worth | § 25-9-411 (HB 195, 2025); § 27-1-220 |
| Nebraska | None | TOTAL cap $2.25M, all damages; provider pays $500K, excess fund the rest | NOT allowed; unconstitutional in Nebraska | § 44-2825; Neb. Const. art. VII, § 5 |
| Nevada | None | Escalating: $590K for 2026, rising $80K/yr to $750K in 2028, then +2.1%/yr | $300K if compensatory under $100K, else 3x; uncapped exceptions incl. bad faith and product liability | NRS 41A.035 (AB 404, 2023); NRS 42.005 |
| New Hampshire | None; caps struck twice | None (same rulings) | BANNED by statute | Carson (1980); Brannigan (1991); RSA 507:16 |
| New Jersey | None | None; charitable hospitals $250K | Greater of 5x or $350K | N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.14; 2A:53A-8 |
| New Mexico | None | TOTAL caps excluding medical care and punitives: independent providers $750K base (CPI-adjusted); hospitals on a ladder reaching $6M in 2026 | No cap; outside the MMA cap | § 41-5-6 (2021) |
| New York | None generally; new $100K noneconomic cap ONLY for narrow at-fault motor vehicle categories (uninsured operator, convicted impaired or felony driver), actions commenced on/after 5/26/2026, never death cases | None | No cap; not insurable | Ins. Law § 5104(d) (2026) |
| North Carolina | None | Noneconomic: $656,730 through 2025, adjusted triennially 1/1/2026; NO cap where disfigurement or death plus reckless disregard | Greater of 3x or $250K; none for impaired driving | §§ 90-21.19, 1D-25 |
| North Dakota | None | $500K noneconomic, UPHELD (2019) | Greater of 2x or $250K | § 32-42-02; Condon (2019) |
| Ohio | Noneconomic: greater of $250K or 3x economic, max $350K/person, $500K/occurrence; NO cap for catastrophic injury | Same formula; catastrophic tier $500K/$1M | 2x compensatory; small-defendant limits | §§ 2315.18, 2323.43, 2315.21; Brandt (2022) |
| Oklahoma | $350K cap STRUCK (2019); death caps constitutionally barred | Same result | Tiered; no cap for intentional life-threatening conduct | Beason (2019); Okla. Const. art. 23, § 7 |
| Oregon | $500K noneconomic cap unenforceable for INJURY claims, but STANDS for wrongful death | Same split | No cap; 70% of award to the state | ORS 31.710; Busch (2020) |
| Pennsylvania | None; constitution bars caps; sovereign claims $250K/$500K | None | Med-mal punitives capped at 200% vs physicians | Pa. Const. art. III, § 18; 40 P.S. § 1303.505 |
| Rhode Island | None | None | No cap; near-criminal conduct standard | Common law |
| South Carolina | None | Noneconomic: $350K per provider base, CPI-indexed (about $580K in 2026), $1.05M base aggregate; uncapped for gross negligence or impaired defendants | Greater of 3x or $500K; 4x/$2M tier; none for intent or felony conduct | §§ 15-32-220, 15-32-530 |
| South Dakota | None | $500K noneconomic | No general cap | SDCL 21-3-11 |
| Tennessee | Noneconomic cap on ALL injury cases: $750K, $1M catastrophic; exceptions for intentional acts, intoxication, felonies | Same cap | Greater of 2x or $500K; struck for federal diversity cases only | §§ 29-39-102, 29-39-104; McClay (2020) |
| Texas | None | Noneconomic: $250K vs all physicians combined + $250K per institution (max two): $750K ceiling; death cases: total cap, CPI-indexed from $500K in 1977, now well over $2.9M | Greater of $200K, or 2x economic + noneconomic up to $750K | §§ 74.301, 74.303, 41.008 |
| Utah | None | $450K noneconomic; STRUCK as applied to wrongful death | No cap; half above $50K to the state | § 78B-3-410; Smith v. United States (2015) |
| Vermont | None | None | No cap; malice standard | Common law |
| Virginia | None | TOTAL cap, all damages: $2.70M for acts 7/2025 through 6/2026, rising $50K each July 1 to $3M by 2031 | $350K statewide cap, all civil cases | §§ 8.01-581.15, 8.01-38.1 |
| Washington | None; cap struck (1989) | None (same ruling) | NOT available absent statute | Sofie (1989) |
| West Virginia | None | $250K base / $500K serious injury, inflation-adjusted but ceilinged at 150%: effectively $375K / $750K | Greater of 4x or $500K | §§ 55-7B-8, 55-7-29; MacDonald (2011) |
| Wisconsin | None; wrongful death loss-of-society capped $350K adult / $500K minor | $750K noneconomic, upheld (2018) | Greater of 2x or $200K; none for impaired drivers | §§ 893.55(4), 895.04; Mayo (2018) |
| Wyoming | None; constitution bars caps for injury and death | None (same bar) | No cap | Wyo. Const. art. 10, § 4 |
Caps Have Been Struck Down More Often Than They Have Survived
The quiet story in this table is judicial. Florida's supreme court struck the med-mal caps in 2014 and 2017,[1] Georgia's in 2010, Illinois's in 2010, Kansas's in 2019, Oklahoma's in 2019, Washington's in 1989, New Hampshire's twice, and Alabama's in 1991. Five constitutions, Arizona's most absolutely, prohibit caps outright.[2]
The caps that survived review are just as important to know: Tennessee's was upheld in 2020,[3] North Dakota's in 2019, Wisconsin's in 2018, and West Virginia's in 2011. A struck cap sometimes stays on the books as unenforceable text, Kansas being the clean example, so reading the statute alone can tell you the opposite of the law.
The Escalator Era: Caps That Change Their Number Every Year
The newest pattern is the escalating cap. California's MICRA caps now rise annually toward $750,000 for injury and $1 million for wrongful death,[4] and the 2026 figures are $470,000 and $650,000. Nevada's med-mal cap climbs $80,000 a year, putting 2026 at $590,000.[5] Montana and Colorado enacted phase-ins in 2024 and 2025, Virginia's total cap steps up every July, and Michigan and Maryland re-index annually.
An escalator changes strategy as much as numbers. When the cap rises each year, the year a case resolves becomes part of what it is worth, and a figure quoted from a two-year-old article is wrong by definition. Every escalator figure in this table is stamped with its year for exactly that reason.
Total Caps Swallow Economic Losses Too, and Five States Have Them
Most caps limit only noneconomic damages: the pain, disability, and lost enjoyment. A total cap limits everything, including medical bills and lost income, and five states run one in malpractice cases: Virginia, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Louisiana. Louisiana's is the harshest, $500,000 set in 1975 and never indexed, though future medical care sits outside it and is paid as incurred.[6]
The difference decides cases. Under a noneconomic cap, a catastrophic injury with $4 million in lifetime medical needs still recovers the $4 million. Under a total cap, it may not, which is why the same injury can be economically viable to litigate in one state and not the next, and why patient-compensation funds exist in several total-cap states to pay what the named defendant cannot.
Four Oddities Worth Knowing Before You Assume the Pattern
Oregon's $500,000 noneconomic cap is unenforceable in injury cases but stands in wrongful death. Utah runs the mirror image: its med-mal cap survives for injuries and was struck for deaths. Alabama's wrongful death damages are punitive only, a structure no other state uses. And New York, long a no-caps state, now carries one narrow $100,000 noneconomic cap for certain at-fault motor vehicle claimants in actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, a carve-out that never reaches death cases or blameless drivers.
Each oddity is exactly the kind of detail a general article flattens. Where a cap question actually matters to a case, the answer needs the state, the claim type, the injury date, and sometimes the filing date, which is a conversation rather than a chart. The rest of the state-law variables live in our state-by-state injury law index, and the year's legislative movement is tracked in the 2026 tort law changes tracker.
The State Cap Pages Behind These Rows
Nine deep-dive pages cover the cap fights in the states where this site goes deepest, including the strike-down stories and what they mean for case value.
- Texas Damage Caps and the Stacking Rules
- The Texas Med-Mal Cap in Practice
- Florida: Where the Caps Were Struck
- Georgia After Nestlehutt
- New York's No-Cap Rule and Its New Exception
- Tennessee's Hard Caps
- South Carolina's Indexed Med-Mal Cap
- Arizona's Constitutional Ban on Caps
- Nevada's Escalating Cap
Damage Caps by State FAQ
- Q: Does my state cap what a jury can award me?
-
A: For an ordinary injury case, probably not: only a handful of states cap noneconomic damages across all injury claims, with Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, Maryland, Idaho, and Colorado the main examples. Medical malpractice is different, with roughly half the states enforcing some cap. And economic damages, the bills and lost income, are uncapped almost everywhere outside the five total-cap states. The table above has your state's specifics with the citation.
- Q: Why do some sources say a state has a cap when courts struck it down?
-
A: Because a struck cap often stays printed in the code. Kansas's cap statute still reads like law but has been unenforceable since 2019; Florida's § 766.118 sits in the statutes years after the supreme court invalidated it. Reading the statute without the case law gives the opposite of the real answer, which is one reason this table pairs every strike-down with the deciding case.
- Q: Do damage caps apply to medical bills and lost wages?
-
A: Usually not. Most caps limit only noneconomic damages, so the economic losses are paid in full on top of the capped amount. The exceptions are the total-cap states, Virginia, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Louisiana, where the malpractice cap can swallow economic losses too. In several of those, a patient-compensation fund pays part of what the provider does not, which changes how the case is built from day one.
- Q: Can punitive damages exceed the cap?
-
A: Punitive damages usually have their own separate cap, most often a multiplier of compensatory damages or a fixed ceiling, whichever is greater. Many states then uncap them for the worst conduct: drunk driving in Georgia and Wisconsin, intent to harm in several others. Two states bar punitive damages almost entirely, Nebraska and Washington, and a few route a large share of any award to the state rather than the victim.
- Q: The cap figure I found online is different from this table. Which is right?
-
A: Check the year. California, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Virginia, Michigan, and Maryland all run caps that change annually or on schedules, so two sources can both have been right when written and only one right today. Every escalating figure in this table is stamped with the year it covers, and the honest answer for any real case is the current figure verified on the day it matters.
The Cap Is Half the Answer. What Your Case Is Worth Is the Other Half.
A cap only matters once a case is strong enough to reach it, and most cases are decided long before that ceiling.
Seriously injured people deserve a valuation built on the whole loss: the bills, the years of care, and the life that changed.
Whether a cap touches your case, and what the law still allows above and around it, is analysis Lawsuit Legal does before anyone talks numbers.
Send us the basics of what happened and where. Call (888) 713-6653 or use the form; the review is free and confidential.
We help catastrophically injured people in capped and uncapped states alike, families told a cap ends the conversation, and patients weighing malpractice claims against total-cap math, with the legal help they need to recover what the law actually allows.
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