Kansas No-Fault Threshold: When You Can Claim Pain and Suffering

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

In Kansas you may recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and other non-pecuniary loss from the at-fault driver only if your injury requires medical treatment with a reasonable value of $2,000 or more, or consists in whole or in part of a listed permanent or serious injury, or death.

The tests

K.S.A. 40-3117 lists them: the injury requires medical treatment of a kind described as medical benefits, having a reasonable value of $2,000 or more; or it consists in whole or in part of permanent disfigurement, a fracture to a weight-bearing bone, a compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture, loss of a body member, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of a bodily function, or death.

How the $2,000 is measured

A person entitled to free medical and surgical benefits meets the test by showing the treatment received has an equivalent value of at least $2,000. A person who receives nurse-type services from a relative or household member may include the reasonable value of those services. The charges actually made are not conclusive as to reasonable value, and evidence of a different reasonable value is admissible.

What it limits

The section conditions recovery of damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and other non-pecuniary loss. We found nothing in it that bars recovery of economic losses, though we did not read Kansas court decisions on how those claims interact with PIP.

Fault and deadlines

Your negligence does not bar recovery if it is less than the causal negligence of the party or parties you claim against, so 50 percent bars it (K.S.A. 60-258a), and injury actions must be brought within two years (60-513). See Kansas comparative negligence and Kansas statute of limitations.

Using the calculator

The Kansas no-fault calculator tests the $2,000 line and each injury and combines PIP with your claim. For how non-economic damages are valued, see Kansas pain and suffering and economic vs. non-economic damages.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the state comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm how Kansas's rules apply to your specific case with a licensed Kansas attorney.