States With Caps on Pain & Suffering Damages

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

California runs two different systems at once — no cap for most injury claims, and a specifically-modernized cap for medical malpractice that few other states have matched.

Ordinary injury: no cap at all

For the large majority of personal injury claims — car accidents, slip-and-falls, dog bites — California places no statutory limit on noneconomic damages whatsoever. The jury's award stands, reduced only by the plaintiff's own share of fault.

Medical malpractice: a cap that actually keeps up with inflation

California's medical malpractice cap, under Cal. Civ. Code §3333.2 (MICRA), tells a different story. From 1975 until 2023, it was a flat $250,000 — never adjusted, steadily losing real value to inflation for nearly five decades. Assembly Bill 35, effective January 1, 2023, replaced that fixed number with an escalating schedule: $470,000 for non-fatal claims and $650,000 for wrongful death claims in 2026, rising annually until reaching $750,000 and $1,000,000 respectively in 2033, then adjusting 2% per year permanently after that.

A distinctive middle path nationally

Many states that cap noneconomic damages apply the cap broadly across injury categories, or set a figure that never adjusts over time the way California's old MICRA cap didn't. California's current split system — uncapped for ordinary injury, a specifically inflation-adjusted cap only for malpractice — is a distinctive approach shaped directly by a negotiated 2022 compromise between medical and legal advocacy groups.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the state comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm the current rule in any state with a licensed attorney there.