Pain & Suffering: Medical Malpractice vs. Ordinary Injury

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Colorado's 2025 reform raised both caps substantially — but kept them meaningfully separate, with ordinary injury claims now capped nearly three times higher than medical malpractice.

Two caps, moving on different schedules

Under House Bill 24-1472, an ordinary injury claim is capped at $1,500,000 effective immediately for claims filed in 2025 or later. Medical malpractice, by contrast, follows a five-year phase-in:

• 2025: $415,000
• 2026: $530,000
• 2027: $645,000
• 2028: $760,000
• 2029 and beyond: $875,000, then biennial inflation adjustments starting 2030

A narrower bill failed first

Earlier in the same legislative session, Senate Bill 24-130 attempted to raise the medical malpractice noneconomic cap on its own and failed. HB 24-1472 succeeded afterward as a broader compromise bundling the malpractice increase together with the larger ordinary-injury and wrongful-death reforms — a package all sides found more acceptable than the narrower bill alone.

Why the gap persists

Colorado's medical malpractice cap has historically been kept lower and separate from its general tort cap, reflecting longstanding concerns about the cost and availability of malpractice insurance for healthcare providers. HB 24-1472 preserved this structural distinction even while substantially raising both figures.

One thing that stays consistent either way: Colorado's modified comparative negligence rule applies to both malpractice and ordinary injury claims equally — see our Comparative Negligence Calculator for Colorado for how the 50% bar works.

This is general information, not legal advice. Medical malpractice claims involve procedural requirements beyond what's described here. Confirm how Colorado's rules apply to your specific case with a licensed attorney.