States With Caps on Pain & Suffering Damages

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Colorado just raised its cap more dramatically than almost any state has in recent memory — a sixfold jump reached specifically to avoid a more disruptive ballot fight.

From $642,180 to $1.5 million overnight

Under the original 1986 statute, Colorado's noneconomic damages cap started at $250,000 and crept up through biennial inflation adjustments to $642,180 by 2024. House Bill 24-1472, effective January 1, 2025, reset that figure to $1,500,000 for civil actions filed on or after that date — roughly a sixfold jump from the inflation-adjusted prior cap.

A compromise, not a ballot fight

This wasn't a routine legislative update. Trial lawyers had introduced ballot initiatives that could have eliminated Colorado's noneconomic damages caps entirely. HB 24-1472 emerged as a negotiated compromise among trial lawyers, business groups, medical organizations, and insurers — a substantial increase that all sides preferred over the uncertainty of a ballot measure that might have removed caps altogether.

Where Colorado now sits nationally

At $1.5 million for an ordinary injury claim, Colorado's cap is now substantially higher than many states that still cap noneconomic damages in the $250,000 to $500,000 range. It remains, however, a genuine cap — unlike states with no statutory ceiling on noneconomic damages at all for ordinary injury claims.

Not retroactive, and still rising

The new cap only applies to claims filed on or after January 1, 2025 — a case filed earlier remains subject to the lower, prior adjusted figure. Starting January 1, 2028, the $1.5 million baseline itself begins adjusting for inflation every 2 years, continuing the same pattern that applied before the reform.

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.