How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages — the easy-to-document part, and these are never capped in California. We then apply the multiplier method, the same approach insurers and attorneys use industry-wide, to estimate pain and suffering: your economic damages multiplied by a factor of 1.5 to 5, depending on how serious the injury actually was.
MICRA's cap only reaches medical malpractice
California's one real cap on non-economic damages comes from the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), and it applies narrowly — only to claims against a health care provider for professional negligence. As of 2023, that cap sits at $350,000 for non-death cases and $500,000 for wrongful death, rising incrementally each year through 2033. Outside medical malpractice — a car accident, a slip and fall, a dog bite — California places no cap on pain and suffering at all.
Your own fault always matters, by any amount
California follows pure comparative negligence: your recovery is reduced by your own percentage of fault, whatever that percentage turns out to be. There's no threshold where fault wipes out the claim entirely — even at 90% fault, the remaining 10% is still yours. See our California comparative negligence calculator for the full rule.