Economic damages: the documented, countable losses
Economic damages are the straightforward, receipt-backed part of a claim. In a Maryland personal injury case, this generally includes medical expenses already incurred, lost wages from time away from work, property damage, and reasonably anticipated future medical care or lost earning capacity tied directly to the injury.
Non-economic damages: a specifically defined list
Maryland Code gives this category a specific legal definition: pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, loss of consortium, and other nonpecuniary injury. These are inherently harder to quantify, which is exactly why the multiplier method exists — to translate a documented economic figure into a reasoned estimate of the non-economic side.
Why this split matters more in Maryland than almost anywhere else
In Maryland, non-economic damages are the only category subject to a cap — and that cap applies regardless of the overall size of the claim. Economic damages pass through completely uncapped, no matter how large. This makes a thorough, well-documented economic damages tally especially consequential in a severe Maryland injury case: it's the only part of the recovery with no ceiling at all once the non-economic side maxes out.
The definition stays the same across both cap tracks
Whether a claim falls under the general personal injury cap or the separate, lower medical malpractice cap, the underlying definition of non-economic damages doesn't change — only the dollar ceiling and the annual increase schedule differ between the two tracks.
Contributory negligence doesn't distinguish between the categories
If a claimant's own fault bars recovery under Maryland's pure contributory negligence rule, it bars both economic and non-economic damages together. The split matters for the cap; it plays no role in the fault defense itself.