How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages, never capped in Missouri. We apply the multiplier method, the industry-standard approach, to estimate noneconomic damages — then check the result against the medical malpractice cap, if it applies.
Pure comparative fault: fault reduces, never bars
Missouri adopted pure comparative fault judicially in Gustafson v. Benda (1983), abandoning the old contributory negligence bar. Your own fault reduces your damages in direct proportion to your percentage of fault, but never bars recovery entirely — even at 99% fault, you still recover the remaining 1%.
A medical malpractice cap with a genuinely unusual history
RSMo § 538.210 caps noneconomic damages in a medical malpractice claim — but this isn't the state's original cap. An earlier version was struck down as unconstitutional in 2012 for violating the right to a jury trial under the Missouri Constitution. The legislature's 2015 response was unusual: rather than simply re-passing a damages limit, it created an entirely new statutory cause of action against health care providers specifically to avoid that constitutional objection. The Missouri Supreme Court upheld this reinstated cap in 2021.
Two tiers, rising every year
For 2026, the cap is $481,494 for a non-catastrophic injury, rising to $842,614 if the injury qualifies as "catastrophic" — defined by statute as quadriplegia, paraplegia, loss of two or more limbs, significant and permanent cognitive impairment, irreversible failure of a major organ, significant loss of vision, or another injury a court determines catastrophic based on severity and permanence. Both figures increase by 1.7% every January 1, and the cap applies even to a wrongful death claim arising from malpractice, using the higher catastrophic tier. Economic damages remain fully uncapped either way, and the jury is never told the cap exists.