Economic damages: the documented, countable losses
Economic damages are the straightforward, receipt-backed part of a claim. In a New York 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: the subjective losses
Non-economic damages cover the losses that don't come with a receipt: pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and similar nonpecuniary harm. 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.
A new cap, but a genuinely narrow one
A 2026 addition to New York law, Insurance Law § 5104(d), caps noneconomic damages at $100,000 — but only for a claimant who meets all of several specific conditions at once: they must be partly at fault for the crash (though not barred entirely under the new motor vehicle fault rule), and they must also have been operating an uninsured vehicle they were responsible for insuring, convicted of driving while impaired, or convicted of a felony committed while driving. The cap doesn't apply to death cases at all.
Why the category matters here more than the usual split
Unlike a typical noneconomic damages cap that applies broadly to an entire claim type, this one is defined almost entirely by the claimant's own specific circumstances at the time of the crash. A claimant who doesn't fall into one of these narrow categories — which is most people, most of the time — never encounters this cap at all, regardless of how the claim is otherwise valued.
Economic damages are never touched by this cap
Even for a claimant who does fall into one of the capped categories, the $100,000 figure applies specifically to noneconomic loss. Economic damages — medical bills, lost wages, and similar documented losses — remain fully recoverable regardless of whether the noneconomic cap applies.