States With Caps on Wrongful Death Damages

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Idaho folds wrongful death into the same noneconomic damages cap that governs ordinary injury claims — with an adjustment mechanism most states don't use.

The same cap, explicitly written into the statute

Under Idaho Code §6-1603, the noneconomic damages limitation explicitly covers a claimant "asserting a wrongful death" within the same cap that applies to ordinary personal injury — there's no separate wrongful-death-specific figure.

What stays uncapped

Economic damages — lost financial support, funeral expenses — aren't subject to the §6-1603 cap and can be recovered in full, regardless of how large they are.

The same exceptions apply

The §6-1603(4) exceptions for willful or reckless misconduct, or felony-level conduct, remove the cap entirely whether the underlying claim is an ordinary injury or a wrongful death — no separate exception structure exists for the fatal context.

A distinctive adjustment mechanism nationally

Nationally, states take genuinely different approaches to wrongful death damages. Some fold it into the same noneconomic damages cap that applies to severe personal injury generally — Idaho among them. Others set an entirely separate wrongful-death-specific cap, or impose no cap on either category. What sets Idaho apart even among states that fold the two together is the wage-indexed adjustment itself: most comparable caps elsewhere use a fixed dollar figure rather than one tied annually to statewide wage data.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the jurisdiction comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm the current rule with a licensed attorney.