States With Caps on Wrongful Death Damages

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Kentucky protects wrongful death damages from a cap the same explicit way it protects ordinary injury damages — no separate statute to challenge, no separate ruling needed.

One constitutional text, both claim types

Section 54 of the Kentucky Constitution explicitly covers injuries resulting in death alongside injuries to person or property — the same constitutional prohibition on caps applies to wrongful death as it does to ordinary personal injury, with no separate wrongful-death-specific statute that could fall or survive independently.

The opposite pattern from a state like Kansas

Compare this to Kansas, where the wrongful death noneconomic damages cap survived a ruling that struck down the ordinary personal injury cap — because Kansas courts treated wrongful death as a purely statutory claim outside the jury-trial-right protection that saved personal injury damages. Kentucky's single constitutional text covering both categories together means that split outcome couldn't happen the same way here.

A guaranteed share isn't a cap

Kentucky's guaranteed one-half share for a surviving spouse under KRS 411.130 is worth distinguishing from a cap: it's a floor, setting a minimum the spouse must receive from the total recovery, not a ceiling limiting how large that total recovery can be.

A more durable protection than most

Most uncapped states arrived there through case law interpreting a constitutional right — an approach that remains open to a future court reinterpreting it differently. Kentucky's explicit textual prohibition is structurally more durable, since changing it requires the formal constitutional amendment process rather than a new ruling from a differently composed court.

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.