There have been two news articles recently involving Medical Malpractice liability caps. One stems from Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a cap on damages deeming it constitutional. The other comes from Miami, where a judge recently declared that caps on damages was unconstitutional.
Medical malpractice is a state law and there is no national reform despite many studies and lobbyists pushing for standardized reform across the country. Currently, there are 33 states that have caps to either and/or both economic damages (medical bills, disability, lost income) and noneconomic damages (pain and suffering, mental anguish).
Currently, Wisconsin has the noneconomic damage cap at $750,000. Florida has their noneconomic damage cap at $500,000 for practitioners and $750,000 for non-practitioners.
The other remaining 31 states with damage caps are:
- Alaska – $250,000 for noneconomic damage ($400,000 for cases that involve wrongful death or severe impairment).
- California – $250,000 for noneconomic damage.
- Colorado – $1 million for total damages received. $300,000 for noneconomic damage.
- Georgia – $350,000 for noneconomic damages ($700,000 for cases involving more than one person responsible for injury).
- Hawaii – $375,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Idaho – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Indiana – $250,000 for individual healthcare providers. $750,000 for total damages for malpractice committed before July 1999. $1.25 million for total damages for malpractice committed after July 1999.
- Kansas – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Louisiana – $500,000 for total damages.
- Maine – $500,000 in wrongful death cases. Medical malpractice cases aren’t capped.
- Maryland – $770,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Massachusetts – $500,000 for noneconomic damages, but there is no cap for cases that involve disfigurement or loss of bodily function.
- Michigan – $280,000 for total damages.
- Mississippi – $500,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Montana – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Nebraska – $1.25 million for total damages from cases between from December 31, 1992, through December 31, 2003. $1.75 million for total damages for cases between December 31, 2003, and December 21, 2014. $2.25 million for total damages currently.
- Nevada – $350,000 for noneconomic damages.
- New Jersey – $350,000 for punitive damages.
- New Mexico – $600,000 for total damages.
- North Carolina – $500,000 for noneconomic damages.
- North Dakota – $500,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Ohio – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Oklahoma – $350,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Oregon – $500,000 for noneconomic damages, if the medical malpractice led to wrongful death.
- South Carolina – $350,000 for noneconomic damages (if the injury is due to more than one responsible party, the cap is raised to $1.05 million).
- South Dakota – $500,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Tennessee – $750,000 for noneconomic damages (raised to $1 million in catastrophic injury cases).
- Texas – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Utah – $450,000 for noneconomic damages.
- Virginia – $2.25 million for total damages.
- West Virginia – $250,000 for noneconomic damages.
Until the federal government takes control, the total amount for damages a victim can recover will continue to vary from state to state.
