Generally, there are no damage caps for personal injury cases in California. However, there is one important exception: As of January 1, 2025, non-economic damages are capped at $430,000 in non-fatal medical malpractice claims and $600,000 in fatal medical malpractice claims.1
Each new year, the cap in non-fatal cases will increase by $40,000 until it reaches $750,000. In fatal cases, the cap will increase each new year by $50,000 until it reaches $1 million, as the following table shows:
| Non-Economic Damages Cap in California | Non-Fatal Medical Malpractice Cases | Fatal Medical Malpractice Cases |
| 2025 | $430,000 | $600,000 |
| 2026 | $470,000 | $650,000 |
| 2027 | $510,000 | $700,000 |
| 2028 | $550,000 | $750,000 |
| 2029 | $590,000 | $800,000 |
| 2030 | $630,000 | $850,000 |
| 2031 | $670,000 | $90,000 |
| 2032 | $710,000 | $950,000 |
| 2033 | $750,000 | $1,000,000 |
In this article I discuss what you need to know about damages caps in California personal injury cases. Also listen to our informative podcast:
How do damage caps work?
A damage cap limits how much compensation you can recover for your losses. It puts a cap on how much you will be awarded, even if you suffered severe injuries and deserve far more.
For the most part, there are no damage caps in personal injury cases brought in California. The personal injury cases that have no damage caps include claims for injuries that happened due to a(n):
In these cases, you can recover all of the compensation that you deserve for your injuries.
Though as mentioned above, California lawmakers have singled out medical malpractice lawsuits for a cap on damages.2
What is a medical malpractice case?
If medical negligence is the proximate cause of an injury or wrongful death, the medical professional and their medical institution may be held liable through a medical malpractice claim.3
Medical malpractice claims can be filed against medical professionals, individually, or the professional’s medical institution. Potential defendants include:
- doctors,
- nurses,
- hospitals,
- doctor’s offices,
- pharmacists,
- pharmacies,
- anesthesiologists,
- psychologists, and
- laboratories.
Some common examples of medical malpractice situations include:
- failing to diagnose a readily diagnosable medical condition,
- performing surgery on the wrong body part,
- operating on the wrong patient,
- giving the wrong drugs to the patient, and
- leaving surgical equipment inside the patient.
Many of these instances of malpractice are severe or life-threatening. Some are fatal. That California law limits your non-economic damages is seen as controversial.
What are non-economic damages?
Non-economic damages are a form of compensation for accident victims. It covers your:
- pain,
- suffering,
- emotional distress,
- loss of quality of life,
- loss of consortium for your loved ones,
- emotional trauma for disfigurement, and
- loss of life’s enjoyments due to a disability.
What are compensatory damages?
Compensatory damages are broken down into two categories: 1) non-economic damages (discussed above) and 2) economic damages, which compensate you for losses that are easy to state in an amount of money.
Economic damages generally cover expenses that can be found on a bill or a receipt. They include compensation for your:
- medical bills, including reasonably anticipated future medical expenses,
- lost income,
- loss of earning capacity, and
- property damage.
What are punitive damages?
Punitive damages are those that are meant to punish the defendant for especially wrongful conduct. However, they are extremely rare in cases based on accidents that were caused by the defendant’s negligence.
Calculating Non-Economic Damages
In many cases, especially severe instances of medical malpractice, the amount of your non-economic damages can far surpass your economic damages. Personal injury attorneys often use the “multiplier method” to estimate how much compensation you will recover for your non-economic losses.
Under this method, all of your economic damages are added together. The resulting number is then multiplied by between 1 and 5 to estimate your non-economic damage award. The more severe your injuries, the higher the number used by personal injury lawyers.
The wide range used for the multiplier method reflects just how difficult it is to guess how a potential jury will react to your claim. Jury awards for pain and suffering damages in personal injury claims are infamously inconsistent. However, the high numbers show just how controversial it is to institute non-economic damage caps in California medical malpractice cases.4
Additional Resources
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- Statutory Punitive Damage Caps and the Profit Motive: An Economic Perspective – Emory Law Journal.
- Controlling Large Malpractice Claims: The Unexpected Impact of Damage Caps – Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
- Damage Caps, Motivated Anchoring, and Bargaining Impasse – The Journal of Legal Studies.
- A Tale of Three Damage Caps: Too Much, Too Little and Finally Just Right – Case Western Reserve Law Review.
- Damage Caps and Settlement: A Behavioral Approach – The Journal of Legal Studies.
Legal References:
- California Civil Code 3333.2 CIV. See also Assembly Bill 35.
- Same. The medical malpractice damage cap comes from the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, or MICRA. This tort reform act went into effect in 1975.
- See California Civil Code 3333.1(2) CIV and California Code of Civil Procedure 340.5(2) CCP.
- Fein v. Permanente Medical Group (1985) 38 Cal.3d 137.
