Which states don’t have a damage cap for medical malpractice cases?

A medical malpractice “damages cap” is a law that sets a limit on the amount (or type) of compensation that an injured patient can receive after a successful medical malpractice lawsuit. So, when a patient makes a case that a doctor or other health care professional was negligent, and a jury agrees and holds the doctor liable, any resulting award will be subject to the damages cap.

Most caps limit non-economic damages, which compensate the plaintiff for pain and suffering, anxiety, scarring, and other more subjective negative effects of the malpractice. Caps rarely apply to economic losses like medical bills and lost income (or lost ability to earn income) although a small handful of states do have an “umbrella” cap on total damages a med mal plaintiff can receive.  A little more than half of states have some variation of a medical malpractice damages cap.

So, which states have no cap on damages in medical malpractice cases? Here’s a list:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania (but punitive damages are capped), Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.

Learn more about Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases.