Are medical malpractice damages capped in Texas, and at how much?

The noneconomic cap, in plain numbers

Since 2003, Texas has capped the human damages in medical cases, pain, mental anguish, impairment, disfigurement, at $250,000 per claimant against all physicians and individual providers combined, no matter how many were negligent, plus $250,000 per healthcare institution, counted for at most two institutions, a theoretical maximum of $750,000 when doctors and two facilities share the verdict. The jury is never told any of this; it awards what the evidence deserves, and the judge cuts the number afterward. Two decades of inflation have never touched the figure, a $250,000 borrowed from 1970s California and frozen, and broader reform bills in the 2025 session that touched damages did not pass, so the architecture stands as described.

What is not capped, and why it decides case strategy

Texas voters, in the same constitutional amendment that authorized the caps, defined economic damages, medical expenses, lost earnings, custodial care, every pecuniary loss, as beyond the Legislature's power to cap in these cases. That line dictates how serious malpractice cases are built: the economic case, life care plans, earning-capacity analysis, the priced future, becomes the engine of value, documented with the same expert rigor as any catastrophic file, while the capped noneconomic award rides alongside. It also explains a hard truth about screening: an injury with modest economic loss, however real the suffering, may not be able to carry the six-figure expert costs these cases demand, which is the honest arithmetic behind many declinations.

The death cap, and its moving number

When malpractice causes death, a second, overall cap applies to the wrongful death and survival claims: all damages, set at $500,000 in 1977 dollars and indexed to inflation ever since, which puts the current figure well above $2 million and climbing as the index moves, with necessary medical and custodial expenses standing outside it. Careful practitioners also preserve a serious constitutional argument the appellate courts have yet to resolve: that the same voter-approved amendment forbidding caps on economic damages must limit the death cap's reach too. Layered caps, an indexed number, and open constitutional questions are precisely why death-case valuations belong with counsel who work these statutes, not a settlement calculator.

What the caps mean for your family's decision

Caps make Texas medical cases harder; they do not make them futile, and carriers rely on families assuming otherwise. Whether the medicine, the economics, and the caps together support a case is a specific, answerable question, and Silver Key Law answers it candidly in a free consultation, including when the answer is no.

Injured in Arizona? Some rules on this page are Texas-specific. Arizona differs on points that change outcomes, including pure comparative fault and government-claim deadlines. See our Arizona answers or call (888) 508-6967.

Related: Medical Malpractice in Texas · Wrongful Death Damages · Submit Your Case · All Common Questions

This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.