Texas Injury Lawyer Blog
I frequently hear people say that in Texas medical malpractice damages are capped at $250,000. This is incorrect. The $250,000 damage cap refers to the cap on noneconomic damages recoverable from a single physician, health care provider, or heath care institution.
Texas medical malpractice damage caps are set forth in Section 74.301 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code. Section 74.301 limits the amount of noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, physical impairment, or disfigurement to $250,000 from all doctors and individual health care providers. Section 74.301 further limits noneconomic damages recoverable from each health care institution(hospital) to $250,000 with a cap of $500,000 from all health care institutions. The injured claimants’ medical expenses and lost wages are not included in the caps.
Medical malpractice damages often add up to substantially more than $250,000. Take for example the case of a worker who is admitted to the hospital by a private physician and while in the hospital is the victim of malpractice by both the doctor and the hospital resulting in the loss of his leg. Assume that the patients’ medical expenses total $180,000 and he will sustain $800,000 in lost wages. His recoverable damages would be a total of $1,480,000. This is not a lot of compensation for losing a leg but it is a lot more than $250,000.
For more information contact a Tyler Medical Malpractice Attorney today.