Maryland’s Cap on Non-Economic Damages: How It Actually Affects Injury and Wrongful Death Awards

Maryland personal injury attorneys often hear the same assumption from new clients: that a jury simply decides what a case is worth. In reality, Maryland law places a ceiling on part of that award before a jury ever reaches a verdict. Understanding where that ceiling sits, and what it does not touch, changes how a case should be evaluated from the start.

Economic Damages Are Uncapped, Non-Economic Damages Are Not

Maryland draws a firm line between two types of compensation. Economic damages cover costs tied to a receipt or a pay stub, such as medical bills, lost wages, and future care. There is no ceiling on these. Non-economic damages cover harder to measure losses, including pain, suffering, disfigurement, and loss of companionship, and these are capped under the state’s damages statute.

The cap adjusts every year on October 1. For personal injury and wrongful death claims outside the medical malpractice context, the current cap is $965,000 for a case with a single beneficiary. Maryland law allows that limit to increase by 50 percent in a wrongful death case with two or more beneficiaries, bringing the cap to roughly $1.45 million. When combined with a survival action brought by the estate, total non-economic recovery can reach approximately $2.41 million. Medical malpractice claims fall under a separate, lower formula.

Why the Cap Rarely Feels Fair to the People Living With the Injury

The math sounds generous until it meets a real case. A catastrophic injury, such as paralysis, an amputation, or a permanent brain injury, can easily produce a jury verdict for pain and suffering that exceeds the cap by hundreds of thousands of dollars. When that happens, a judge must reduce the award to match the statutory limit, regardless of what the jury decided after weighing the evidence. The jury’s assessment of the harm and the amount a victim actually receives can be two very different numbers.

This gap matters most where economic damages are modest but the human cost is significant. Someone with a severe scarring injury or the loss of a limb may have contained medical bills once treatment concludes, yet live with permanent, life altering consequences. The cap does not weigh how serious the injury is. It applies the same ceiling regardless of the underlying harm. Factors that can affect how a capped claim is evaluated include:

• Whether the injury involves a wrongful death claim, a survival action, or both.
• How many beneficiaries are entitled to recover under the wrongful death statute.
• Whether the case falls under the general cap or the lower medical malpractice cap.
• The strength of documentation supporting uncapped economic losses.
• Whether ongoing legislative efforts could affect the cap that applies to a future claim.

There has been ongoing debate in Annapolis about whether the cap should be raised or repealed, and that conversation is likely to continue. Until the law changes, current limits govern every claim filed today.

If you or a family member is dealing with a serious injury or the loss of a loved one, our office can walk you through what these caps mean for your case. At Berman | Sobin | Gross LLP, our Maryland personal injury lawyers evaluate how damage caps apply to your circumstances and can explain how survival actions and wrongful death claims work together. Contact our office today to request a consultation.

Source:

mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=11-108&enactments=false