Damage caps in injury cases in Tennessee

Tennessee lets you recover the full, provable cost of a crash. What the state limits is a narrower slice: the award for harm that doesn't come with a receipt, plus any award meant to punish the driver who hurt you. Those limits trace back to a 2011 statute and two Tennessee Supreme Court decisions that settled how the math works.

The short version. Economic losses are not capped. Noneconomic damages are generally capped at $750,000. Punitive damages usually can't exceed the greater of $500,000 or twice your compensatory award.¹² Each rule has fine print that can raise the number or erase the ceiling.

What gets capped, and what doesn't

Tennessee sorts your damages into two buckets. Economic damages are the measurable dollars: emergency care, surgery, physical therapy, future medical needs, lost paychecks, reduced earning capacity, and the cost to fix or replace your car. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-102(a)(1), there is no cap on economic damages. Prove the number and you can recover it.¹

Noneconomic damages are the losses without an invoice: physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and a spouse's loss of consortium. Section 29-39-102(a)(2) caps those at $750,000 per injured plaintiff, "for all injuries and occurrences" in the case.¹ That ceiling is what people mean when they talk about Tennessee's damage cap.

Your vehicle damage stays in the uncapped economic column, including a diminished value claim for the resale value your car lost after being wrecked and repaired.

The $750,000 cap and the one-cap-per-victim rule

A common misread is that every plaintiff gets a fresh $750,000. That isn't how it works when one person's injury creates a related claim. In Yebuah v. Center for Urological Treatment (Tenn. 2021), the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the statute creates a single cap covering both the injured person's noneconomic damages and a spouse's derivative loss-of-consortium award.³ A husband and wife recover $750,000 in the aggregate for that injury, not $750,000 each. If two people are separately hurt in the same crash, each injured plaintiff has a separate cap, but you can't split one person's injury into two.

The $1 million catastrophic exception

For the worst injuries, the ceiling rises to $1,000,000. Section 29-39-102(c) and (d) define a "catastrophic loss or injury" narrowly, and the list is specific:¹

• spinal cord injury causing paraplegia or quadriplegia;
• amputation of two hands, two feet, or one of each;
• third-degree burns over 40% or more of the body, or 40% or more of the face; and
• the wrongful death of a parent who leaves a surviving minor child.

If your injury isn't on that list, the $750,000 cap applies no matter how serious it feels. If it is, the higher $1,000,000 limit governs. Still a cap, just a larger one.

When the cap disappears entirely

The ceiling isn't absolute. Section 29-39-102(h) removes the noneconomic cap in four situations: the defendant specifically intended to seriously injure you and did; the defendant falsified, destroyed, or concealed records to evade liability; the defendant was under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the point of substantially impaired judgment, and that caused the injury; or the defendant's act resulted in a felony conviction.¹

The third one matters most on the road. If a drunk or drugged driver hits you, the $750,000 limit comes off, and a jury can award noneconomic damages with no statutory ceiling.¹ The punitive cap loosens for the same reason.

Punitive damages and their separate cap

Punitive damages punish especially bad conduct rather than compensate you for a loss. Tennessee allows them only sparingly. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-104 requires clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted maliciously, intentionally, fraudulently, or recklessly.² When they are allowed, the award can't exceed the greater of two times your total compensatory damages or $500,000.²

The same escape hatches apply here. Section 29-39-104(a)(7) lifts the punitive cap when the defendant intended serious injury, hid evidence, was impaired by alcohol or drugs, or was convicted of a felony for the conduct.² A drunk-driving case can break through both caps at once.

Crashes involving a government vehicle

Different rules apply when the at-fault driver works for a city, a county, or the state, say a transit bus, a police cruiser, or a public works truck. The Governmental Tort Liability Act sets its own limits under Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-20-403: $300,000 for bodily injury or death of any one person, $700,000 for all persons in a single accident, and $100,000 for property damage.⁴ These are hard ceilings on the total recovery from the government, not just the noneconomic portion, and they've applied to claims arising on or after July 1, 2007. A severe injury caused by a government vehicle can hit that $300,000 wall long before the general $750,000 cap ever matters.

Are these numbers likely to change

The Tennessee Supreme Court settled the biggest question in McClay v. Airport Management Services, 596 S.W.3d 686 (Tenn. 2020). It held that the $750,000 cap does not violate the state constitution's guarantee of a jury trial, the separation of powers, or equal protection.⁵ The cap stands.

The dollar figures haven't moved since the Tennessee Civil Justice Act took effect on October 1, 2011.¹ Lawmakers have tried to raise them. A 2025 bill, House Bill 5, was introduced to double the cap to $1.5 million, and to $2 million for catastrophic injuries, but that increase has not become law, so the limits remain where the 2011 statute set them.⁶

How the cap actually affects your recovery

Two other Tennessee rules shape the number you walk away with. First, the state uses modified comparative fault, adopted in McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992): your award is reduced by your share of the blame, and you recover nothing if you are 50% or more at fault.⁷ The cap limits the top line, and comparative fault can trim what's left of it.

Second, you have very little time to file. Tennessee's deadline for a personal injury claim is one year from the date of the crash under Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104, among the shortest in the country.⁸ Miss it and the size of any cap is beside the point, because the claim is gone. If your injuries are serious enough that these limits might come into play, talk to a lawyer early. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-102 (Civil damage awards), Justia. https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-29/chapter-39/section-29-39-102/

2. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-104 (Punitive damages), Justia. https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-29/chapter-39/section-29-39-104/

3. Yebuah v. Center for Urological Treatment, PLC (Tenn. June 2, 2021), Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. https://www.tncourts.gov/press/2021/06/02/tennessee-supreme-court-holds-statutory-cap-noneconomic-damages-limits-recovery

4. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-20-403 (Governmental Tort Liability Act limits), Justia. https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-29/chapter-20/part-4/section-29-20-403/

5. McClay v. Airport Management Services, LLC, 596 S.W.3d 686 (Tenn. Feb. 26, 2020), Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. https://www.tncourts.gov/press/2020/02/26/tennessee-supreme-court-holds-statutory-cap-noneconomic-damages-does-not-violate

6. Tennessee House Bill 5, 114th General Assembly (2025-2026), bill history, Tennessee General Assembly. https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0005&GA=114

7. McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992), Justia. https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/supreme-court/1992/833-s-w-2d-52-2.html

8. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104 (personal injury limitation), Justia. https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-28/chapter-3/part-1/section-28-3-104/