Damage caps in injury cases in Texas

If you were hurt in a Texas crash, here is the short version. The state does not put a dollar limit on the compensation you can win for your actual losses. Your medical bills, your lost paychecks, your pain, and the future care you'll need are not capped in an ordinary car accident case.

That surprises people, because "damage caps" get discussed as if every injury claim runs into a ceiling. In Texas the ceilings are the exception. They apply to specific kinds of damages or to specific defendants, and most crash victims never reach them. Knowing which caps exist, and when, tells you a lot about what your case is worth.

What Texas does not cap

Texas splits your losses into two buckets. Economic damages cover the things you can put a number on: medical treatment, future medical care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and vehicle repair. Noneconomic damages cover the human side: physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. In a standard motor-vehicle negligence case, Texas law caps neither one. A jury can award what the evidence supports.

People sometimes confuse this with the medical malpractice rules. Texas does cap noneconomic damages at $250,000 against a single physician or health care provider, and up to $500,000 across multiple health care institutions.¹ But that cap lives in Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and it applies only to a "health care liability claim," which the statute defines as a claim against a health care provider for treatment or a departure from accepted standards of medical care.¹ A rear-end collision on I-35 is ordinary negligence, not a health care liability claim, so the Chapter 74 cap has nothing to do with it.

Punitive damages, the one cap that can apply

The real damage cap in Texas injury law sits on exemplary damages, better known as punitive damages. These don't pay you back for a loss. They punish a defendant for especially bad conduct and warn others off doing the same.

Two hurdles stand in the way. First, you can only reach punitive damages if you prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that your harm resulted from fraud, malice, or gross negligence.² That is a higher standard than the "more likely than not" test that governs the rest of a negligence case, and ordinary carelessness does not meet it.² A distracted driver who ran a light is usually negligent, not grossly negligent.

Second, once punitive damages are on the table, Texas limits them. Under Section 41.008(b), an exemplary award cannot exceed the greater of two times the economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000, or a flat $200,000.³ So if a jury finds $100,000 in economic damages and $50,000 in noneconomic damages, the punitive ceiling is $250,000, which is two times the $100,000 plus the $50,000, not the flat figure. The cap floats with the size of your actual losses.

When the punitive cap disappears

Here is the part that matters most in serious Texas crashes. The Section 41.008 cap does not apply when the defendant's conduct amounts to certain felonies, and that list includes drunk-driving crimes.³ If the at-fault driver committed intoxication assault under Penal Code Section 49.07, a third-degree felony for causing serious bodily injury while intoxicated, or intoxication manslaughter under Section 49.08, a second-degree felony for causing a death, the punitive cap comes off entirely.³⁴

That is a meaningful distinction, because drunk-driving crashes are exactly the cases where a jury is most likely to find the gross negligence that supports punitive damages in the first place. A DWI wreck that would otherwise be squeezed under the statutory ceiling can support an uncapped punitive award, sitting on top of the uncapped compensatory damages. Texas also lets you pursue a bar, restaurant, or store that served alcohol to an obviously intoxicated customer who then caused the crash, under the Dram Shop Act.⁵

Caps that apply when the government is involved

The other real ceiling appears when the driver who hit you was working for a government body: a city bus, a county truck, a state agency vehicle. Texas keeps most of its sovereign immunity, and the Texas Tort Claims Act waives it only up to fixed dollar amounts.⁶

Those limits are hard caps, not the floating kind. Against the state government, liability is capped at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per single occurrence for bodily injury or death, plus $100,000 for property damage.⁶ A municipality carries the same $250,000 and $500,000 limits.⁶ Other units of local government sit lower, at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence.⁶ If a city garbage truck injures you badly, your recovery from the city can be capped even though the same injuries caused by a private driver would not be.

The ceiling you'll actually hit is usually insurance

For most people, the practical limit on recovery is not a statute at all. It is the amount of insurance available. Texas requires drivers to carry only 30/60/25 in liability coverage: $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage.⁷ Serious injuries pass $30,000 quickly, and a minimum-limits policy can run dry long before your damages are paid.

That is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters. Texas insurers must include UM/UIM in every auto policy unless you reject it in writing, and it pays when the at-fault driver has no coverage or not enough.⁸⁹ If you carry it, it can stack on top of the other driver's policy. The Texas Department of Insurance flags this gap in its own consumer guide, warning that minimum limits are often too low.⁹ When your damages exceed every available policy, collecting the rest from a driver personally is often difficult, which works as its own kind of cap.

If your car lost market value even after a solid repair, that is a separate claim worth understanding. See our guide to diminished value in Texas.

How comparative fault trims the number

Texas also reduces recovery based on your own share of the blame. Under the state's modified comparative responsibility rule, you are barred from recovering anything if you are found more than 50 percent at fault.¹⁰ At 50 percent or less, the court cuts your damages by your percentage of responsibility, so a $200,000 verdict with 20 percent fault assigned to you becomes $160,000.¹⁰ That is not a cap in the statutory sense. It still changes the check you take home.

What to do with this

The compensation for your real losses in a Texas crash is not capped, and the exceptions are specific. Watch the deadline: you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file suit for both injury and property damage.¹¹ Pull the official crash record early through Texas crash reports, since the responding officer's findings shape the comparative-fault fight. And if a government vehicle or a suspected drunk driver was involved, the cap analysis shifts enough that it is worth talking to a lawyer. You can start with the legal directory.

This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice. For advice about your own situation, talk to a licensed Texas attorney.

Sources

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 74.301, 74.001 (Medical Liability). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.74.htm
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 41.003 (standard for exemplary damages). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 41.008 (limitation on exemplary damages and felony exceptions). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm
Texas Penal Code Sec. 49.07 (intoxication assault) and 49.08 (intoxication manslaughter). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.49.htm
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Sec. 2.02 (Dram Shop Act). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/AL/htm/AL.2.htm
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 101.023 (Texas Tort Claims Act liability limits). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.101.htm
Texas Transportation Code Sec. 601.072 (minimum liability limits). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm
Texas Insurance Code Sec. 1952.101 and 1952.104 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm
Texas Department of Insurance, Automobile Insurance Guide (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 33.001 and 33.012 (proportionate responsibility). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 16.003(a) (two-year statute of limitations). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm

Damage Caps in Injury Cases in Texas