Legal Question in Personal Injury in Texas
Is there a cap on pain and suffering damages in texas?
I would like to know how pain and suffering due to a car accident is quantified, and if there is a monetary cap.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Is there a cap on pain and suffering damages in texas?
No cap in Texas on an auto collision, only in medical negligence cases. Contrary to popular belief, there is no "formula" for calculating compensation for pain. Each injury is judged on its own merits.
Re: Is there a cap on pain and suffering damages in texas?
Fortunately, there is (currently) no cap in Texas on pain and mental anguish damages in automobile accident cases. However, the Republican-dominated legislature erodes the rights of the citizens a little more each time it meets, and caps on non-economic damages in automobile accident cases probably will eventually be passed if the Republicans stay in power long enough. The passage of HB4 in 2003 has already capped non-economic ("pain and suffering") damages in medical malpractice cases. What most people don't know (and didn't know when they supported Proposition 12) is that HB4 also authorized the legislature to cap damages in ALL personal injury cases, automobile accidents included. Therefore, further caps on damages could--and probably will--occur sometime in the near future unless we clean out the legislature of these so-called "tort-reformers."