Spending hours in the emergency room never makes for a fun evening, but the situation can go from bad to worse when a doctor or a healthcare professional makes a mistake while treating you. And though every mishap doesn’t amount to medical malpractice, if you’ve got a valid claim against your medical provider, it’s important to understand how Texas limits potential damages you can collect.
Caps on medical malpractice are commonplace in the United States today, and Texas has joined the fray in placing thresholds on recovery for patients. Aside from the normal statute of limitations restrictions (which require that you file your suit within two years of the date of the incident), the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code limits non-economic damages that claimants can recover. The maximum recovery is $250,000 per person for all claims against a doctor, health care provider, or health care institution. If your claim is against multiple institutions, your total non-economic damages can’t exceed $500,000, and no individual institution can be liable for more than $250,000 of that.
But it’s important to note that those limitations only apply to non-economic damages, which include things like physical and mental pain and suffering, disfigurement or physical impairment, injury to reputation, and other potential losses, which are hard to place monetary values on. Economic damages–think medical bills, lost wages, and other similar harms, which can more easily be quantified–don’t fall under the same restrictions. But if a doctor’s negligence causes you to rack up more than a quarter-million dollars in medical bills or miss years of work, you won’t necessarily be forced to settle for less than you deserve.
The state also places a slightly more complicated cap on total damages that can be collected in wrongful death cases. The limit is $500,000 indexed for inflation from August 29, 1977, which is well north of $1 million today.
To determine whether your case might be right for a med mal suit (and how these limitations might affect your potential recovery), you’re best off seeking the advice of a seasoned personal injury lawyer.
