Tennessee Damages Caps

One of the main questions people ask when they want to bring a personal injury case is “how much is my case worth?” To answer that, one of the first things you have to look at are what damages caps the legislature has put in place for cases in Tennessee.

Firstly, for economic damages, there are no caps in Tennessee. Economic damages include things like medical bills and loss of future income potential. Essentially, things for which you can point to a concrete dollar amount.

Secondly, there are caps on non-economic damages and punitive damages. Non-economic damages are your “pain and suffering” damages which cover things like loss of enjoyment of life or embarrassment and humiliation. In Tennessee non-economic damages are capped at 750,000 dollars, or 1,000,000 dollars in cases which deal with “catastrophic loss.” Catastrophic loss can be defined as quadriplegia, if someone receives burns on over 40% of their body, or when a minor loses a parent.

Punitive damages are only applied when it can be shown the defendant acted intentionally, maliciously, or extremely recklessly. If that standard is met, punitive damages are capped at either 500,000 dollars or twice the total non-economic damages, whichever is greater. This means that theoretically, the highest total non-economic and punitive damages total you could have for a personal injury case in Tennessee would be 2.25 million dollars for a case that does not deal with catastrophic loss (750,000 non economic damages plus 1.5 million in punitive damages), and 3 million for a case that deals with catastrophic loss (1,000,000 in non-economic damages plus 2 million in punitive damages). Such massive damages totals rarely almost happen, but they are helpful for understanding the caps that are in place.

It is also important to point out that the jury is not made aware of these damages caps. What happens is the jury gives the awarded they believe is right based on their verdict for the case, and if that number is higher than the caps just discussed, the judge reduces the award to remain within the bounds of Tennessee law.