{"id":780,"date":"2017-05-04T19:24:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiolinjurylaw.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:19:38","slug":"floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s Personal Injury Damage Caps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After an accident in Florida, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/personal-injury-lawsuit-process\/\">seek damages for your injuries<\/a>, property damage, and related losses. Damages refer to financial compensation, typically from the person or party who caused the accident. Some states, including Florida, impose damage caps on personal injury claims. These caps limit how much compensation is available to the injured person.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/#What_Are_Personal_Injury_Damage_Caps\" >What Are Personal Injury Damage Caps?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/#Economic_Damages\" >Economic Damages<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/#Noneconomic_Damages\" >Noneconomic Damages<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/#Punitive_Damages\" >Punitive Damages<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Are_Personal_Injury_Damage_Caps\"><\/span>What Are Personal Injury Damage Caps?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Damage caps are laws that place a maximum on the amount of financial compensation available for an accident victim\u2019s losses. Once an award reaches this cap, the victim cannot recover any further compensation, even if a jury awarded an amount that exceeds the state\u2019s cap.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of a damage cap is to discourage frivolous or fraudulent personal injury claims. Limiting the number of damages available may dissuade someone from bringing a claim solely to pursue a large award.<\/p>\n<p>Damage caps can also protect a community by limiting an entity\u2019s financial liability, such as the government or a health care center. For this reason, damage caps in different states are most common in medical malpractice claims.<\/p>\n<p>They are also common in tort claims against the government. A damage cap can prevent important entities from going bankrupt for having to pay an extremely large settlement or judgment award. Although many states have gotten rid of damage caps after voting them unconstitutional, Florida still uses this law to limit some types of damages.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Economic_Damages\"><\/span>Economic Damages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Economic damages represent the victim\u2019s direct financial losses from an accident, such as medical bills, property repairs, losses of income, attorney\u2019s fees, travel expenses, and other out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n<p>An economic damage award seeks to make a victim whole again by restoring him or her to the financial state he or she enjoyed prior to the accident. Florida does not place any caps on economic damages, allowing a plaintiff to recover the full value of his or her monetized losses.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Noneconomic_Damages\"><\/span>Noneconomic Damages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Noneconomic damages are the opposite of economic damages. Rather than referring to the tangible monetary losses connected to an accident, non-economic damages refer to the personal side of a personal injury claim.<\/p>\n<p>They describe losses such as physical pain and suffering, emotional pain, mental anguish, psychological distress, trauma, inconvenience, humiliation, lost quality of life, and loss of consortium.<\/p>\n<p>Many states place caps on noneconomic damages in personal injury claims. These caps limit how much a victim can receive in pain and suffering damages from a jury \u2013 an award that could be significant for severe or permanent injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Although Florida used to have a cap on noneconomic damages for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/practice-areas\/hospital-negligence\/\">medical malpractice claims<\/a>, as of 2017, the Florida Supreme Court ruled this cap unconstitutional and unfair for victims. Thus, although state law still includes a cap, Florida currently does not cap noneconomic damages in practice on any type of case.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Punitive_Damages\"><\/span>Punitive Damages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The only damage cap in place in a Florida personal injury claim is one on punitive damages. Punitive damages represent an award given to a plaintiff as a means of punishing a defendant. A judge in Florida may award punitive damages if the defendant is guilty of gross negligence, extreme recklessness, a wanton disregard for the safety of others, or malicious intent to harm. In Florida, a damage cap can limit how much a plaintiff receives in this type of award.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/statutes\/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0700-0799\/0768\/Sections\/0768.73.html\">Florida law limits punitive damages<\/a> to no more than three times the total amount of compensatory damages (economic and noneconomic) awarded to the plaintiff. If the plaintiff receives $100,000 in compensatory damages, for example, he or she could not receive more than $300,000 in punitive damages. This is more of a guideline than a strict law in Florida, however. It is ultimately up to a judge and jury to determine how much a plaintiff receives in damages after a serious accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After an accident in Florida, you can seek damages for your injuries, property damage, and related losses. Damages refer to financial compensation, typically from the person or party who caused the accident. Some states, including Florida, impose damage caps on personal injury claims. These caps limit how much compensation is available to the injured person. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida\u2019s Personal Injury Damage Caps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Florida personal injury damage caps explained what limits apply to economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages after an accident in Florida.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida\u2019s Personal Injury Damage Caps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Florida personal injury damage caps explained what limits apply to economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages after an accident in Florida.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fiolinjurylaw.com\/en\/blog\/floridas-personal-injury-damage-caps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fiol &amp; 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