Oct 14, 2026 · LawyerUnc editorial · Texas · Tort reform · YMYL

Texas's $250,000 cap is not the car crash

Section 74.301 limits noneconomic damages in a health-care claim, per claimant, and the doctors share one ceiling. It does not cap medical bills, and it does not apply to an ordinary wreck.

Last checked Oct 14, 2026 · LawyerUnc editorial. Educational only, not legal advice.

Texas does not cap pain and suffering on an ordinary injury claim. The number people repeat, $250,000, is Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.301. It applies to a health-care liability claim. It limits noneconomic damages. Medical bills and lost wages are not inside it.

It is also not $250,000 per doctor. Subsection (a) limits physicians and other providers who are not a health-care institution to $250,000 for each claimant, no matter how many of those defendants are in the case and no matter how many theories are pleaded. Five doctors do not mean five caps.

A hospital is a separate layer. One health-care institution is $250,000 in noneconomic damages per claimant. If the judgment runs against more than one institution, each is still capped at $250,000 and all of them together are capped at $500,000, again per claimant. That is § 74.301(b) and (c).

A death adds a different statute. In a wrongful-death or survival action on a health-care claim, § 74.303 limits all damages, including exemplary damages, starting at $500,000 per claimant. The statute moves that figure with the CPI-W from August 29, 1977. Necessary medical, hospital, and custodial care, past and future, is outside that cap. This page does not print today's adjusted dollar. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict a result.

A wreck is still the other map. The injury clock is two years under § 16.003. If you are more than 50% at fault, § 33.001 says you recover nothing. There is no Chapter 74 number to paste onto the crash. This is the statute, not a value for one case, and not legal advice. Last checked 14 October 2026 against the 2025 Texas statutes, §§ 74.301, 74.303, 16.003, and 33.001.