Non-economic Damages Caps - Fair Compensation

Fair Compensation

Non-economic damages are the only compensation a jury can provide for the injury itself, as opposed to reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses such as the plaintiff's lost wages, medical bills, and legal fees. This type of compensation is especially important for people who do not work outside the home, like the elderly, children, and homemakers. The "worth" of a homemaker's work inside the home is not easily measured by a dollar amount, and would only be compensated through non-economic damages.

Tort reform supporters argue that it is difficult for juries to assign a dollar value to these losses with the guidance they are normally given. They state that there is no basis for non-economic damages, and uncapped non-economic damages violate the equitable principles of justice by being inherently quite random, because different juries will always come to different results. Because of the highly charged environment of personal injury trials, they fear some unbounded non-economic damage awards. In Ernst v. Merck, a Texas Vioxx products liability case, the jury issued a verdict of $24 million in compensatory damages, which includes non-economic damages, for a widow of a 59 year old triathlete who died from arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat that could have been prevented had Merck provided warnings about the drug. Tort reform supporters point out the widow had not been married a long time, and suggest this award was excessive.

In contrast, opponents of tort reform contend that jurors should assess damages on a case-by-case basis and that damages should not be arbitrarily capped by a legislature.