{"id":905257,"date":"2026-01-16T14:16:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=905257"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:16:48","slug":"personal-injury-non-economic-damages-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/personal-injury-non-economic-damages-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Ohio Legislation Would Raise Limits on Non-Economic Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Devin Bembnister and Erich Guenther | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amundsendavislaw.com\/alert-proposed-ohio-legislation-would-raise-limits-on-non-economic-damages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Amundsen Davis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2025, the Ohio House of Representatives introduced House Bill 447 (HB 477), which aims to increase a plaintiff\u2019s maximum recoverable amounts of \u201cnon-economic damages\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/sidewalk-jogger-sues-for-personal-injury\/\">personal injury<\/a> lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Non-economic damages typically include claims for pain and suffering or mental anguish. These types of damages are inherently subjective, hard to measure, and typically decided by a jury. If the bill is enacted, it would expand potential exposure for defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Current Law and Proposed Changes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio\u2019s statutory cap currently caps non-economic damages at the greater of $250,000 or three times the plaintiff\u2019s economic damages (like medical bills). The non-economic damages cannot exceed $350,000 per plaintiff or $500,000 for each occurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HB 447, however, aims to significantly raise those statutory caps. The bill proposes the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Raising the cap on a plaintiff\u2019s non-economic damages to $415,000.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raising the cap to a maximum of $580,000 per plaintiff.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raising the cap to a maximum of $830,000 per occurrence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Requiring the Ohio Department of Taxation (DOT) to annually adjust these amounts based on the Consumer Price Index to account for inflation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Implications of Increased Caps on Non-Economic Damages<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Increasing the statutory cap would raise exposure for insurers and defendant businesses, particularly in jury trials, while driving up litigation costs and settlement values. Potential effects of HB 447 include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Higher settlement demands<\/strong>. Increased caps may raise pre-suit demands, which could lead to more difficult valuations of claims and setting of reserves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Increased jury trial exposure for businesses.\u00a0<\/strong>Higher potential awards may incentivize plaintiff\u2019s counsel to take more cases to trial rather than settle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Next for HB 447<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>HB 447 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on October 1, 2025. We will continue to monitor throughout the legislative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email exper<a href=\"mailto:ts@adviseandconsult.net\">ts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devin Bembnister and Erich Guenther | Amundsen Davis In September 2025, the Ohio House of Representatives introduced House Bill 447 (HB 477), which aims to increase a plaintiff\u2019s maximum recoverable amounts of \u201cnon-economic damages\u201d in personal injury lawsuits. Non-economic damages typically include claims for pain and suffering or mental anguish. These types of damages are&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/personal-injury-non-economic-damages-ohio\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Proposed Ohio Legislation Would Raise Limits on Non-Economic Damages<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8782],"tags":[9895,12277,9120,361],"class_list":["post-905257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury","tag-advise-consult","tag-hb477","tag-ohio","tag-personal-injury","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Proposed Ohio Legislation Would Raise Limits on Non-Economic Damages - Advise &amp; 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