How MICRA affects California malpractice claims.

Civil Code section 3333.2 does not limit the total value of a California professional-negligence case to $470,000. It limits noneconomic losses under a statutory schedule. It does not itself impose a dollar cap on economic damages.

Define the damages

Economic damages compensate measurable financial loss. They can include medical expenses, future care, rehabilitation, lost earnings, and reduced earning capacity. Civil Code section 3333.2 does not cap them.

Noneconomic damages compensate pain, suffering, inconvenience, impairment, disfigurement, and other nonfinancial harm. Civil Code section 3333.2 sets limits for these losses in its defined professional-negligence actions.

Use the current schedule

Assembly Bill 35 changed the former $250,000 limit for cases filed or arbitrations demanded on or after January 1, 2023. For an action in that scope, the statute uses separate schedules.

For 2026, each applicable statutory collective limit is $470,000 for a non-wrongful-death claim and $650,000 for a wrongful-death claim.

The non-wrongful-death amount rises by $40,000 each January through 2033. It reaches $750,000 in 2033.

The wrongful death amount rises by $50,000 each January through 2033. It reaches $1 million in 2033.

Starting in 2034, the statute applies a two percent annual adjustment. The law states which year's amount applies at judgment, arbitration award, or settlement.

Check the current MICRA schedule in the California statistics tables.

Understand the defendant categories

The statute can apply separate collective limits to three categories: providers, institutions, and qualifying unaffiliated providers or institutions. A category is collective; it is not a separate cap for every defendant.

The third collective limit may apply only if the unaffiliated provider or institution meets the statute's affiliation definition, its professional negligence is separate and independent, and the act occurred at, or in relation to medical transport to, the specified unaffiliated institution. Affiliation is determined when the professional negligence occurred.

One defendant cannot be liable in more than one category. A case can still involve more than one category.

The defendant categories turn on the parties, their affiliations, and the negligence alleged. They are not three automatic awards in every case.

Whether a claim is professional negligence under section 3333.2 depends on the alleged act or omission, services, scope of license, and proximate cause. Do not infer the cap from a pleading label.

The amount in effect at judgment, arbitration award, or settlement applies. The filing date does not freeze the earlier number.

Example: economic and noneconomic damages

Assume a non-wrongful-death action within the post-2023 schedule resolves in 2026. The plaintiff proves $900,000 of future care, $300,000 of lost earnings, and the full $470,000 noneconomic amount under one applicable statutory collective limit.

The economic damages total $1.2 million. The noneconomic amount adds $470,000. The resulting $1.67 million illustrates why a $470,000 noneconomic limit is not a $470,000 case limit. Defense costs and any other covered amounts follow the policy, not this arithmetic.

An institution collective limit may be separately relevant. A third limit requires the additional statutory unaffiliated-provider or institution conditions above. The noneconomic analysis can therefore change; limit sizing cannot stop at the first number in the schedule.

MICRA does not determine the insurance limit

Civil Code section 3333.2 does not answer how much insurance a physician needs. Economic losses can exceed the noneconomic component in a serious injury case.

The statute also does not change a contract that requires a stated insurance limit. Hospitals, facilities, and payers can set their own requirements.

Policy structure also matters. Defense costs can reduce some limits. Several insureds can share one aggregate.

Review MICRA together with these insurance terms:

Per-claim and aggregate limits.
Shared and separate limit pools.
Defense costs inside or outside limits.
Covered people and entities.
Exclusions and sublimits.
Settlement and reporting provisions.

Identify the economic damages, noneconomic damages, defendant categories, and policy limits separately. Do not use the noneconomic damages limit as the total possible claim amount.