Where Ohio's Damages-Cap Bills Stand This Spring

Published April 28, 2026 · New Laws

Last October we wrote that Ohio lawmakers had introduced bills to raise the state's caps on pain-and-suffering damages for the first time since they took effect in 2005. Six months later, readers keep asking the same question: did it pass? The short answer, as of mid-April 2026, is no. Neither bill has cleared a chamber of the General Assembly. Here is where things stand, what the bills would change, and why it matters to anyone living with a permanent injury.

The status as of mid-April

According to an April 13, 2026 summary by the law firm Benesch:

• House Bill 447 was introduced in September 2025 and received three hearings in the House Judiciary Committee in October and November 2025.
• Senate Bill 292, the Senate version, was introduced in October 2025. It received its first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of March 2026. As of the summary, a second hearing had not been scheduled, although further testimony was expected.

Neither bill has passed the House or the Senate, and neither is law. Committee hearings are an early step. A bill must be voted out of committee, passed by its chamber, passed in the same form by the other chamber, and signed by the Governor before it takes effect. You can follow both bills on the General Assembly's website at legislature.ohio.gov.

We first covered these bills in our October 2025 post on the proposal to raise the caps.

What the caps are today

The main cap on noneconomic damages, the money for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and similar losses, is in R.C. 2315.18(B)(2). It limits those damages to the greater of $250,000 or three times the injured person's economic loss, up to $350,000 per plaintiff and $500,000 per occurrence.

A few points are essential to understand:

• Economic damages are not capped. Under R.C. 2315.18(B)(1), lost wages, medical bills, future care, and other out-of-pocket losses are recoverable in full.
• Catastrophic injuries are not capped. Under R.C. 2315.18(B)(3), there is no limit on noneconomic damages for permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, loss of a bodily organ system, or a permanent injury that prevents a person from independently caring for themselves.
• Wrongful death claims are outside this cap. R.C. 2315.18(H)(3) says the section does not apply to wrongful death actions.
• Claims against local governments have their own cap. Under R.C. 2744.05(C)(1), damages against a political subdivision other than actual losses are limited to $250,000 per person, except in wrongful death actions. See our page on claims against the government.
• Punitive damages have separate limits. For small employers and individuals, R.C. 2315.21(D)(2)(b) limits punitive damages to the lesser of two times compensatory damages or 10 percent of net worth, up to $350,000.

Medical malpractice claims are governed by a separate cap in a different statute. The Benesch summary does not address it, and this post does not either.

What H.B. 447 and S.B. 292 would change

As Benesch describes them, the bills would:

• raise the R.C. 2315.18 noneconomic cap from $250,000 to $415,000, the per-plaintiff maximum from $350,000 to $580,000, and the per-occurrence maximum from $500,000 to $830,000;
• raise the punitive damages cap for small employers and individuals under R.C. 2315.21 from $350,000 to $580,000;
• raise the noneconomic cap for claims against political subdivisions and state colleges and universities from $250,000 to $415,000 (wrongful death claims excluded);
• index all of these caps to inflation, with the Ohio Department of Taxation adjusting them each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index.

Supporters argue the change is overdue because the caps have not moved since 2005. Opponents argue higher caps would raise the cost of doing business and could produce verdicts out of proportion to the harm.

Why this matters for injured people

Caps are not abstractions. When a jury hears a case and decides what a person's pain, lost independence, and changed life are worth, the cap applies afterward, and the jury is never told about it. A verdict of $1 million for pain and suffering can become $250,000 or $350,000 overnight.

That is why we spend so much time on the two parts of a case that the cap does not touch. First, we document every dollar of economic loss, because it is recoverable in full and because, up to the maximum, it raises the noneconomic ceiling. Second, when an injury is permanent and severe, we build the medical record needed to prove that it fits one of the R.C. 2315.18(B)(3) exceptions. Our guide chapter on what your case is worth explains both. And as we reported last year, Ohio courts continue to examine how caps apply in the most serious cases; see our post on a $25 million malpractice verdict that survived the cap.

The dollar amounts in the statute were set more than twenty years ago. Medical costs, wages, and nearly everything else have risen since then, but the cap on what a jury can award for a lifetime of pain has not.

What this means for you

• Today's caps apply today. If your case is resolved before any change takes effect, the current limits govern. Do not delay a claim in hopes the law will change.
• Deadlines do not wait for the legislature. Most Ohio injury claims must be filed within two years.
• The cap may not apply to you at all. Wrongful death claims, economic losses, and catastrophic injuries fall outside it, and whether your injury qualifies for an exception is one of the most important questions in a serious case.
• We will keep watching. We will update readers if either bill advances.

For a broader look at the kinds of cases we handle, see our personal injury page.