Court rules Wisconsin medical malpractice caps are unclear; $1.2 million jury award restored to family of wrongful death victim

On Friday, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court reversed a 2004 ruling that limited non-economic damages in all medical malpractice lawsuits to $350,000. Instead, the court restored a jury award of $1.2 million to the family of a woman who suffered a heart attack after being released from the hospital days earlier when she complained of chest pains.

The court held that in medical malpractice lawsuits where a victim has died, there can be two awards for non-economic damages: a survival action for what the deceased endured and could have collected if the deceased survived, and a second award for wrongful death that would go to the family of the deceased for their suffering.

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