§ 41.008.Limitation on Amount of Recovery

The cap, and it is the single most consequential provision in the chapter.

Subsection (a) sets up the arithmetic by requiring the trier of fact to determine economic damages separately from other compensatory damages. The formula needs the two figures apart.

The cap is the greater of two amounts. Either two times the amount of economic damages, plus an amount equal to any noneconomic damages found by the jury, not to exceed $750,000; or $200,000.

Read the noneconomic component carefully — the $750,000 limit applies to the noneconomic portion of the formula, not to the total. The economic multiplier is uncapped, so a case with large economic losses produces a large cap. A case with severe suffering and modest economic loss does not: the noneconomic contribution stops at $750,000 however the jury valued the harm.

The $200,000 floor matters in small cases. A claimant with minimal damages still faces a cap of $200,000 rather than a trivial multiple, which keeps punishment meaningful where the loss is small but the conduct is not.

Subsection (c) removes the cap entirely for conduct described as a felony in seventeen listed Penal Code provisions — murder, capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual, forgery, commercial bribery, misapplication of fiduciary property, fraudulent securing of document execution, fraudulent destruction or concealment of a writing, third-degree-or-higher theft, intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter, continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual, and trafficking of persons. Except for the two intoxication offences, the conduct must have been committed knowingly or intentionally.

The injury-to-a-child exception carries its own carve-out: it does not apply if the conduct occurred while providing health care as defined by Section 74.001.

Subsection (e) keeps all of it from the jury. The provisions of the section may not be made known to a jury by any means, including voir dire, evidence, argument, or instruction. The jury sets a number without being told what the ceiling is; the court applies the cap afterwards. A verdict well above the cap is not error — it is reduced.

Subsection (f) excludes causes of action arising from methamphetamine manufacture under Chapter 99.