Wisconsin Medical Malpractice Information

Damage Cap

Wisconsin has a $750,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. Wis. Stat. 893.55(4). The cap does not apply to other personal injury claims.

Non-economic harms generally refers to pain and suffering damages. In a case where a woman lost all four limbs and was awarded $15M in non-economic damages. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin upheld the damages cap that reduced her recovery to $750,000. Mayo v. Wis. Injured Patients & Families Comp. Fund, 914 N.W.2d 678 (Wis. 2018)

Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations in Wisconsin is generally three years from the date of injury. For injuries that are discovered later in time, Wisconsin allows up to one year from the date of discovery to bring a claim, subject to a five-year limit from the negligent treatment itself.

Injured Patient and Families Compensation Fund

One of the tort reform measures adopted in Wisconsin that practitioners need to be aware of is "the Fund." The Fund has been in place since 1975 and it provides excess coverage to medical providers beyond an initial $1M of insurance coverage.

Plaintiffs seeking damages in excess of $1M must name the Fund as a defendant. The Fund will be represented during the litigation with its own counsel and retain its own experts.

The 2022 report reflects that the Fund has grown to $1.3 billion in assets as of June 30, 2021. From its inception in 1975 to 2021, the Fund had paid 684 claims. It notes that the bulk of its payments are focused on a small minority of claims: 478 of the claims account for 17.5 percent of the total payment amount while 48 payments in excess of $5M represent almost half of the payment amount over that period.

The Fund includes a table in its annual report documenting the twelve payments it has made in excess of $10M. The largest was a $34.3 Million payment for a negligent blood transfusion that caused cardiac arrest and brain damage. This case occurred in 2003 and included $11.5 M in noneconomic harms that would be reduced under current Wisconsin law to $750,000. As evidence of the NPDB's limitations, this malpractice payment is not reflected in the database. Perhaps this lawsuit was not critical of one single practitioner and was described as a failure on the part of the hospital or clinic.