WPI 30.00 Introduction

RCW 4.56.250(1) defines economic and noneconomic damages in actions for personal injury or death. Economic damages are “objectively verifiable monetary losses, including medical expenses, loss of earnings, burial costs, loss of use of property, cost of replacement or repair, cost of obtaining substitute domestic services, loss of employment, and loss of business or employment opportunities.” RCW 4.56.250(1)(a). Noneconomic damages are “subjective, nonmonetary losses, including, but not limited to pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, disability or disfigurement incurred by the injured party, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation, and destruction of the parent-child relationship.” RCW 4.56.250(1)(b).

Although the 1986 Tort Reform Act originally capped the amount of noneconomic damages that may be recovered pursuant to a formula based on a percentage of the average annual wage and the life expectancy of the person incurring the damages, this cap was later struck down as unconstitutional in Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp., 112 Wn.2d 636, 771 P.2d 711, 780 P.2d 260 (1989) (interpreting the constitutional right to a jury trial). The statute has not been amended to reflect the Sofie holding.