Missouri medical malpractice law
In Missouri, you generally have 2 years to file a medical malpractice claim from the date of the treatment. See the damage caps and expert rules for 2026.
Sources checked
Malpractice lawyers in Missouri
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Your deadline: 2 years from the treatment
Missouri rules at a glance
Work out your deadline- Filing deadline
- 2 years from the treatment
- Damage caps
- Base $400,000 per plaintiff, or $700,000 for…
- Before you file
- An expert's sign-off on the claim
- Shared fault
- Pure comparative
Full Missouri law guidedeadlines, caps, children, experts and sources
Example: treatment and discovery six months ago
- TreatmentMay 7, 2026
- Likely deadlineMay 7, 2028
- Outer limitMay 7, 2036
- The clock startsOn the day of the treatment
- Time to start a claim2 yearsMiss it and the claim is usually lost.
- At the very most10 yearsafter the treatment, with a few exceptions
- Pain and sufferingCapped at about $481,493
- All damages togetherNo overall cap
The rules in Missouri
Filing deadline
2 years
Counted from the treatment. File within 2 years of the act of neglect. Exceptions: a foreign object left in the body, or a failure to report test results, runs 2 years from discovery.
Discovery rule
Does not apply
Only for a foreign object left in the body or a negligent failure to inform the patient of test results.
Outer limit
10 years
No action more than 10 years after the act of neglect, or 2 years after a minor's eighteenth birthday, whichever is later.
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.105.1
Damage caps
Base $400,000 per plaintiff, or $700,000 for catastrophic personal injury, set in 2015 and increased 1.7 percent each January 1 (about $481,493 and $842,614 in 2026).
Missouri caps non-economic damages against health care providers, with a higher cap for catastrophic injury and death, indexed 1.7 percent a year.
- Punitive
- Punitive damages against a health care provider require clear and convincing proof of intentional harm or malicious misconduct (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 538.210.8).
- Wrongful death
- Base $700,000 for a death, indexed the same way (about $842,614 in 2026).
Children
Different clock
A child has until the twentieth birthday to sue.
Affidavit of merit
Required
Within 90 days after filing (extendable by up to 90 more for good cause), file an affidavit that a legally qualified health care provider has given a written opinion that the defendant was negligent and caused the damages.
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 538.225
Notice before suing
Not required
No pre-suit notice requirement.
Shared fault
Pure comparative
Pure comparative fault: your award is reduced by your share of fault
Experts
Expert evidence
The opinion must come from a provider licensed in the same profession as the defendant, actively practicing or within 5 years of retirement, and, for a physician, in the same or a substantially similar specialty (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 538.225.2).
The indexed cap figures for 2026 come from the MPL Association compendium; the statute sets the base amounts and the 1.7 percent annual increase.
Sources
- Missouri Revised Statutes § 516.105, Missouri Revisor of Statutes
- Missouri Revised Statutes § 538.210, Missouri Revisor of Statutes
- Missouri Revised Statutes § 538.225, Missouri Revisor of Statutes
- State Enactments of Selected Medical Liability Reforms (as of 8/27/2026), Medical Professional Liability Association
- Contributory Negligence/Comparative Fault Laws in All 50 States (updated 6/10/2026), Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C.
Other states
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Alabama (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Alaska (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Arizona (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Arkansas (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in California (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Colorado (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Connecticut (2026)
- Best Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Delaware (2026)
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