Pennsylvania medical malpractice law
In Pennsylvania, you generally have 2 years to file a medical malpractice claim from the day the injury was discovered. Caps and rules for 2026.
Sources checked
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Your deadline: 2 years from when you found out
Pennsylvania rules at a glance
Work out your deadline- Filing deadline
- 2 years from when the injury was discovered
- Damage caps
- No cap
- Before you file
- An expert's sign-off on the claim
- Shared fault
- Modified comparative (51% bar)
Full Pennsylvania law guidedeadlines, caps, children, experts and sources
Example: treatment and discovery six months ago
- TreatmentMay 7, 2026
- Likely deadlineMay 7, 2028
- The clock startsWhen you found out, or should have
- Time to start a claim2 yearsMiss it and the claim is usually lost.
- Pain and sufferingNo cap
- All damages togetherNo overall cap
The rules in Pennsylvania
Filing deadline
2 years
Counted from when the injury was discovered. File within 2 years. Pennsylvania courts apply the discovery rule, so the clock starts when you knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and its cause.
Discovery rule
Applies
Yes. The plaintiff must prove they could not have discovered the claim earlier.
Outer limit
None found
The MCARE Act's 7-year statute of repose was held unconstitutional in Yanakos v. UPMC (2019), so no outer limit is enforced.
40 P.S. § 1303.513(a) (held unconstitutional)
Damage caps
No cap. The Pennsylvania Constitution (art. III, § 18) prohibits limits on damages for injury or death.
No caps on compensatory damages; only punitive damages against individual physicians are limited.
- Punitive
- Punitive damages against an individual physician are limited to 200 percent of compensatory damages (40 P.S. § 1303.505(d)).
Children
Different clock
A child must sue within 7 years of the malpractice or before the twentieth birthday, whichever is later.
Affidavit of merit
Required
File a certificate of merit for each defendant with the complaint or within 60 days, stating an appropriate licensed professional has given a written statement that there is a reasonable probability the care fell below the standard.
Pa. R. Civ. P. 1042.3
Notice before suing
Not required
No pre-suit notice requirement.
Shared fault
Modified comparative (51% bar)
Modified comparative fault: barred above 50% of the fault
Experts
Expert evidence
The expert must be licensed, actively practicing or recently retired, and generally practice in the same subspecialty and hold the same board certification as the defendant (40 P.S. § 1303.512).
Since 2023, Pennsylvania courts again allow medical malpractice suits to be filed in any county where a defendant regularly does business, not only where the care was given.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Laws and Statutory Rules, AllLaw (Nolo)
- Yanakos v. UPMC (Pa. 2019), Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- 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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