Tennessee medical malpractice law
In Tennessee, you generally have 1 year 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: 1 year from when you found out
Tennessee rules at a glance
Work out your deadline- Filing deadline
- 1 year from when the injury was discovered
- Damage caps
- $750,000 per injured plaintiff, or…
- Before you file
- Written notice, and an expert's sign-off
- Shared fault
- Modified comparative (50% bar)
Full Tennessee law guidedeadlines, caps, children, experts and sources
Example: treatment and discovery six months ago
- TreatmentMay 7, 2026
- Likely deadlineMay 7, 2027
- Outer limitMay 7, 2029
- The clock startsWhen you found out, or should have
- Time to start a claim1 yearMiss it and the claim is usually lost.
- At the very most3 yearsafter the treatment, with a few exceptions
- Pain and sufferingCapped at $750,000
- All damages togetherNo overall cap
The rules in Tennessee
Filing deadline
1 year
Counted from when the injury was discovered. File within 1 year of the injury or of when it was discovered, and no more than 3 years after the act. Sending the 60-day pre-suit notice extends the deadline by 120 days.
Discovery rule
Applies
Yes, inside the 3-year outer limit.
Outer limit
3 years
3 years from the act or omission, except fraudulent concealment (1 year from discovery) and foreign objects (1 year from discovery).
Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-116(a)(3), (4)
Damage caps
$750,000 per injured plaintiff, or $1,000,000 for catastrophic injuries (such as paraplegia or quadriplegia, amputation of two limbs, third-degree burns over 40 percent of the body, or the wrongful death of a parent leaving a minor child). No cap for intentional misconduct, fraud, destroyed records or intoxication.
Tennessee's general non-economic cap applies to medical malpractice for injuries after October 1, 2011; the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld it in 2020.
Children
Different clock
Minority can pause the 1-year period, but the Tennessee Supreme Court has held the 3-year outer limit applies to children too (Calaway v. Schucker, 2005). Check a child's claim with a lawyer early.
Affidavit of merit
Required
File a certificate of good faith with the complaint stating that a competent expert reviewed the records and believes there is a good-faith basis for the claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-122
Notice before suing
Required
At least 60 days before suing, give each provider written notice with a HIPAA-compliant medical authorization.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-121
Shared fault
Modified comparative (50% bar)
Modified comparative fault: barred at 50% or more of the fault
Experts
Expert evidence
The expert must be licensed in Tennessee or a contiguous state and have practiced there in the year before the injury (the locality rule, Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-115).
Tennessee's official code is published through LexisNexis; the facts here were checked against secondary summaries and the MPL Association compendium.
Sources
- Tennessee Medical Malpractice Laws and Statutory Rules, AllLaw (Nolo)
- 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.
- Medical Liability/Malpractice Merit Affidavits and Expert Witnesses, National Conference of State Legislatures
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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