California
Malpractice payment activity in 2025, ranked against the other 50 states and DC.
2025 in numbers
- Payments per 1,000 physicians
- 4.09
- 24th of 51
- Average payment
- $353,171
- 39th of 51
- 5-year trend in the rate
- +0.5%
- 24th of 51
- Payment reports
- 477
- Total paid
- $168.5M
- Patient-care physicians (2023)
- 116,593
The physician count is the denominator under every rate above: non-federal M.D.s and D.O.s in patient care, from HRSA’s Area Health Resources File (2023 is the most recent year published, carried forward to 2025).
Noneconomic damages cap
$470k injury / $650k wrongful death in 2026-era MICRA schedule; rising to higher caps.
Scored 14 of 22 on the bundled scorecard. Verify with counsel before relying on it. This is research, not legal advice.
History
Whether 2025 is part of a longer movement or a single-year blip. A hollow final point marks a year scaled from partial data.
Payment data reflects historical payouts after a written claim or judgment. It is not a measure of medical quality, and not a prediction of any individual’s risk. Colors on the map are scaled within each year, so compare states within a year and use these numbers, not the colors, to compare a state against itself over time.