Iowa Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements – Lawsuit Information Center Blog

Below are example settlement amounts and jury payouts in Iowa medical malpractice and other personal injury cases.
Below are key points of Iowa medical malpractice law:
To establish a prima facie case for a medical malpractice lawsuit in Iowa,  plaintiffs must show evidence that establishes the applicable standard of care, demonstrate this standard has been violated, and develop a causal relationship between the violation and the alleged harm.
The only exceptions are malpractice lawsuits where a breach of the standard of care would be obvious to laypersons or the doctor admits the breach.  But you will likely still need an expert (or a treating doctor according to this 2022 case) to prove a causal connection between the harm suffered and the negligence.
Iowa Code Section 668.11 sets for the rules for the disclosure of expert witnesses in Iowa malpractice lawsuits:
A party in a professional liability case brought against a licensed professional pursuant to this chapter who intends to call an expert witness of their own selection, shall certify to the court and all other parties the expert’s name, qualifications and the purpose for calling the expert ….
Iowa Code Section 147.140 requires as of 2017 medical malpractice plaintiffs to file a certificate of merit in a medical negligence lawsuit in Iowa against a hospital or a medical professional.
This law mandates that one must hold an active medical license to practice. It is clear that neither law allows for the plaintiffs’ attorney to sign in place of the expert witness. The argument that an initial disclosure, signed by their medical malrpracice attorney, sufficiently adhered to the statutory requirements has been summarily rejected.
Iowa has a statute of limitations and a statute of repose for medical malpractice lawsuits.
The statute of limitations is two years for both injury and wrongful death.
The Iowa legislature “intended the medical malpractice statute of limitations to commence upon actual or imputed knowledge of both the injury and its cause in fact.” (The “twin-faceted triggering event must at least be identified by sufficient facts to put a reasonably diligent plaintiff on notice to investigate.”)
The statute of repose for a medical malpractice case is six years.  So there is no “twin-faceted triggering event” discovery rule exceptions for the statute of response. But fraudulent concealment is an exception to the statute of repose and whether there was fraudulent concealment and is typically a jury question.
In 2023,  Iowa imposed caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Specifically, the cap is $2 million for cases involving hospital liability and $1 million for those involving individual doctors. These limits apply only to non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, and do not affect economic or punitive damages.
This measure aims to create a more predictable insurance landscape, attract and retain physicians, and preserve healthcare access, particularly in rural areas. The introduction of the caps brings Iowa in line with several of its neighboring states that already have similar restrictions.
Iowa’s informed-consent law asks whether a reasonable person in the plaintiff’s position would conclude that the information that was not provided was material to the plaintiff’s choice of whether to undergo the proposed treatment.  So the standard if it would have been material to the decision of an objectively reasonable patient, not necessarily to the patient at issue in the case.  There is no requirement that the doctor committed medical malpractice in the care of the patient with informed consent.
The damages for breach of informed consent would be comparing two parallel universes –  the condition a plaintiff would have been if she been properly informed and not consented to the risk and the plaintiff’s impaired condition as a result of the risk’s occurrence.
If you suspect medical malpractice in Iowa, reach out to our dedicated legal team for a complimentary case evaluation. We collaborate with a range of reputable medical malpractice firms within Iowa to advocate for your case and pursue the full compensation you deserve. Contact us at 800-553-8082 or submit an inquiry through our website.

Personal injury lawyers handling serious personal injury truck and auto accident, medical malpractice and products liability cases throughout the United States.
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