Rep. Gray seeks CPI indexing for Alaska non‑economic damages caps

Representative David Gray, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced House Bill 316 on March 6, 2026, saying the state’s statutory limits on non‑economic damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases have not been adjusted for inflation since 1997 and that the measure would restore the balance the legislature intended.

Dylan Hitchcock Lopez, staff to Rep. Gray, told the committee that non‑economic damages "are a category of damages that compensate people who have been harmed for non pecuniary harm" such as pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss of consortium, and explained the current statutory caps: a general cap of $400,000 or an injured person’s life expectancy multiplied by $8,000 (whichever is greater), and a higher cap of $1,000,000 or life expectancy × $25,000 for severe disfigurement or permanent impairment. Hitchcock Lopez said the 1997 dollar amounts are now worth roughly half in real terms and that HB 316 would tie the caps to the Alaska consumer price index to preserve their intended effect.

Private attorneys who testified during public comment described practical consequences of the unchanged caps. Jason Scala, a civil attorney, cited Alaska case law and urged the legislature to act, saying the courts have signaled this is a legislative remedy. Mike Kramer, calling from Talkeetna, and other testifiers described a 2022 jury award that was reduced to the statutory cap as a concrete example of how families can be affected. Whitney Wilson and Jeff Barber, both Anchorage civil practitioners, told the committee that rising litigation costs and static dollar caps reduce injured people’s ability to obtain meaningful compensation and that indexing is a common‑sense correction.

The committee set an amendment deadline for HB 316 of Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 11:59 p.m., and the chair set the bill aside to be revisited at a later date. No committee vote was taken on March 6.

If enacted, HB 316 would change statutory procedure by attaching an inflation adjustment (Alaska CPI) to the non‑economic damages formula; the committee heard that the Alaska Department of Labor publishes the CPI data used for similar statutory adjustments.

The bill will return to committee for further consideration; the chair’s deadline for amendments suggests sponsors expect follow‑up drafting before a subsequent markup or public hearing.