Most people who have been harmed by a therapist want two things the licensing board cannot give them: an explanation and compensation. A lawsuit can give the second and sometimes the first. California treats a claim against a licensed therapist as a medical-malpractice claim, and that decides the clock, the paperwork and the ceiling.
The short answer: yes, under the same rules as a claim against a doctor. A licensed therapist is a "health care provider" — "any person licensed or certified pursuant to Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) of the Business and Professions Code" — which covers psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, professional clinical counselors and psychiatrists.¹ A claim for "professional negligence" — "a negligent act or omission to act by a health care provider in the rendering of professional services, which act or omission is the proximate cause of a personal injury or wrongful death" — must be filed within "three years after the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever occurs first."¹ Before filing, the therapist must be given "at least 90 days' prior notice of the intention to commence the action."² And the amount recoverable for "pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement and other nonpecuniary damage" is capped: $350,000 in 2023, rising by $40,000 each 1 January for ten years to $750,000 — $470,000 for a judgment, award or settlement in 2026.³ Economic losses — the cost of further treatment, lost earnings — are not capped.³
The clock
Two periods run at once, and the shorter one controls. "The time for the commencement of action shall be three years after the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever occurs first."¹ In plain terms: one year from when you knew, or should have known, that you were harmed, and never more than three years from the harm itself.
The three-year outer limit stretches only in three situations: "upon proof of fraud," "intentional concealment," or the presence of a foreign body with no therapeutic purpose — the last a surgical rule that will not arise in therapy.¹ Concealment matters here: a therapist who hid what happened, or misrepresented it, can extend the outer period.
For a minor, the action must be started "within three years from the date of the alleged wrongful act" or, for a child under six, before the eighth birthday, whichever is longer.¹
The 90-day letter
"No action based upon the health care provider's professional negligence may be commenced unless the defendant has been given at least 90 days' prior notice of the intention to commence the action."² The letter has no required form, but it "shall notify the defendant of the legal basis of the claim and the type of loss sustained, including with specificity the nature of the injuries suffered."²
The notice also does something to the clock: "If the notice is served within 90 days of the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations, the time for the commencement of the action shall be extended 90 days from the service of the notice."² A letter sent in the last three months of the one-year period buys the time to file.
The cap, and what it does not touch
California has limited what a malpractice plaintiff can recover for non-economic harm since the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975. AB 35, approved 23 May 2022, replaced a flat $250,000 with a schedule.³ For a case that is not a wrongful-death case, "civil liability for damages for noneconomic losses against one or more health care providers, collectively, shall not exceed three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000)" from 1 January 2023, and "thereafter, the dollar amounts set forth in subdivision (b) shall increase by forty thousand dollars ($40,000) each January 1st for 10 years up to seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000)."³ So: $390,000 for a judgment in 2024, $430,000 in 2025, $470,000 in 2026, and on up — "the dollar amount in effect at the time of judgment, arbitration award, or settlement shall apply," not the year of filing.³ For wrongful death the schedule starts at $500,000 and rises $50,000 a year to $1,000,000.³ From 2034 both adjust by 2 percent a year.³
"Noneconomic losses" means "pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement and other nonpecuniary damage."³ The cap does not reach economic damages: the cost of the therapy you now need, wages you lost, the money you paid for the treatment that harmed you.
What counts as negligence
The statute's definition has two parts: a negligent act or omission "in the rendering of professional services," and injury "proximately" caused by it, "provided that such services are within the scope of services for which the provider is licensed."¹ A wrong diagnosis, a failure to act on a stated risk, a breach of the standard of care in treatment — those are the classic claims, and each requires expert evidence of what a competent clinician would have done. A breach of confidentiality, or sexual contact, is governed by other statutes as well and may carry its own remedies. Is therapy confidential? → · How do I report a therapist? →
The board is a separate route, and a faster one
A complaint to the Board of Behavioral Sciences or the Board of Psychology costs nothing, has no damages cap, and can end a licence — but it pays you nothing. The two routes run in parallel; filing one does not stop the other. How do I report a therapist? →
Worked example
A client learns in March 2026, from a second clinician, that a therapist's failure to act on what she had disclosed in 2024 caused a preventable harm. The one-year discovery period runs from March 2026; the three-year outer period runs from the 2024 injury — so the earlier of March 2027 and the 2027 anniversary of the harm is the deadline.¹ Her lawyer serves the 90-day notice in January 2027; because that is within 90 days of the deadline, the deadline moves 90 days from service.² If she wins a judgment in 2027, her non-economic damages are capped at $510,000 — the 2027 figure; a judgment in a later year takes that year's figure — and her economic losses are not capped.³
Q&A
Q: My therapist was an associate, not fully licensed. A: Associates and trainees are registered or supervised under the same Division 2, and the supervising licensee's responsibility is its own question. Ask a lawyer to look at both.
Q: I want an apology, not money. A: A lawsuit is the wrong tool for that. A board complaint, or a written request to the therapist, may get closer. How do I report a therapist? →
Q: Does the cap apply to a claim against the clinic too? A: The statute sets one cap for health care providers collectively and a separate, equal cap for health care institutions collectively; a third equal cap exists only for an unaffiliated provider or institution whose separate negligence occurred at, or in transport to, an unaffiliated institution.³
Q: I signed an arbitration agreement at intake. A: Many therapy contracts include one. It changes the forum, not the deadlines or the cap; the statute expressly applies to "cases filed or arbitrations demanded."³
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Sources
- Cal. Code of Civil Procedure §340.5 — "In an action for injury or death against a health care provider based upon such person's alleged professional negligence, the time for the commencement of action shall be three years after the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever occurs first"; "In no event shall the time for commencement of legal action exceed three years unless tolled for any of the following: (1) upon proof of fraud, (2) intentional concealment, or (3) the presence of a foreign body, which has no therapeutic or diagnostic purpose or effect, in the person of the injured person"; the minor's period "within three years from the date of the alleged wrongful act"; the definitions of "health care provider" ("any person licensed or certified pursuant to Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) of the Business and Professions Code…") and "professional negligence" as quoted — california.public.law.
- Cal. Code of Civil Procedure §364 — (a) "No action based upon the health care provider's professional negligence may be commenced unless the defendant has been given at least 90 days' prior notice of the intention to commence the action"; (b) "No particular form of notice is required, but it shall notify the defendant of the legal basis of the claim and the type of loss sustained, including with specificity the nature of the injuries suffered"; (d) "If the notice is served within 90 days of the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations, the time for the commencement of the action shall be extended 90 days from the service of the notice" — california.public.law.
- Cal. Civil Code §3333.2 — (a) noneconomic losses "to compensate for pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement and other nonpecuniary damage"; (b)(1) "Civil liability for damages for noneconomic losses against one or more health care providers, collectively, shall not exceed three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000)," with an equal cap for health care institutions collectively (b)(2) and, in (b)(3), for unaffiliated providers or institutions whose separate negligence occurred at or in transport to an unaffiliated institution; (c) the wrongful-death caps of "five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000)"; (g) "This section shall be deemed effective as of, and shall apply to all cases filed or arbitrations demanded on or after, January 1, 2023," "The dollar amount in effect at the time of judgment, arbitration award, or settlement shall apply to an action," and "Thereafter, the dollar amounts set forth in subdivision (b) shall increase by forty thousand dollars ($40,000) each January 1st for 10 years up to seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000), and the dollar amounts set forth in subdivision (c) shall increase each January 1st by fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for 10 years up to one million dollars ($1,000,000)"; (h) the 2 percent annual adjustment from 1 January 2034 — california.public.law. The 2026 and 2027 figures are our arithmetic from that schedule. The schedule was enacted by AB 35 (Stats. 2022, Ch. 17), whose digest describes existing law as limiting noneconomic damages "to $250,000" — legiscan.com.
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