Connecticut: Prejudgment Interest Rules
The short answer
It depends heavily on whether the claim sounds in negligence. For a contract claim or a non-negligence tort (fraud, an intentional tort, and the like), a court may award interest as an element of damages -- up to 10% a year -- but only if the fact-finder decides the defendant "wrongfully detained" money that was due, and only as a matter of the court's equitable discretion. For an ordinary negligence claim -- most personal-injury and property-damage lawsuits -- that discretionary right doesn't apply at all; Connecticut carves negligence claims out of the general interest statute and gives them only a separate, near-verdict interest rule that functions like postjudgment interest, not real prejudgment interest. On top of both tracks, a party who rejects a formal settlement offer and then does worse at trial can face a separate, mandatory 8% interest penalty.
| Governing law | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 37-3a (general discretionary interest-as-damages statute, covering contract claims and non-negligence torts) -- which by its own terms EXCLUDES negligence claims, sending those instead to the separate, near-postjudgment § 37-3b. A third statute, § 52-192a (the offer-of-compromise statute), layers a separate mandatory interest penalty on top of either track |
|---|---|
| Interest rate | Up to 10% a year -- a discretionary CAP, not a fixed rate -- under § 37-3a for a qualifying contract or non-negligence-tort claim; the court can award anywhere from 0% to 10%. For a debt arising from hospital services specifically, the cap is 5%. The offer-of-compromise interest under § 52-192a is a flat 8% |
| When interest starts running | Ordinarily from the date the money became due and payable to the plaintiff -- for a contract claim, the date of breach. For the separate offer-of-compromise interest under § 52-192a, from the date the complaint was filed (if the offer was filed within 18 months of the complaint) or from the date of the offer itself (if filed later) |
| Contract vs. tort claims | The real line is negligence vs. everything else, not contract vs. tort as such. Contract claims and non-negligence torts (fraud, intentional torts) can draw discretionary interest under § 37-3a. Negligence-based personal-injury and property-damage claims are expressly excluded from § 37-3a and instead draw only § 37-3b's own interest, which runs from a date tied to the verdict or judgment (20 days after judgment or 90 days after verdict, whichever is earlier) -- meaning negligence claims have no real prejudgment interest at all |
| Mandatory or discretionary | Discretionary for a § 37-3a claim: the court must first find the defendant "wrongfully detained" money due the plaintiff (a factual question for the jury in a jury trial), and even then the decision whether to award interest, and at what rate up to 10%, is an equitable determination left to the court. The § 52-192a offer-of-compromise interest, by contrast, is mandatory and does not depend on any finding about the underlying case -- it applies automatically once the recovery meets the offer |
| Simple or compound | Not addressed by § 37-3a, and Connecticut courts and the offer-of-compromise interest formula under § 52-192a both compute the interest as a straightforward, non-compounding calculation (rate × principal × time) -- simple interest, not compound |
| Claims against the government | The general sovereign-immunity scheme (Conn. Gen. Stat. Title 4, Chapter 53) bars a money-damages claim against the state at all unless the claimant first obtains permission from the Office of the Claims Commissioner or a legislative waiver -- so a plaintiff must clear that gate before any interest question, discretionary or otherwise, is even reached |
| Other exceptions | A rejected offer of compromise under § 52-192a adds a mandatory, separately-computed 8% interest penalty when the plaintiff's eventual recovery equals or exceeds the offer -- available in contract actions and actions seeking money damages generally, with a longer 365-day offer window specifically for health-care-negligence claims. A debt for hospital services is capped at 5% instead of 10%, and interest there is expressly discretionary. Interest on a condemnation award runs under a wholly separate, Treasury-yield-based statute, § 37-3c, outside this survey's scope |
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The short answer
Connecticut's prejudgment interest law turns less on the contract-versus-tort label
than on whether the claim sounds in negligence. For a contract claim, or a
non-negligence tort like fraud, a court has the discretion to award interest as an
element of damages -- up to 10% a year -- but only after the fact-finder decides the
defendant "wrongfully detained" money that belonged to the plaintiff. There's no
automatic right to it, and no fixed rate; it's an equitable call. An ordinary
negligence claim -- most personal-injury and property-damage lawsuits -- doesn't get
that discretionary right at all: the general interest statute expressly excludes
negligence claims and routes them instead to a different provision that only starts
counting interest near the date of the verdict or judgment, which functions much
more like postjudgment interest than true prejudgment interest. Layered on top of
both tracks is a separate, mandatory penalty: if a defendant rejects a plaintiff's
formal settlement offer and the plaintiff then recovers at least that much at trial,
the court must add 8% interest, computed all the way back to when the case was
filed.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 37-3a is the general provision: it allows discretionary interest,
as damages for the "detention of money," in civil actions and arbitrations. But its
own opening clause -- "except as provided in sections 37-3b, 37-3c and 52-192a" --
carves out three categories entirely. § 37-3b covers negligence-based
personal-injury and property-damage claims, on its own, verdict-tied timetable. §
37-3c covers eminent-domain compensation (out of scope for this survey). And § 52-
192a layers a separate, mandatory settlement-offer penalty on top of whichever track
otherwise applies.
Interest rate
Up to 10% a year under § 37-3a -- a ceiling, not a fixed rate, since the trial court
sets the actual percentage within that range as part of its equitable judgment. A
narrower carve-out inside the same section caps interest on a hospital-services debt
at 5%, expressly discretionary. The separate offer-of-compromise interest under §
52-192a is a flat 8%, with no discretion once the statute's conditions are met.
When interest starts running
For a § 37-3a claim, interest "ordinarily begins to run from the time it is due and
payable to the plaintiff" -- for a contract claim, that's the date of breach, not the
date suit was filed or the date of judgment. For the offer-of-compromise interest
under § 52-192a, the clock runs from the date the complaint was filed, as long as the
offer itself was filed within 18 months of the complaint; if the offer came later
than that, interest runs only from the date of the offer.
Contract vs. tort claims
Connecticut's real axis is negligence versus everything else. Contract claims and
non-negligence torts (fraud, intentional torts, and similar claims) can draw
discretionary interest under § 37-3a from the date the money became due. Negligence-
based tort claims -- ordinary personal-injury and property-damage lawsuits -- are
carved out of § 37-3a by name and instead run under § 37-3b, which starts the clock
20 days after judgment or 90 days after the verdict, whichever is earlier. Because
that start date sits right at or after the verdict, a negligence plaintiff gets
essentially no interest for the period the case was actually pending before trial --
the functional opposite of the discretionary contract/non-negligence-tort right.
Mandatory or discretionary
Discretionary for § 37-3a: even after the fact-finder decides the defendant
wrongfully detained the plaintiff's money, the decision whether to award interest at
all, and at what rate up to 10%, remains an equitable judgment call for the court --
"a matter to be made in view of the demands of justice rather than through the
application of an arbitrary rule." The § 52-192a offer-of-compromise interest is the
opposite: the Connecticut courts have held that award is mandatory and does not turn
on any analysis of the underlying merits once the statutory conditions (a filed
offer, a recovery that meets or beats it) are satisfied.
Simple or compound
Neither § 37-3a nor § 52-192a says anything about compounding, and the way Connecticut
courts and practitioners compute the amounts -- multiplying rate by principal by the
elapsed time -- is a simple-interest calculation with no compounding built in.
Claims against the government
Connecticut's general sovereign-immunity framework bars a money-damages lawsuit
against the state outright unless the claimant first goes through the Office of the
Claims Commissioner (or obtains a legislative waiver): the action must be dismissed
for lack of subject matter jurisdiction otherwise. That gate applies before any
interest question is reached at all -- a claimant has to clear it first, through the
Claims Commissioner process or a specific statutory waiver, before a court would ever
get to whether § 37-3a's discretionary interest applies to the state as a defendant.
Other exceptions
The offer-of-compromise statute, § 52-192a, is the biggest practical exception to
both tracks: it adds a mandatory 8% interest penalty, independent of § 37-3a's
"wrongful detention" test, whenever a defendant rejects a plaintiff's formal
settlement offer and the plaintiff recovers at least that much at trial. Health-
care-negligence claims get a longer, 365-day window (instead of 180 days) before that
kind of offer can be filed. And a hospital-services debt is capped at a lower 5%
rate under § 37-3a(b), rather than the general 10% ceiling.
What trips people up
Assuming Connecticut's discretionary interest statute reaches personal-injury and
property-damage negligence claims is the single biggest trap: § 37-3a explicitly
excludes them, and § 37-3b's near-verdict start date means there's effectively no
real prejudgment interest for an ordinary negligence case, however long it took to
get to trial.
Confusing the discretionary § 37-3a interest (up to 10%, decided by the court after a
wrongful-detention finding) with the mandatory § 52-192a offer-of-compromise interest
(a flat 8%, triggered automatically by rejecting a settlement offer) is a second
common trap -- they run on entirely different logic and can both apply to the same
case.
Treating cga.ct.gov's own compiled statute pages as unreachable proof that "the law
must be unclear" is a research trap, not a legal one: the site has an unrelated,
ongoing SSL/TLS problem this session, not a substantive gap in the law -- Justia and
FindLaw mirrors of the same official text are reliable substitutes when cross-
checked against each other.
Common questions
What's Connecticut's prejudgment interest rate?
Up to 10% a year for a qualifying contract or non-negligence-tort claim under § 37-3a
-- a discretionary ceiling the court sets, not a fixed number. A rejected settlement
offer can separately add a flat, mandatory 8%.
Can I get prejudgment interest on a Connecticut personal injury claim?
Not the way you would for a contract claim. Ordinary negligence-based personal-
injury claims are excluded from § 37-3a's discretionary interest and only draw
interest under § 37-3b starting close to the date of the verdict or judgment --
functionally there's very little "prejudgment" interest at all for that period.
Does Connecticut prejudgment interest compound?
No. Neither governing statute mentions compounding, and the interest is computed as
simple interest -- rate times principal times time.
Can I get prejudgment interest against the State of Connecticut?
Only after clearing Connecticut's sovereign-immunity gate first -- a money-damages
claim against the state must go through the Office of the Claims Commissioner (or a
specific legislative waiver) before a court will even reach the merits, let alone an
interest question.
Statutes and sources
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 37-3a(a) -- "interest at the rate of ten per cent a year, and no
more, may be recovered and allowed in civil actions ... as damages for the
detention of money after it becomes payable." Accessed 2026-07-05:
https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-37/chapter-673/section-37-3a/ - Conn. Gen. Stat. § 37-3a(b) -- caps hospital-services debt interest at 5%,
discretionary. Accessed 2026-07-05:
https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-37/chapter-673/section-37-3a/ - West Haven Sound Development Corp. v. City of West Haven, 207 Conn. 308, 321-22
(1988) -- "The allowance of prejudgment interest as an element of damages is an
equitable determination and a matter lying within the discretion of the trial
court ... the trial court must ascertain whether the defendant has wrongfully
detained money damages due the plaintiff." Accessed 2026-07-05:
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7893158/ - Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-192a(a), (c) -- the offer-of-compromise mandatory 8%
interest penalty. Accessed 2026-07-05:
https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-52/chapter-900/section-52-192a/ - Conn. Gen. Stat. Title 4, Chapter 53 (Claims Against the State) -- sovereign-
immunity gate for money-damages claims against the state. Accessed 2026-07-05:
https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-4/chapter-53/
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.