New York: Prejudgment Interest Rules

The short answer

New York's rule turns entirely on what kind of claim you're bringing. Win a
breach-of-contract case, or a claim that a court treats as interfering with
your property (which reaches further than it sounds — conversion, breach
of fiduciary duty, and legal malpractice all qualify), and prejudgment
interest at 9% a year is automatic, running all the way back to when your
claim first arose. Win an ordinary personal-injury lawsuit, and you get
nothing for the pre-verdict period at all — interest only starts once the
jury comes back or the judge rules. Wrongful death breaks that pattern in
the other direction: it gets prejudgment interest, running from the date
of death itself, even though it's a tort claim.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

The core rule is CPLR § 5001, "Interest to verdict, report or decision," in
Article 50 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules. A separate statute, Estates,
Powers and Trusts Law § 5-4.3, carves wrongful death out and gives it its
own, independent right to prejudgment interest. There is no equivalent
statute for an ordinary personal-injury or other general tort claim — the
absence of one is itself the rule.

Interest rate

CPLR § 5004(a) sets the rate at 9% a year "except where otherwise provided
by statute." A 2021 amendment carved out a lower 2% rate specifically for
"an action arising out of a consumer debt where a natural person is a
defendant." If the parties' own contract states an interest rate, that
contractual rate controls instead of the statutory 9%.

When interest starts running

For a claim within § 5001(a)'s scope, § 5001(b) starts the clock "from the
earliest ascertainable date the cause of action existed" — generally the
date of the breach or the interference with property. If different pieces
of damage were incurred at different times, interest can be computed
separately for each item from when it was incurred, or from a single
reasonable date in between. For a wrongful death claim, EPTL § 5-4.3(a)
instead starts the clock on "the date of the decedent's death," regardless
of when the underlying pecuniary losses (like lost future income) would
otherwise have been felt.

Contract vs. tort claims

This is the sharpest dividing line in New York's rule, and it doesn't map
neatly onto "contract vs. tort." An ordinary personal-injury tort claim —
negligence causing bodily injury, for example — earns no prejudgment
interest before a verdict at all; the earliest interest starts is the date
of the verdict itself, under the separate post-verdict-interest statute,
CPLR § 5002. Wrongful death is the one significant tort exception, getting
mandatory interest from the date of death under EPTL § 5-4.3. Everything
that fits § 5001(a)'s own categories — contract claims and the broader
"interference with property" bucket — gets the 9% mandatory rule
regardless of whether the underlying legal theory sounds more like a
contract claim or a tort claim.

Mandatory or discretionary

For a claim within § 5001(a)'s covered categories, prejudgment interest is
mandatory, not discretionary — the New York Court of Appeals held in
Spodek v. Park Prop. Dev. Assoc., 96 N.Y.2d 577, 581 (2001), that the
statute's use of "shall" makes the award mandatory, and that same decision
confirms "[p]rejudgment interest is not recoverable in tort actions
resulting in personal injury, nor for punitive damage claims." The one
place discretion survives is an "action of an equitable nature," where
§ 5001(a) itself leaves the rate and the accrual date to the court.

Simple or compound

Simple interest. Section 5001(c) directs the clerk of the court to compute
interest once, up to the date of the verdict, report, or decision, and add
that single figure to the total sum awarded — a one-time calculation, not
a recurring compounding one.

Claims against the government

No distinct prejudgment-interest rate or rule was found for a claim
against the State of New York. A claim against the State is brought in
the Court of Claims rather than the ordinary trial courts, but the
interest rules that apply once liability and damages are determined —
including the wrongful death carve-in — are the same CPLR provisions that
apply to any other defendant.

Other exceptions

Punitive damages fall outside the prejudgment-interest rule entirely, per
the same Spodek holding that confirms personal-injury damages do too. A
bill pending in the 2025-2026 legislative session, S6449, would change one
of the sharpest limits in current law: it would add a claim "for bodily
injury" to § 5001(a)'s list of claims that mandatorily earn prejudgment
interest, and would start that interest running "from the date of injury
or loss" — the same starting point contract claims already get. As of this
check the bill remains in the Senate Judiciary Committee and has not
passed.

What trips people up

The single biggest trap is assuming personal-injury damages work like
contract damages in New York. They don't — a personal-injury plaintiff who
waits years for a jury verdict gets no compensation at all for that delay
in the form of prejudgment interest, unlike a contract plaintiff in the
identical financial position. This asymmetry is exactly what the pending
S6449 bill is trying to fix, and it's a real, long-standing gap in current
law, not a drafting oversight.

The "interference with property" category in § 5001(a) is broader than its
plain wording suggests. New York courts have read it to reach conversion,
breach of fiduciary duty, and legal malpractice claims — none of which
sound like "property" claims at first glance — so don't assume a claim is
stuck with no prejudgment interest just because it isn't a classic breach
of contract.

Wrongful death's interest computation has its own wrinkle: the New York
Court of Appeals held in Milbrandt v. A.P. Green Refractories Co., 79
N.Y.2d 26 (1992), that EPTL § 5-4.3's "from the date of death" language
doesn't mean pre-verdict interest gets tacked onto damages for future
losses that haven't been discounted back to an earlier date — only past
losses, computed using § 5001(b)'s per-item or single-intermediate-date
method, actually earn interest running back to the date of death.

Common questions

Does a personal injury lawsuit in New York earn prejudgment interest?
No. Ordinary personal-injury tort claims get no interest for any period
before the verdict is rendered.

What's the interest rate on a New York contract judgment?
9% a year under CPLR § 5004(a), unless the contract itself states a
different rate, or the claim happens to be a consumer-debt judgment
against a natural person, which instead gets 2%.

Why does a wrongful death case get interest from the date of death?
A separate statute, EPTL § 5-4.3(a), creates that rule specifically for
wrongful death, as an exception to the general rule that ordinary tort
claims get no prejudgment interest at all.

Is New York likely to change the personal-injury rule soon?
A bill (S6449) that would do exactly that was introduced in 2025 and
remains pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee as of this check — a
renewed version of a similar proposal from 2023 that also did not pass.

Statutes and sources

• N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5001(a) — "Interest shall be recovered upon a sum
  awarded because of a breach of performance of a contract, or because of
  an act or omission depriving or otherwise interfering with title to, or
  possession or enjoyment of, property, except that in an action of an
  equitable nature, interest and the rate and date from which it shall be
  computed shall be in the court's discretion." Accessed 2026-07-05:
  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5001
• N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5001(b) — "Interest shall be computed from the earliest
  ascertainable date the cause of action existed, except that interest
  upon damages incurred thereafter shall be computed from the date
  incurred. Where such damages were incurred at various times, interest
  shall be computed upon each item from the date it was incurred or upon
  all of the damages from a single reasonable intermediate date." Accessed
  2026-07-05: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5001
• N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5001(c) — "The date from which interest is to be
  computed shall be specified in the verdict, report or decision. ... The
  amount of interest shall be computed by the clerk of the court, to the
  date the verdict was rendered or the report or decision was made, and
  included in the total sum awarded." Accessed 2026-07-05:
  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5001
• N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5004(a) — "Interest shall be at the rate of nine per
  centum per annum, except where otherwise provided by statute; provided
  the annual rate of interest to be paid in an action arising out of a
  consumer debt where a natural person is a defendant shall be two per
  centum per annum...." Accessed 2026-07-05:
  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5004
• N.Y. E.P.T.L. § 5-4.3(a) — "Interest upon the principal sum recovered by
  the plaintiff from the date of the decedent's death shall be added to
  and be a part of the total sum awarded." Accessed 2026-07-05:
  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EPT/5-4.3
• Spodek v. Park Prop. Dev. Assoc., 96 N.Y.2d 577, 581 (2001) — holds
  that CPLR § 5001(a)'s "shall" makes prejudgment interest mandatory for a
  covered claim, and that "[p]rejudgment interest is not recoverable in
  tort actions resulting in personal injury, nor for punitive damage
  claims." Citation verified via legalresearch.
• Milbrandt v. A.P. Green Refractories Co., 79 N.Y.2d 26 (1992) — holds
  that EPTL § 5-4.3 prejudgment interest on past pecuniary losses is
  computed under CPLR § 5001(b)'s method, and does not attach to an award
  for future losses that hasn't been discounted back to a time before the
  verdict. Citation verified via legalresearch.