Prejudgment Interest Rules in New York

At a glance

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 that prejudgment interest is unavailable for personal-injury tort damages and punitive damages. 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

Who performs the arithmetic after the court fixes the start date? The clerk computes the interest through the verdict, report, or decision and adds it to the total award under § 5001(c).

Does interest stop on the verdict date? No. Section 5002 requires interest on the total award, including the prejudgment-interest component, from the verdict, report, or decision through entry of final judgment.

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 2026-08-09: 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 2026-08-09: 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 2026-08-09: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5001
• N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5002 — interest runs on the total award from verdict, report, or decision through entry of final judgment. Accessed 2026-08-09: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5002
• 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 2026-08-09: 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 2026-08-09: 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, while personal-injury tort damages and punitive damages do not earn prejudgment interest. 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.