Vaccine Court: How a Vaccine Injury Claim Works, Its Deadline and What It Pays
Vaccine court is the name for the federal program that hears claims for injuries from covered vaccines. A claim is not a lawsuit against the maker or the clinic: it is a petition filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims and decided by a special master, within a deadline the Act sets and for amounts the Act describes. This page quotes the Act and the Vaccine Injury Table, and the tool below counts the deadline from your dates.
The Act's deadline for an injury: “no petition may be filed for compensation under the Program for such injury after the expiration of 36 months after the date of the occurrence of the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injury” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-16).
Count the deadline and the amounts the Act allows
Enter the date of the first symptom, and for a death the date of the death, to count the last day to file a petition. Add the costs and losses you can document to see how the Act's limits apply to them.
The first symptom or sign of onset, or of a significant worsening, after the vaccine. The Act counts from this date, not from the vaccination.
Past and projected costs not covered by insurance or another program, such as care, therapy and equipment.
Earnings lost, and expected to be lost, because of the injury.
Any amount; the tool applies the Act's limit to it.
The deadline and the amounts the Act allows
Enter the date of the first symptom to count the deadline to file a petition.
This counts the deadline the Act sets and applies its limits to the figures you enter. It does not decide whether an injury is covered, whether the vaccine caused it, which expenses a special master would allow, or how lost earnings would be figured.
What vaccine court is
A claim begins with a petition filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims. The Act says what happens to it next: “The clerk of the United States Court of Federal Claims shall immediately forward the filed petition to the chief special master for assignment to a special master” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11).
It comes first, before any lawsuit. The Act says: “No person may bring a civil action for damages in an amount greater than $1,000 or in an unspecified amount against a vaccine administrator or manufacturer in a State or Federal court for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated with the administration of a vaccine after October 1, 1988,” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11) unless a petition has been filed under the program and the steps it names have followed.
So a person hurt by a covered vaccine files in the program first, and can turn to a civil suit only on the terms the Act sets after that.
Which injuries a vaccine injury claim can cover
The program works from the Vaccine Injury Table. The regulation describes it: “the following is a table of vaccines, the injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths resulting from the administration of such vaccines, and the time period in which the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths is to occur after vaccine administration for purposes of receiving compensation under the Program.” (42 C.F.R. § 100.3)
The Table's terms are strict: “Conditions and injuries that do not meet the terms of the qualifications and aids to interpretation are not within the Table.” (42 C.F.R. § 100.3)
The petition must also show how serious the injury was. One way the Act names is that the person “suffered the residual effects or complications of such illness, disability, injury, or condition for more than 6 months after the administration of the vaccine,” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11) Another is that the person “suffered such illness, disability, injury, or condition from the vaccine which resulted in inpatient hospitalization and surgical intervention,” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11) And the person “has not previously collected an award or settlement of a civil action for damages for such vaccine-related injury or death,” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11)
The deadline to file in vaccine court
For an injury, the Act says “no petition may be filed for compensation under the Program for such injury after the expiration of 36 months after the date of the occurrence of the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injury” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-16). That is 36 months from the first symptom, not from the vaccination.
For a death, it says “no petition may be filed for compensation under the Program for such death after the expiration of 24 months from the date of the death and no such petition may be filed more than 48 months after the date of the occurrence of the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of the injury from which the death resulted.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-16)
Say the first symptom of an injury was on March 10, 2025. The last day to file a petition is March 10, 2028. A petition also pauses a state's deadline for a civil suit: “limitations of actions under State law shall be stayed with respect to a civil action brought for such injury or death for the period beginning on the date the petition is filed” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-16).
What vaccine court compensation includes
The Act lists what compensation includes. It begins with medical and care costs: “Actual unreimbursable expenses incurred from the date of the judgment awarding such expenses and reasonable projected unreimbursable expenses which” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15) result from the injury and are reasonably necessary.
For a person injured as an adult, it includes “compensation for actual and anticipated loss of earnings determined in accordance with generally recognized actuarial principles and projections.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15) And: “For actual and projected pain and suffering and emotional distress from the vaccine-related injury, an award not to exceed $250,000.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15)
For a death: “In the event of a vaccine-related death, an award of $250,000 for the estate of the deceased.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15) Care at home is protected: “The amount of any compensation for residential and custodial care and service expenses under subsection (a)(1) shall be sufficient to enable the compensated person to remain living at home.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15) And some damages are barred: “Compensation awarded under the Program may not include the following: (1) Punitive or exemplary damages.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15)
Say an injured person documents $42,000.00 in unreimbursable care costs and asks for $400,000.00 for pain and suffering. The Act's limit holds that part to $250,000.00, so the figures come to $292,000.00 before anything a special master would find or reduce.
Lawyers' fees in vaccine court
The Act directs the special master or court to award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs as part of compensation (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15). And even when a petition is not successful, fees can still be awarded: “If the judgment of the United States Court of Federal Claims on such a petition does not award compensation, the special master or court may award an amount of compensation to cover petitioner's reasonable attorneys' fees and other costs incurred in any proceeding on such petition if the special master or court determines that the petition was brought in good faith and there was a reasonable basis for the claim for which the petition was brought.” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15)
Ask any lawyer how fees are handled before signing, and whether they are paid through the award.
The records a vaccine injury claim rests on
The Act lists records a petition includes, among them “vaccination records associated with the vaccine allegedly causing the injury, pre- and post-injury physician or clinic records (including all relevant growth charts and test results), all post-injury inpatient and outpatient records” (42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11).
In practice that means the vaccination record with the date, lot and site, the records of the first symptoms and every visit after, any hospital and surgical records, and the bills. Keep them together, with the dates.
Talking to a lawyer about vaccine court
This site is not a law firm, does not refer anyone to a lawyer, and cannot say what a special master would award. The questions that decide a claim are a lawyer's: whether the injury is on the Table or must be proved another way, when the first symptom was, and which costs and losses can be shown.
Bring the vaccination record, the medical records from the first symptom on, the bills, your record of lost earnings, and the dates.