Mississippi prejudgment interest rules
United States Mississippi uses the contract rate or a rate selected by the court.
→ All Mississippi judgment & prejudgment interest rates
Case-specific rule Case-specific
2026 Mississippi prejudgment interest at a glance
- Current rule
- contract rate / court-set
- Effective date
- July 1, 1989
- Controlling authority
- Miss. Code Ann. §§75-17-7 and 75-17-1
- Rate basis
- Case-specific rule
- Source checked
- July 19, 2026
- Recorded history
- 1 data point
Mississippi does not set one universal prejudgment percentage. Under Miss. Code Ann. §75-17-7, a judgment founded on a sale or contract uses the rate supplied by the contract evidencing the debt. For other judgments, the judge selects a fair annual rate and a fair start date. The 8% legal contract rate in §75-17-1 may be relevant in some matters, but it is not a mandatory statewide prejudgment rate.
When Mississippi prejudgment interest applies
Section 75-17-7 separates judgments founded on a sale or contract from all other judgments. Contract and sale matters look to the rate in the contract evidencing the debt. In the other category, the judge may include prejudgment interest and selects a rate considered fair. Entitlement still depends on Mississippi law and the facts; the record intentionally does not flatten those branches into 8%.
When it starts accruing
For the 'all other judgments' category, §75-17-7 lets the judge select a fair start date but never a date before the complaint was filed. Contract or sale claims can follow the governing obligation and claim-specific authority, so there is no single statewide start date.
Simple or compound
Case-specific. Mississippi authority recognizes that the governing contract or court may determine the method, and courts have approved different rates and simple-interest outcomes. Do not assume either simple or compound treatment without the controlling contract and order.
How the rate is set
There is no universal formula: use the contract rate for the contract/sale branch, or the rate expressly selected by the judge for the other-judgment branch. This is why the machine-readable numeric value is intentionally null.
Mississippi does not set one statewide prejudgment percentage. Under §75-17-7, a judgment founded on a sale or contract bears the rate supplied by the contract evidencing the debt. For all other judgments, the judge selects a fair annual rate and a fair start date, never before the complaint was filed; prejudgment interest can be included in that category. Section 75-17-1's 8% legal contract rate may inform some matters, but current appellate authority confirms that 8% is not mandatory and that the court can select another rate and method. Verify the claim and order; not legal advice.
Current recorded observation
| Effective date | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| July 1, 1989 | contract rate / court-set | Case-specific rule |
Source & provenance
Observation recorded July 19, 2026 (00:00 UTC) from the cited source (Mississippi Legislature-authorized Code portal (LexisNexis)):
https://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/mscode/
Cite this page
StatuteRates. “Mississippi Prejudgment Interest Rate.” StatuteRates.com. Accessed today. https://statuterates.com/rates/mississippi-prejudgment-rate/ Case-specific rule recorded under Miss. Code Ann. §§75-17-7 and 75-17-1; no uniform numeric percentage is published.