How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages — the easy-to-document part, and these are never capped in Alaska. We then apply the multiplier method, the same approach insurers and attorneys use industry-wide, to estimate pain and suffering: your economic damages multiplied by a factor of 1.5 to 5, depending on how serious the injury actually was.
Alaska's real, constitutional cap
Unlike many states, Alaska does cap non-economic damages by statute, even in an ordinary personal injury case. Under Alaska Stat. § 09.17.010, the cap is the greater of $400,000 or your life expectancy in years multiplied by $8,000. For severe permanent physical impairment or severe disfigurement, the cap rises to the greater of $1,000,000 or life expectancy multiplied by $25,000. The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld this cap as constitutional — a different outcome than several other states, where similar caps were struck down.
Your own fault always matters, by any amount
Alaska follows pure comparative negligence: your recovery is reduced by your own percentage of fault, whatever that percentage turns out to be. Unlike the five contributory-negligence jurisdictions, there's no threshold where fault wipes out the claim entirely — even at 90% fault, the remaining 10% is still yours. See our Alaska comparative negligence calculator for the full rule.