The multiplier method: scaling off your damages
The multiplier method is the industry's default approach. It takes your economic damages — medical bills and lost wages — and multiplies that total by a factor generally between 1.5 and 5, chosen based on injury severity, recovery time, and whether any permanent impairment is involved.
The per diem method: valuing each day
The per diem (Latin for "per day") method works differently. It assigns a specific dollar value to a single day of pain and suffering and multiplies that rate by the total number of days of documented recovery, tying the value directly to time rather than to the size of your medical bills.
A genuinely Alaska-specific wrinkle: the cap applies either way
Here's what makes this comparison matter more in Alaska than in most states: whichever method produces your non-economic figure, that figure still has to clear Alaska's statutory ceiling under AS 09.17.010 — the greater of $400,000 or your life expectancy in years × $8,000, higher for severe permanent impairment. A per diem calculation that runs well past the cap doesn't actually get you more; the statute, not the methodology, sets the real ceiling.
When the per diem method still earns its keep
Even with the cap in place, the per diem method can still carry real persuasive weight in a case with a long, clearly bounded recovery period, where counting days produces an easy-to-follow number — useful for negotiation even when the final figure ends up capped at the same ceiling the multiplier method would have hit.
Neither is required by Alaska law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Alaska courts are required to apply. It's the statutory cap, not either methodology, that does the real limiting once the jury or settlement reaches a figure for non-economic loss.