The multiplier method: scaling off your damages
The multiplier method is the industry's default approach, and well established in California practice. 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.
The cap question depends entirely on the type of case
Here's the genuinely California-specific wrinkle: whichever method you use, the result only runs into a ceiling if your claim is a medical malpractice case. MICRA's cap applies exclusively to claims against a health care provider — for an ordinary car accident, slip and fall, or other injury claim, neither method's result is capped at all.
When the per diem method still earns its keep
The per diem method can carry real persuasive weight in a case with a long, clearly bounded recovery period, where counting days produces an easy-to-follow number for a jury or an adjuster — sometimes more compelling than a multiplier applied to a modest economic damages total, whether or not a cap is ever in play.
Neither is required by California law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula California courts are required to apply. Outside medical malpractice, a jury retains broad discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for pain and suffering, within the bounds of the evidence presented.