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 Delaware-specific point: no ceiling anywhere
In many states, whichever method you use still has to clear a statutory cap, at least in medical malpractice cases if nowhere else. Delaware is unusually consistent: it places no cap on economic, non-economic, or punitive damages, in any type of personal injury case, including medical malpractice. Neither the multiplier method's result nor the per diem method's result runs into an artificial ceiling anywhere in Delaware tort law.
When the per diem method still earns its keep
Even without a cap in play, 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 a more compelling story than a multiplier applied to a modest economic damages total.
Neither is required by Delaware law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Delaware courts are required to apply. A jury retains broad discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for pain and suffering, within the bounds of the evidence presented — subject only to the modified comparative negligence rule reducing or barring the total based on your own share of blame.