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 DC-specific point: fault matters far more than method
In many states, whichever method you use still has to clear a statutory cap. DC has no cap at all — but it has something arguably more consequential: pure contributory negligence, which bars recovery entirely if you're even 1% at fault. That means in a DC case, confirming you weren't at fault — or, as a pedestrian or cyclist, that your fault stays under 50% — genuinely matters more to the outcome than whether the multiplier or per diem method is used to value pain and suffering.
When the per diem method still earns its keep
Once a claim clears DC's fault bar, 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 DC law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula DC 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, once liability itself is established.