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 Illinois. 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.
No cap on compensatory damages, struck down twice
Illinois courts have rejected damages caps on the same constitutional theory, twice. In Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 179 Ill. 2d 367 (1997), the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages across all common-law actions. In Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, 237 Ill. 2d 217 (2010), relying on Best, the Court struck down a medical malpractice-specific cap too. Both rulings rested on the same ground: a legislative cap on jury-determined damages violates the separation of powers clause of the Illinois Constitution. Today, Illinois places no cap on non-economic or economic damages in any personal injury case.
Punitive damages: a flat ban, not a cap
Punitive damages work very differently in Illinois medical and legal malpractice cases: they're not capped, they're prohibited entirely under 735 ILCS 5/2-1115. Outside malpractice — in ordinary negligence or product liability cases — punitive damages are available but capped at 3 times the economic damages awarded.
Your own fault still has a hard cutoff
Illinois follows modified comparative negligence: if your fault is 50% or less, your recovery is reduced proportionally. Reach 51% fault, and you recover nothing. See our Illinois comparative negligence calculator for the full rule.