How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages. We 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 — then checked against Indiana's medical malpractice cap, if it applies.
Ordinary claims: no cap, 51% fault bar
For a standard personal injury case — a car accident, a slip and fall — Indiana places no cap on economic or non-economic damages. Your own fault is governed by the Indiana Comparative Fault Act (IC 34-51-2-6): below 51% fault, your recovery is reduced proportionally; at 51% or more, you recover nothing.
Medical malpractice: an entirely different system
Here's what makes Indiana genuinely distinctive. The Indiana Comparative Fault Act explicitly excludes claims against qualified health care providers from its coverage. That means the modern 51% fault rule doesn't apply at all — instead, the older common-law doctrine of pure contributory negligence still governs medical malpractice, where any fault by the patient can be a complete bar to recovery.
A total damages cap, backed by a state fund
Medical malpractice damages against a qualified provider are also capped differently: the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act limits total damages — economic and non-economic combined — to $1,800,000 for acts after June 30, 2019. A qualified provider's own personal liability is capped at $500,000; anything above that, up to the total cap, is paid by the state-run Patient's Compensation Fund.