Economic damages: the documented, countable losses
Economic damages are the straightforward, receipt-backed part of a claim. In an Indiana personal injury case, this generally includes medical expenses already incurred, lost wages from time away from work, property damage, and reasonably anticipated future medical care or lost earning capacity tied directly to the injury.
Non-economic damages: the subjective losses
Non-economic damages cover the losses that don't come with a receipt: pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. These are inherently harder to quantify, which is exactly why the multiplier method exists — to translate a documented economic figure into a reasoned estimate of the non-economic side.
Why Indiana's medical malpractice cap works differently
In most states that cap medical malpractice damages, this split decides what's actually limited — the cap applies only to the non-economic side, while economic damages like medical bills pass through uncapped. Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act takes a genuinely different approach: the $1,800,000 cap applies to the combined total of economic and non-economic damages together. That means a case with very large medical expenses alone can approach the cap, leaving little or no room for a separate non-economic recovery on top.
The split still matters for the math, even without separate caps
Outside medical malpractice, where neither category is capped, the economic vs. non-economic distinction still matters practically: the multiplier method is applied specifically to your economic damages total, so a complete and well-documented economic tally still drives the size of the overall estimate.
Fault treats both categories the same way
Whichever fault rule applies to your claim — the 51% bar for ordinary cases, or pure contributory negligence for medical malpractice — it doesn't distinguish between economic and non-economic damages. If your fault bars the claim, it bars recovery of both categories together.