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 Indiana-specific wrinkle: a total cap, not just a non-economic one
For an ordinary Indiana injury case, neither method runs into a cap at all. Medical malpractice against a qualified provider is a different story: the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act caps total damages — economic and non-economic combined — at $1,800,000. That's unusual; most states that cap medical malpractice damages cap only the non-economic (pain and suffering) side, leaving medical bills and lost wages uncapped. In Indiana, once the combined total approaches the cap, the choice between multiplier and per diem stops mattering much — the ceiling, not the formula, decides the outcome.
When the per diem method still earns its keep
Below any applicable cap, the per diem method can still 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 Indiana law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Indiana courts are required to apply. A jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for pain and suffering — subject to whichever cap, if any, applies to the type of claim.