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 Louisiana vocabulary note: "general damages," not "non-economic"
Louisiana's civil law tradition, inherited from its French and Spanish legal history rather than English common law, uses its own terminology: pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life are called "general damages," while medical bills and lost wages are "special damages." Functionally, these map closely onto the economic and non-economic categories used elsewhere, but the vocabulary is worth knowing if you're reading a Louisiana court opinion or demand letter.
A genuinely Louisiana-specific wrinkle: a total cap, not just a general-damages one
For an ordinary Louisiana injury case, neither method runs into a cap at all. Medical malpractice is different: the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act caps total damages — general damages plus most special damages combined — at $500,000, excluding future medical care. That's unusual; many states that cap medical malpractice damages cap only the non-economic (general damages) side. In Louisiana, 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.
Future medical care sits entirely outside this calculation
One major exception keeps this from being as harsh as it sounds: future medical expenses aren't counted toward the $500,000 cap at all. The state's Patient's Compensation Fund pays those directly and without limit, for as long as the patient needs care, completely separate from the capped lump-sum total.
Neither is required by Louisiana law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Louisiana courts are required to apply. A judge or jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for general damages, subject to whichever cap, if any, applies to the type of claim.