How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages, never capped in Minnesota. We apply the multiplier method, the industry-standard approach, to estimate noneconomic damages — also uncapped here — then apply Minnesota's standard fault rule.
The 51% bar, with no unusual exceptions
Under Minn. Stat. § 604.01, a claimant recovers — reduced by their own fault — as long as that fault is not greater than the combined fault of the defendants. Exactly 50/50 still recovers half; the claim is barred only once the claimant's fault actually exceeds the defendants' combined share. Unlike several neighboring states, Minnesota applies this bar the same way across every damages category, with no carve-out that treats economic and noneconomic damages differently.
No cap on damages, in any personal injury case
Minnesota has repeatedly considered, and repeatedly rejected, a statutory cap on medical malpractice noneconomic damages — legislative proposals surfaced in 1995, 2003, 2004, 2005, and again in the 2025-2026 session, and none became law. As it stands, neither economic nor noneconomic damages are capped in a Minnesota medical malpractice claim, and the same is true for an ordinary personal injury case.
Punitive damages: a genuine procedural gate, not a cap
Minnesota doesn't cap punitive damages by statute, but it does make them genuinely hard to reach procedurally. Under Minn. Stat. § 549.191, a complaint cannot seek punitive damages when a lawsuit is filed. A party has to bring a separate motion afterward, backed by affidavits, and the court must find a prima facie case — evidence of deliberate disregard for the rights or safety of others under § 549.20 — before punitive damages can even be added to the claim. This is a calculator for compensatory damages, so punitive damages aren't modeled here, but they're worth knowing about as a separate, distinctly Minnesota mechanism.