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.
Why Mississippi makes the claim-type question more important than usual
In most states with a damages cap, medical malpractice carries the lower ceiling and ordinary personal injury is either uncapped or carries a higher one. Miss. Code § 11-1-60 reverses that pattern: medical malpractice is capped at $500,000, while nearly every other type of personal injury claim is capped at a higher $1,000,000. Getting the claim type right isn't a minor detail here — it determines which of two very differently-sized ceilings applies to whatever the multiplier or per diem method produces.
So identifying the claim type matters more than the method
Before investing effort in choosing between the multiplier and per diem methods for a Mississippi claim, it's worth confirming whether the claim is actually a medical malpractice action under § 11-1-60(2)(a) or falls under the broader (2)(b) category. That single classification can matter more to the final number than either valuation method, given how far apart the two caps sit.
Neither is required by Mississippi law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Mississippi courts are required to apply. A jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for noneconomic damages — subject to whichever cap, under § 11-1-60, genuinely applies to the case.