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 claim type matters more than valuation method right now
A 2026 law added a 50% fault bar for motor vehicle personal injury claims, while every other type of New York personal injury case — premises liability, products liability, construction, medical malpractice — stays under the original pure comparative rule. That means the single most consequential question for a New York claim right now isn't which valuation method produces a larger noneconomic estimate; it's whether the claim is a motor vehicle case at all, since that determines whether a high fault percentage can wipe out the entire claim.
So confirming claim type matters more than the method
Before investing effort in choosing between the multiplier and per diem methods, it's worth confirming definitively whether a given New York claim falls under the new motor-vehicle fault bar or the older pure comparative rule — that classification changes the downside risk far more than either valuation method would.
Neither is required by New York law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula New York courts are required to apply. A jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for noneconomic damages — subject to the narrow $100,000 cap, if it genuinely applies, and otherwise with no ceiling at all.