How this estimate is built
Your medical expenses and lost wages are your economic damages. We apply the multiplier method, the industry-standard approach, to estimate noneconomic damages — then apply South Dakota's unusual fault rule and, for malpractice claims, its cap.
The only state with a "slight/gross" standard
Under SDCL § 20-9-2, South Dakota is the only state in the country that doesn't use a percentage threshold for comparative fault. Instead, a claimant's own negligence bars recovery entirely unless it was "slight" compared with the defendant's "gross" negligence — a qualitative comparison the jury makes, not a number. South Dakota courts have treated roughly 10–20% fault as "slight" in some cases, while fault around 30% or more has been found "more than slight" as a matter of law in others, barring recovery outright.
No disclosed percentage to the jury
A 1998 amendment to the statute added a genuinely distinctive procedural rule: the jury's determination of whether fault was "slight" must be made without disclosing any specific percentage breakdown through a special interrogatory. The jury decides the slight/gross question directly, rather than first finding a percentage and then characterizing it.
A malpractice cap frozen since 1976
South Dakota caps noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $500,000 under SDCL § 21-3-11 — a figure the South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional. Unlike most state caps, this one has never been adjusted for inflation since it was enacted in 1976; adjusted for inflation, it would be worth more than $2 million today. Economic (special) damages carry no limit at all.