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 neither matters until fault is settled
Virginia's pure contributory negligence rule bars recovery entirely if a claimant bears any fault at all for their own injury — even 1%. Against that backdrop, a carefully built multiplier or per diem calculation produces nothing if the fault question isn't resolved favorably first. In a Virginia claim, establishing that you bore no fault whatsoever is the threshold question that comes before either valuation method has any practical effect.
The malpractice cap sits at the other end
Once fault is resolved favorably, a different Virginia-specific feature can still affect the final number in a malpractice case: a single cap covering the total of economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages combined, not noneconomic damages alone. A large multiplier or per diem result in a malpractice case may ultimately be reduced to that statutory ceiling.
Neither is required by Virginia law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Virginia courts are required to apply. A jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for noneconomic damages — subject to the fault threshold and the malpractice cap where either genuinely applies.