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.
A ceiling that survived a real reversal
In a severe medical malpractice case, Wisconsin's $750,000 cap on noneconomic damages matters more than the choice between a multiplier and a per diem calculation. That cap isn't a quiet, unchallenged figure — a state appeals court struck it down as unconstitutional in 2017, only for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reverse that ruling and uphold the cap, explicitly overruling its own 2005 precedent in the process. The cap is now settled, controlling law, and it caps noneconomic recovery at $750,000 regardless of which valuation method produced the underlying figure.
So severity-tier awareness comes first
Before investing effort in choosing between the multiplier and per diem methods for a severe Wisconsin malpractice claim, it's worth recognizing that once noneconomic damages approach $750,000, the cap — not the valuation method — becomes the controlling number.
Neither is required by Wisconsin law
Both methods remain negotiating tools, not a formula Wisconsin courts are required to apply. A jury retains discretion to award whatever amount it finds appropriate for noneconomic damages — subject to the malpractice cap only where it genuinely still applies.