Estimating a potential car accident injury settlement can be a complex and uncertain process. It’s not an exact science, but you can use certain types of data to establish a ballpark figure. I’ve gained a deep understanding of this after many years of working on behalf of insurance companies to defend car accident injury claims in court.
Evaluating Fault in a Car Accident
Before diving into settlement calculation, it’s essential to evaluate whether you bear any responsibility for the accident. Laws differ across states, but as a Kentucky practitioner, I can share that Kentucky uses a pure comparative negligence model. This means if you’re deemed 70% liable for the accident, and the other driver is attributed 30%, you can only recover 30% of your damages from the other driver’s insurance company. So, for a claim valued at $100,000, you’d be entitled to $30,000. If you’re unsure about negligence laws in your state, I highly recommend consulting with a lawyer in your state.
Identifying Your Damages For A Car Accident Injury Settlement
Once you’ve established your fault percentage, you must determine the types of damages you can claim. The most common types of damages are medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. However, future damages are also claimable, including future medical bills, future pain and suffering, and impaired future earning capacity. Proving future damages often necessitates an expert, such as a medical doctor, to provide a report or testify.
Remember that your health insurer or Medicare/Medicaid provider has a lien on your settlement, and you must reimburse them from your settlement money. In Kentucky, you can claim in your injury lawsuit the total amount charged for your medical treatment, regardless of whether health insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare covered some or all of your treatment. Fortunately, you can often negotiate with these providers to reduce their lien, ultimately putting more money back in your pocket.
Understanding Pain and Suffering Damages
Pain and suffering damages can be the most contentious issue between lawyers and insurance companies. Both parties often reference similar past cases that have gone to trial in the local area to calculate these damages.
For example, let’s assume you sustained a rotator cuff tear in a car accident in Kentucky, requiring surgery and causing you to accumulate $100,000 in medical bills and lose $20,000 in wages. Looking at the 24-year average for Kentucky verdicts related to rotator cuff injuries up to 2021, the average pain and suffering multiplier is almost three times the medical bills amount.
Therefore, in this hypothetical, past and future pain and suffering would be calculated at $300,000 (medical expenses of $100,000 multiplied by the injury multiplier of three), bringing the total damages to $420,000 ($300,000 for pain and suffering + $100,000 for medical expenses + $20,000.00 in lost wages).
Policy Limitations
However, if your damages exceed the available policy limits, your case’s value could be capped at the total policy limits available. Even if your damages total a million dollars, if there are only $100,000 in insurance policy limits available, you may only receive $100,000. You see, it is often difficult to recoup money directly from the at-fault party after their insurance has paid out the policy limits. It’s not impossible, but usually only occurs if the at-fault driver has significant assets.
These pain and suffering calculations provide a general estimate, but they won’t give you the exact value of your case. The facts of every injury case is different, and if your case went to trial multiple times, each jury could very well return a different result.
Meagher Injury Lawyers Have Helped Several Kentuckians Obtain A Car Accident Injury Settlement
Understanding how to calculate a fair settlement for your car accident case is a start, but it won’t guarantee a fair settlement. Insurance companies often deploy tactics that you need to anticipate and avoid to ensure you don’t settle for less than you deserve.
Meagher Injury Lawyers is here to help Kentuckians involved in car accidents obtain maximum compensation for their car accident injury settlement. Contact us today to get your free consultation with a Kentucky injury lawyer. If you’re a Kentucky resident and have been injured in a car accident, remember – Don’t Wait, Call Tate!
