There is not an exact science in calculating what one might expect from a car accident injury settlement. However, you can use data to come up with a range as to what you might expect to receive for a car accident injury settlement. I personally learned how this works after years of working on behalf of insurance companies defending car accident injury claims in court.
Evaluating Fault
First, keep in mind, that before calculating the settlement range of your case, you need to evaluate whether any fault can be placed upon you for the automobile accident. Every state is a bit different, but Kentucky, the state I practice law, is a pure comparative negligence state. This means that if it is determined you have some liability for your car accident, a percentage of fault can be apportioned against you and your settlement value will be diminished by whatever percentage of fault you are determined to be at fault.
Example of Comparative Negligence
For example, if you are determined to be 70% liable for your accident and the other driver is determined to be the remaining 30%, you can only recover 30% of your damages from that driver’s insurance company. Thus, in such a scenario, if you have an injury claim calculated to be worth $100,000, you are only entitled to recover $30,000 from the other driver or their insurance company since they were determined to only be 30% at fault for the accident.
Determining Your State’s Laws
If you don’t know what type of negligence laws apply in your state, I would encourage you to research it or speak with a lawyer to find out.
Types of Damages
After you have determined your percentage of fault, if any, next look to the types of damages you can claim. The most common damages one claims in an injury case include medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Don’t forget though that you can claim future damages as well. So, you can claim future medical bills, future pain and suffering, and damages for impairment to your ability to earn income in the future.
Proving Future Damages
To prove future damages, like future medical bills, you will often need to have an expert, such as a medical doctor, provide a written report or testify in your case. Past medical bills and lost wages are typically fairly straightforward to calculate. In Kentucky, where I practice law, you can claim the entire amount that you are charged for your medical treatment, even if health insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare paid for all or some of your medical bills. Keep in mind though, that your health insurer, Medicaid, or Medicare provider has a lien on your settlement, and you have to reimburse them for any money you get out of your settlement. Remember though, that you can typically negotiate with your health insurer to get their lien knocked down, so at the end of the day, you get more money in your pocket.
Calculating Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages are usually the type of damages that lawyers and insurance companies disagree on the most. What lawyers and insurance companies look to when trying to calculate pain and suffering damages for an injury case is past cases that have gone to trial in your local area that are similar to your case where the plaintiff suffered a similar injury.
Example of Pain and Suffering Calculation
Let me give you a hypothetical example. Say you sustained a rotator cuff tear in your right shoulder that required surgery. Your injuries were from a motor vehicle accident in Kentucky. Your medical bills total $100,000. You have $20,000 in lost wages for your time missed from work. In looking at the 24-year average for verdicts up to the year 2021 for rotator cuff injuries that went to trial in Kentucky, my research has revealed that the average pain and suffering damages for an injury that occurred in Kentucky were $200,000. The average pain and suffering multiplier is almost three times the amount of the medical bills. Thus, in our scenario, past and future pain and suffering would be calculated at $300,000 using the pain and suffering injury multiplier of three times.
Total Damages Calculation
To get that, we simply multiply the $100,000 in medical expenses times the injury multiplier for rotator cuff injuries in Kentucky, which is almost three. Thus, this case would be calculated to be worth $100,000 in medical bills plus $20,000 in lost wages, plus $300,000 in past and future pain and suffering for total damages of $420,000.
Insurance Policy Limits
Now, with all that said, if you have sustained damages in excess of the available insurance policy limits, it is likely the case your case is only worth the total insurance policy limits available to you. Your damages could be worth a million dollars, but if there are only $100,000 in insurance policy limits, it is likely the case your case is only worth the total insurance policy limits available to you. That very well could be the case all you receive in your injury case.
Variability of Settlement Values
The pain and suffering calculations I went over in this video won’t give you the exact value of your injury case. The fact is, if your case went to trial 10 times in front of 10 different juries, it’s likely the case that each of those 10 juries will come up with a different result. These calculations just generally give you an idea of a range as to what your case may be worth, but the facts of every case are different.
Conclusion
Knowing how to calculate a fair settlement for your car accident case can be helpful, but that alone won’t get you a fair settlement. There are actually many tricks insurance companies use that you will need to know how to avoid to give yourself a shot at a fair settlement. And in this video, I’ll show you how to do that. Lastly, if you’ve been injured in a car accident in Kentucky, remember: don’t wait, call Tate. Claim your free consultation from one of our Louisville personal injury lawyers.
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