How to Calculate Personal Injury Settlement

If you face painful injuries from a car accident, you may have many questions: How will the police determine fault for the accident? Will my insurance company pay for my car’s damage, or will the other driver’s insurance cover property damage? Do I need an attorney to fight for my rights? And finally, after a few months of dealing with the pain and suffering of an ongoing injury and associated medical treatments, you may wonder how to calculate your personal injury settlement. 

If the accident was not your fault, you’ve gone through pain and misery because of another’s negligence or fault. If you have extensive injuries and medical bills, you may feel like you’re at a breaking point trying to manage your life and medical bills. This is the time when working with an attorney can make all the difference. 

An experienced accident attorney will know what you can expect and how long the process will take. However, you may want to come up with your own estimate to discuss with your attorney. 

Determining your Settlement

It can be challenging to determine a reasonable settlement payment for a car accident personal injury case. Insurance companies want to settle instead of taking you into the courtroom. At the same time, they don’t want to entertain wildly outrageous settlement figures. Your number must be reality-based to get a fair settlement. 

If you want to take it to the courtroom and fight it out there, the court will decide your settlement amount based on the same factors listed below. To determine your settlement for a personal injury case, you’ll look at several factors and add up your totals for each. Add together the amount in number form for each of these considerations:

• Medical Bills

If you didn’t seek medical help but have pain and suffering, multiply each day you suffered from pain by the amount you usually make in a day’s work to get your total for this factor. Add how much the visits cost if you seek treatment, whether from a chiropractor, acupuncturist, or physical therapist. Getting your health back is worth the expense. You deserve compensation for what you’ve had to spend to find your normal again.

• Property Damage

Enter the amount of damage to your vehicle for bodywork or if you had to take a total loss amount. 

• Lost Earnings

Enter the total amount of your lost earnings. If you took paid time off, enter those days as non-paid. For every day you missed, add it all together.

• Estimated Future Medical Expenses 

For example, if your physical therapist estimates that you will need to see him every week for one more year, add the cost of that into this factor. This category is for any ongoing treatments related to the accident.

If you plan for ongoing medical treatments related to your accident for the next 30 years or more, add all of what you expect to pay and adjust for inflation. 

• Future Lost Income

Enter an estimate of future lost income due to needed future medical treatments or recovery time when you won’t work. If you will never work again or change careers because of the accident, consider your new field and whether your new salary will keep your income stable in the future. 

The next step is adding up all of the factors above. Then you take the total amount and multiply it by the below multiplier for general damages. 

• The Multiplier for General Damages

Use 1.5 as a starting point. If you have extensive injuries that will last a lifetime, you may go as high as 5. Still, a settlement with a multiplier of 5 involves severe medical issues with continuing pain or lifelong struggles due to the accident. 

Example of Personal Injury Settlement Calculation

For example, let’s say you were rear-ended by another car when you were trying to merge on the interstate. Their vehicle hit you hard enough to knock you off the road and down an embankment where your vehicle hit a telephone pole. You suffered neck and shoulder injuries in addition to a concussion caused by the sudden stop when you hit the pole. 

Your physical therapist works with you weekly to regain the full range of movement for your arms and shoulders. Still, it looks like you may need a rotator cuff surgery and the associated time to heal from that with physical therapy after the surgery to rebuild your shoulder. 

Your estimated personal injury worksheet may look something like this:

• Medical Bills 

Physical therapy after accident until now $3,320

• Property Damage

Bodywork on your 2014 Honda Odyssey minivan: $5,230

Busted radiator replacement: $305

• Lost Earnings

15 days missed work after accident $2,400

• Estimated Future Medical Expenses 

Surgery after health insurance pays 40% co deductible: $4, 320

Physical therapy after surgery: $3,504

• Future Lost Income

15 days you may miss due to surgery and recovery $2400

TOTAL SUM $21,479

Now you can take your total sum and multiply it by the multiplier you choose. In this case, pain and suffering may last a year or so but not a lifetime. In this example, we may use a 1.5 as a multiplier for a low-end estimate. We could use 3 for a high-end estimate. 

TOTAL LOW END ESTIMATE = $23,479 x 1.5 = $32,219

TOTAL HIGH END ESTIMATE = $23,479 x 3 =  $64,437

Expectations for Settlement

Insurance companies consider many factors when deciding whether a number is negotiable or outrageous. Suppose you have receipts showing your related medical expenses and documented injury records such as X-rays or MRI’s etc., that show your injuries. In that case, you have a better chance of a larger personal injury settlement.

Talking with your personal injury attorney about what to expect can keep your expectations realistic. Most insurance companies know that when they negotiate with an experienced attorney who understands the dynamics of car crash settlement negotiations, they may pay more. When you stand alone, if you don’t have experience, you don’t know how to fight for a fair settlement. 

We Can Help

At Jarrett law, we know how to calculate your personal injury settlement possibilities. Our experience in traffic law and personal injuries gives us the knowledge we need to fight for your best outcome. We understand how important it is to find closure from this painful journey. We want to ensure you are fully compensated for your pain and suffering so that you can begin to move forward again. Contact us today and find out how we can help you.