If you're negotiating a settlement for a personal injury claim, you will need to come up with a target dollar amount you'd accept to settle your case. Most insurance companies and injury attorneys rely on one formula or another to get a starting point for settlement talks. This is true for a bodily injury claim in a car accident case, a slip and fall injury, or any other personal injury case.
A common formula uses a multiplier (explained in detail below) combined with your medical expenses to come up with an estimate of non-economic damages (money for your pain and suffering). Adding this figure to your economic losses (medical bills, property damage, and lost income) gives you a starting point for your settlement negotiations.
This is not legal advice and we're not your lawyer. The calculation here is for instructional purposes only. Talk to an attorney for a financial and legal analysis of your case.
Car Accident and Personal Injury Settlement Payment Calculator
Economic Damages ("Special Damages" or "Specials") |
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1. Medical Expenses ($)
Enter the total of your medical bills, even if you didn't pay out of pocket. If you didn't seek medical treatment but still suffer pain, see the daily rate method (opens in a new window). |
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2. Property Damage ($)
(This field is commonly used for automotive damage in a car accident case. You'll leave this at zero for most other types of cases.) |
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3. Lost Earnings ($)
(If you missed work because of your injuries, input the sum of your lost income here. If you used available time-off benefits -- like PTO -- enter dollar value lost as if it were unpaid.) |
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4. Future Lost Income
(If you'll be missing more work due to ongoing treatment, or an inability to continue working at your current job while you recover, enter an estimate of those lose earnings here.) |
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5. Estimated Future Medical Expenses
(If you will require ongoing medical treatment for your injuries, enter an estimate of the cost of that treatment.)
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General Damages (Pain and Suffering) Multiplier |
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Multiplier for General Damages
The multiplier is used to estimate your general damages -- your "pain and suffering". The more serious, long-lasting and painful the injuries, the higher the multiplier. Scroll down to the multiplier below the calculator for tips on choosing a reasonable multiplier.
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(Between 1.5 and 5) |
Settlement Value Estimates
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Economic Damages
This is the sum of your "special" damages, or economic losses. |
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Non-Economic Damages (Pain and Suffering)
This is a payment for your general (pain and suffering) damages, based on the multiplier you've chosen. It also includes a $750 "nuisance" value. |
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Your Target Settlement |
Review Your Case With a Qualified Lawyer
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Adjust Your Settlement Target for Your Own Fault
In some cases, you may need to reduce your target settlement amount due to your own carelessness "contributing" to the accident. Depending on the state in which the accident occurred, the law requires a jury award to be reduced by your percentage of fault -- and in a few cases, to zero. The three basic types of "contributory" and "comparative" negligence rules are as follows:
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Pure Comparative Negligence States In the following states, the dollar amount of your award would be reduced by your percentage of fault, with no limits:
Alaska
Arizona California
Florida
Kentucky Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri New Mexico
New York
Rhode Island South Dakota Washington Modified Comparative Negligence States In the following states, the dollar amount of your award would be reduced by your percentage of fault. If your own fault is greater than 50%, you cannot win any damages, so the settlement value of your case is much less than your damages, and maybe zero.
Arkansas
Colorado Connecticut Delaware Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana
Iowa
Kansas Maine Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Montana Nebraska Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Contributory Negligence States The following states have a very harsh rule on shared fault. You cannot win any damages if you are found to be even 1% at fault. If your own carelessness contributed to your injuries, you cannot win an award in a lawsuit, so your effective settlement value is nearly zero.
Alabama
District of Columbia
Maryland
Virginia
Do Not Admit Any Fault During Your Settlement Negotiations When making your initial demand, do not admit any liability. If you raise the issue, deny any liability for the accident, and let the other side make the argument that your settlement should be reduced. To better understand this issue, see Shared Blame: Comparative and Contributory Fault for a Personal Injury. |
Damages and The Multiplier
After you enter your numbers and hit "Calculate," the two dollar figures you see above the "Your Target Settlement" field represent the two main types of damages that arise in the majority of injury cases: economic losses and non-economic losses. In any injury-related insurance claim, or even a personal injury lawsuit filed in civil court, the losses suffered by the person who has been injured can be placed into one of two categories: economic damages (called “special” damages) and non-economic damages (called “general” damages).
Special damages are those losses that are easy to quantify. They include the costs of medical treatment, any lost income due to time missed at work, property damage caused by the accident, and other out-of-pocket losses.
General damages, on the other hand, aren’t so easy to capture using a dollar figure. They include a sub-category of damages known as pain and suffering, which means the physical discomfort, mental anxiety, stress, and similar negative effects of the injuries -- as well as the impact that the injuries have on the claimant’s day-to-day life.
So, how do you put a dollar value on these kinds of losses? That’s where the multiplier comes in. To get a dollar figure that might represent the value of the general damages, an insurance adjuster will add up all the "special" medical damages (remember those are your quantifiable losses) and multiply that total by a number between 1.5 and 5 (that’s the multiplier).
The multiplier will be lower or higher depending on a number of specific facts related to your case: How bad are your injuries? How much medical treatment have you received? How much treatment will you need in the future? Are you expected to make a full recovery? Will there be permanent or long-lasting effects? How have the accident and your injuries impacted your daily life? The list goes on.
Of course, which multiplier to use will likely itself be a point of contention. You’ll argue for the use of a higher multiplier (4 or 5, for example) while the adjuster is likely to push for a lower multiplier (perhaps 2 or 3).
For more information on coming up with the right multiplier, see Determining a Multiplier to Value Your Personal Injury Case
But once the multiplier is used to arrive at a general damages figure, adding that number to the special damages total will give the insurance adjuster (and you) a ballpark idea of the value of your claim, or at least a starting point for settlement negotiations.
More Information
To get a good understanding of how these types of formulas work during personal injury settlement negotiations, you need to learn the basics of damages and compensation. Start by reading the articles we have filed under Personal Injury Damages and Compensation.
You may also want to familiarize yourself with the injury claims process and get a real sense of what to expect when it's time to talk settlement. To get started, check out our section on Settling Your Personal Injury Case.