Personal Injury Settlement Value Calculator

Personal Injury Settlement Value Calculator

The purpose of this personal injury calculator is to give you a general idea of what your potential settlement could be at the end of your lawsuit. The reason you typically will not find a ‘typical’ or ‘average’ amount awarded in a personal injury lawsuit is due to the high number of factors involved.

This calculator will provide a range that you can expect your settlement to fall within. It is important to note that you should not expect to receive the exact amount shown by this calculator. There are other factors we cannot easily account for that will influence your total net settlement.

What you should know about this damages calculator

You can use a personal injury calculator for any type of claim. This means that for anything from traumatic brain injuries to aviation accidents, you can use this personal injury calculator to get a general understanding of how much you might receive from your settlement.

The damages calculations we make are based on the following criteria:

• Medical treatment – bills, liens, and expenses related to medical treatment
• Pain and suffering – the mental and emotional damages that are calculated with a multiplier
• Lost wages – income you have lost as a result of your injury
• Future lost income – income you will lose as a result of your injuries
• Property damages – damage done to your vehicle

We will go more in-depth about each of these sections later in the article. This calculator does not provide your exact settlement value, but it provides a good baseline estimate to help you understand the breakdown of the value of your case. Even if you think you know the exact values for each category, there may still be unexpected fees. Always seek legal advice from a lawyer, especially when it comes to your personal injury settlement.

Maximum pre-settlement funding qualification

We typically offer personal injury loans up to 15% of the conservatively estimated gross settlement amount. If you’re in need of pre-settlement funding, use the figure below as a rough estimate of the amount you could get approved for. Actual approval will likely vary based on our review of your case and discussion with your lawyer. To get a quote in as little as a few minutes, call us today at (800) 385-3660 or apply online.

Uplift’s Personal Injury Calculator

Learn more about how to use Uplift’s personal injury calculator

Below, we go more in-depth about the damages you can seek compensation for. Insurance companies also use calculators and formulas to determine how much a case is worth. While your insurance company is unlikely to share the exact formula they use, this calculator will give you a general idea.

Property damage

Often the easiest to calculate, property damage is the cost to restore your property to its original condition. For example, if you are in a car accident, property damage covers restoring your car to its original condition.

If a car crashes into the side of your home, injuring you in the process, property damage would account for fixing your house.

Medical expenses

Medical expenses are usually paid off by one of the following methods:

• Plaintiff’s insurance
• Medical lien
• Letter of protection

Basically, medical expenses are not completely paid off until you reach a settlement. Once you reach a settlement, a portion of it is used to pay off your medical expenses.

Future medical expenses

Depending on how serious your injuries are, you may require ongoing treatment. If ongoing treatment is required, that will be reflected in your settlement, which will include a higher sum to cover those expenses.

A medical expert may be called to calculate how much you will need to account for ongoing treatment.

Medical damages multiplier

This is often a number between 2.0 and 4.0. These general damages help account for things such as:

• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Disruption of life
• Loss of consortium

These types of damages are generally hard to quantify. The multiplier helps approximate these damages in real dollar terms. Medical expenses are multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5 to account for non-physical damages.

Lost wages to date

This is all of the income you have lost as a result of your injury to date. These wages are generally lost due to an inability to work and time spent seeking medical treatment. To calculate this, multiply your monthly earnings by the number of months you’ve been unable to work due to your injury. Luckily, lost earnings are one of the easiest things to calculate, so this number will be similar to what the insurance company uses.

Probable future lost wages

If your injury is severe enough, it is likely you will not be able to work as much as you used to. If this is the case, you will lose future wages as a result. Your settlement will include a portion of the wages you would have made if you had not been injured.

For the actual settlement itself, you may have an economic expert estimate what your yearly earnings were and what they will be now as a result of your injury.

Estimating the value of your personal injury settlement

Insurance companies typically use a formula or calculator to estimate the value of your case. Every case involves two types of damages you can receive compensation for:

• Special damages – medical bills, lost wages, or lost earnings
• General damages – pain and suffering, mental anguish

Calculating special damages is generally straightforward because it simply involves adding all of the quantifiable financial losses together.

Calculating general damages is often more difficult. This is especially true because insurance companies rarely disclose the exact method they use for their pain and suffering calculations. A common method is to add up all the special damages and then multiply that total by a number between 1.5 and 5. Typically, 1.5 is the lowest multiplier used in a personal injury settlement, while 5 is the highest. People generally only receive a multiplier of 5 on their personal injury claims if they have catastrophic injuries that permanently affect their lives.

While the multiplier method is typically used for calculating pain and suffering, there is another approach. A daily rate can be used to assign a certain amount per day for the pain and suffering the victim experienced. This daily rate is less useful for calculating lifelong compensation and is better suited for a specific number of days or months.

Generally, the multiplier is used for more severe injuries, and the daily rate is used for less severe injuries. You can use both methods in a personal injury calculator to see how the results differ. The estimated settlement value will change depending on what you input into the pain and suffering calculator. The range you receive from the two different calculation methods will give you an idea of where your settlement value may fall.

Injuries that are covered

There are two different types of damages covered in a settlement: special damages and general damages. These damages compensate the victim for their physical injuries. There are generally two categories of physical injuries:

• Minor, temporary, or soft tissue injuries – injuries that resolve with conservative treatment
• Serious, surgical, or permanent injuries – injuries that require some form of surgery or are permanent in nature

A personal injury lawsuit calculator can account for all forms of injuries; however, more severe injuries typically result in a higher payout. Differences in settlement value are accounted for by using the damages multiplier. Adjusting this multiplier based on the seriousness and permanency of your injury will provide a more accurate estimate of your settlement. Both current medical bills and future medical expenses are included in this settlement value.

Fine-tuning the number provided by the injury settlement calculator

Uplift Legal Funding’s calculator provides a basic overview of the expected total recoverable damages from your personal injury case. To get a better idea of what that means for your personal injury settlement, you may need to take into account the following:

Insurance coverage as a maximum recovery

The total amount you can receive is limited by the amount of insurance the defendant has. Sadly, if the defendant does not have enough coverage for your injuries, there isn’t much you can do. It is very difficult to collect funds in excess of policy limits.

Insurance is the main limiting factor when seeking compensation. If the defendant does not have insurance or doesn’t have enough coverage, you will have to file a claim with your own UM or UIM (uninsured/underinsured motorist) insurance. The maximum you can reasonably expect to receive is the sum of these policy limits.

Negligence

It is important to consider what state you live in while using this personal injury calculator. Every state has different negligence laws that may come into play when considering your potential settlement.

Some states have negligence laws that allow an injured party to receive compensation for whatever part of the accident they are not at fault for. This is known as pure comparative negligence. For example, suppose Driver A is 89% at fault and Driver B is 11% at fault. If they live in a pure comparative negligence state, Driver A’s settlement would be reduced by 89%, and Driver B’s settlement would be reduced by 11%.

However, other states have different negligence laws. Modified comparative negligence laws state that if you are a certain percentage at fault, you cannot receive compensation for a personal injury claim. Generally, if you are found 50% or 51% at fault, you cannot receive a settlement.

The harshest form of negligence is contributory negligence. Under this law, you cannot seek compensation if you are even 1% at fault for the accident.

Below we have given a more in-depth explanation for each form of negligence.

Contributory negligence

This form of liability is the toughest. With contributory negligence, if the injured party is found to be 1% at fault for their accident, they may receive no compensation for their injuries.

• Alabama
• Virginia
• North Carolina
• Washington DC
• Maryland

Modified comparative negligence

With this form of negligence, your award will be reduced by the percentage you are at fault. However, if you are 50% or more at fault, you will not be entitled to compensation at all.

• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Pure comparative fault

Under this type of negligence, your settlement is directly reduced by the percentage you are at fault. Unlike other forms of negligence, you can seek compensation regardless of how much at fault you are. This also means that the defendant can seek compensation for the accident as well, even if you were only 1% at fault.

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• New Mexico
• New York
• Rhode Island
• South Dakota
• Washington

Pre-existing conditions

If you had any pre-existing conditions before the accident, you cannot seek compensation for them. However, if a condition worsens as a result of the accident, you can seek compensation. The insurance company will often try to blame as much of your injury on the pre-existing condition as possible. You may need a medical expert to prove that your injuries are a result of the accident.

While pre-existing injuries or conditions may cause the insurance company to try to lowball you, that doesn’t mean your case is invalid. Personal injury claims can still be pursued even if the victim has pre-existing conditions.

Net settlement

Now that you have your gross settlement value, you may want to calculate your net personal injury settlement. A net settlement is what you will actually receive once everything is said and done.

This is the amount you will receive after your attorney makes deductions and pays providers for the following:

• Attorney fees
• Court expenses
• Medical expenses
• Other potential liens
• Legal funding

All of these are subtracted from your gross settlement. Your attorney’s contingency fees and medical bills are usually the largest deductions. After all of these liens and expenses are satisfied, you receive the remaining funds.