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 would be at the end of your personal injury lawsuit. The reason you typically will not find a ‘typical’ or ‘average amount awarded in any personal injury lawsuit is because of the high number of factors that go into the lawsuit.

This calculator will give you a range that you can expect your settlement to be within. It is important to note that you should not expect to get the exact amount in this calculator. There are other factors that 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 from traumatic brain injury accidents to aviation accidents, you can use this personal injury calculator to have a general understanding of how much you will 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 – what damage is done to your vehicle

We will go more in-depth about each of the sections later on in the article. This calculator does not provide your exact settlement value but it provides a good base-line 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 is still a chance that there are 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 an instant quote, call us today at (800) 385-3660 or apply online.

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

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

Property damage

The easiest to calculate, property damage is how much it will cost to restore your property to its original condition. For example, if you are in a car accident, then the property damage will be restoring your car back to its original condition.

If a car has crashed into the side of your home, injuring you in the process, then 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, the medical expenses are not completely paid off until you reach a settlement. Once you have a settlement then a portion of it is used to pay off your medical expenses.

Future medical expenses

Depending on how serious your injuries are, you will have to have 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 will be called in order to calculate how much you will need in order to account for the ongoing treatment.

Medical damages multiplier

This is often a number that is 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 approximates these damages in real dollar terms. Physical damages are multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5 in order to account for non-physical damages.

Lost wages to date

This is all of the income you lost as a result of your injury up to date. These wages are generally lost due to the inability to work and seeking medical treatment. In order to calculate this, multiple your monthly earnings by the number of months you’ve been unable to work due to your injury. Lost earnings are one of the easiest things to calculate luckily, 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 then 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 will 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 has two types of damages that you can receive compensation for. The types of damages are:

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

Calculating special damages is generally straightforward. This is because it is generally just adding all of the numerical physical damages together.

Calculating general damages will prove to be harder. This is especially true since insurance companies will not disclose the method they use for their pain and suffering calculation. The general method that is used is to add up all of the special damages, and then multiple it by a number between 1.5 and 5. 1.5 is the minimum amount a person can get from a personal injury settlement, while 5 is the highest. People can only receive a 5 on their personal injury claims they have catastrophic injuries that permanently affect their lives.

While the multiplier method is the one typically used for calculating pain and suffering, there is also another method of calculation. A daily rate can be used to calculate a certain amount per day for the pain and suffering the victim felt. A daily rate is not as useful for calculating life-long compensation, only a certain number of days and months in a row.

Generally, the multiplier is used for more severe injuries and daily rate is used for less severe injuries. You can use both in the personal injury calculator and see that the results are different. The 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 will fall.

Injuries that are covered

There are two different types of damages that are covered in a settlement: special damages and general damages. Special damages, as we discussed earlier, are the physical damages of the victim. There are two forms of physical damages:

• 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

The personal injury lawsuit calculator includes all forms of injuries. However, more severe injuries will have a higher payout. The way we account for the differences in settlement value is by using the damages multiplier. This should be adjusted based on the seriousness and permanency of your injury. This is because it will give a better idea of what the estimated settlement will be. Medical bills and future medical expenses are both included in the 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 to cover your injuries then 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 go after your own UM or UIM (under/uninsured motorist) insurance. The maximum you 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 for the defendant to receive compensation for whatever part they are ‘not at fault’. This is known as ‘pure comparative negligence’. For example, Driver A is 89% at fault and driver B is 11% at fault. If they both live in a pure comparative negligence state, then Driver A’s settlement (if they went to court) would be reduced by 89% and if Driver B were to reach a settlement, theirs would be reduced by 11%.

However, other states have different negligence laws. Modified negligence states that if you are a certain percentage at fault, you can’t receive compensation for personal injury claims whatsoever. Generally, if you are found 50% or 51% at fault, you cannot receive any settlements.

The harshest form of negligence is contributory. Under this law, you are not able to 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 comparative 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

Comparative negligence

With this form of negligence, your award will be reduced by the amount 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
• 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 amount you are at fault. However, unlike with other forms of negligence, you can seek compensation regardless of how much at fault you are. However, this also means that the defendant can seek compensation from the accident as well, even if you were only 1% at fault.

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

Pre-existing conditions

If you have any pre-existing conditions before the accident you cannot seek compensation for them. However, if that condition gets worse as a result of the accident, you can seek compensation. If the insurance company can, they will try to blame as much of the injuries as possible. You may require a medical expert to prove that the 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 fought even if the victim has pre-existing conditions.

Net settlement

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

The net settlement is what you will receive after your attorney makes deductions and pays providers for all of 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 expenses are usually the largest expenses. After all of these liens and expenses are satisfied, you get the remaining money.

Need cash before your case settles? Uplift can help.