Average Settlement Payouts for Car Accidents

The average settlement amount for a personal injury car accident case in the United States is approximately $19,000.

But the average car accident settlement tells you nothing about how much money you will get in your car accident settlement. Typical car accident settlement amounts do not predict compensation.

You want to know the expected compensation payout in YOUR personal injury case. That is what this page is about.

Car Accident Settlement Amount Calculations

The starting point to determine your car accident injury settlement is based on what injuries you suffered and the typical compensation for those injuries.

How do you figure out how much your specific accident injuries are worth? The starting point to determine your insurance settlement payout might be by looking at both injury settlement statistics and similar examples of car accident settlements.

Typical car accident settlements fall under one of these categories. This should give you a better idea of the range of settlement amounts for your specific injury:

Catastrophic Injury and Wrongful Death Cases

Car accident cases involving catastrophic injuries (injuries involving permanent disability or impairment) and wrongful death are going to have the highest potential settlement value. The only potential limiting factor is the amount of insurance coverage available to pay for these claims.

• Average Wrongful Death Settlements and Verdicts (average payout for car accident death)
• Spinal Cord Injuries (injury settlement amounts)
• Burn Injuries (average by type of burn injury)
• Loss of an Eye (verdicts and sample resolutions to cases in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.)
• Loss of Sight Cases (value of vision loss cases without specificity as to the type of vision loss)
• Vertebral Fractures (median values)
• Internal Bleeding (verdicts and settlements)
• Ear Injuries (payouts based on the type of ear injury)
• Fractured Back (average verdict and settlement payouts in Maryland)
• Concussions (statistics and sample verdicts and settlements)

Settlement Value of Herniated Disc and Other Disc Injuries 

Back injuries are the most common type of injury in auto accident cases. Herniated discs and other type of disc injuries are the most common type of auto accident back injury aside from back sprains. Herniated disc injuries can be very serious and a good case can easily have a six-figure settlement value.

• How much is your insurance claims like yours typically fetch in settlement payouts based on what type of accident caused your cervical or a herniated disc injury?
• Value of Cervical Herniated Disc Cases (Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia)
• National disc injury verdict data

Settlement Value for Below are the Waist Personal Injury Settlements

Knees and legs are frequently injured in auto accidents. Although most below the waist injuries in auto accident are not permanent, these cases can still have a high settlement value.

• Foot and Ankle Injuries
• Fractured and Broken Legs: Get median and average verdicts and sample case results)
• Knee Injury Verdicts (median and average verdict data on knee injury cases)
• Amputated Toe Cases (national verdict data)

Settlement Value for Above the Waist Personal Injury Settlements

• Shoulders
  • Shoulder Injuries Generally
  • Rotator Cuff
  • Fractured Shoulder
• Hand, Wrist, and Fingers
  • Wrist Fractures (typical compensation payouts in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia)
  • Finger and Hand Verdicts (average, median, and sample cases that went to trial or resolved out-of-court)
• Facial Scarring (average value)
• Fractured Hip (Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia)
• Fractured Ribs
• Headaches (average, median, and type of collision)
• Chest (includes seat belt and airbag injuries)

Car and Motorcycle Accident Average Settlement Payouts

• Average Car Accident Settlements in Maryland (personal injury compensation amounts)
• Valuing Truck Accident Cases
• Head-on Collisions
• Motorcycle Crashes
• Bicycle Accidents

Malpractice and Product Liability Lawsuits

• Value of Malpractice Claims by Types of Case
• Value of Wrongful Death Malpractice Claims
• Nursing Home Values
• Premises Liability
• Legal Malpractice

Personal Injury Settlement Amounts in Maryland

• Maryland Settlement Amounts
  • Wrongful death claims
  • Truck accident (we also have an updated video explaining the settlement value of Maryland truck accident cases and how the Maryland cap on damages impacts the value.)
  • Nursing home
  • Malpractice
  • Individual Counties
    • Baltimore City
    • PG County
    • Baltimore County
    • Montgomery County
    • Analysis of All Maryland Counties
• Washington, D.C.
  • Car accidents
  • Medical malpractice

Note: Take these statistics with a grain of salt. These do not reflect the value of your case or any individual case. To better understand the value of YOUR claim, you need to speak with a personal injury attorney who can address all of the relevant facts in your case.

Why? Because typical car accident settlement amounts are, as we have been saying all along, unbelievably specific to your case’s unique facts and circumstances.

Remember one other thing, too. You can always ask your lawyer how much he or she thinks your injury insurance claim is worth.

Search for a Settlement Formula to Calculate Settlement Amounts

There is absolutely a settlement formula for personal injury car accident claims:

Past Medical Bills
+
Future Medical Bills
+
Past Lost Wages
+
Future Lost Wages
+
Pain and Suffering Damages

This is the formula to calculate your settlement in a car crash case.

A formula is easy. You just input the numbers and make a calculation. But your real question is, what is a good settlement offer for your car accident claim?

In the vast majority of our cases, the most significant harm in the case is pain, usually physical pain. How do you measure the pain and suffering that goes with physical and emotional damage, and how is the settlement value calculated? No car accident settlement calculator you pull up online can tell you the answer to pain and suffering.   This is the most important number in the calculation.

How the Insurance Company Calculates Pain and Suffering Damages

The answer to how much money you get for pain and suffering is worth depends on the car accident case. In some types of car and truck accident cases, insurance companies will try to use a computer program to compute a blueprint of a settlement formula.

The insurance adjuster puts all of the details of the medical records into a computer. The computer spits out a settlement range for the insurance payout.

Computer-generated settlement calculators produce payouts that differ from what our personal injury lawyers believe to be full justice in the case.

In severe injury cases, a computer system trying to number crunch a dollar amount is an abomination of justice. (You can get a complete look at how insurance companies value cases here. Above, you can research the settlement value of your particular injury.)

In the typical car accident case we handle in Maryland, who is at fault for the crash is not an issue. But if there is a severe dispute about liability, the lawsuit will more likely go to trial. If auto insurance companies think their driver is not responsible, they are unlikely to offer a settlement amount and typically will take that personal injury claim to trial.

To calculate the settlement amount, multiply the likelihood of success by the expected payout if you win.

So the formula is your case is worth $2 million, but you have an 80% chance of winning the case; your “settlement formula” calculation would be $1.6 million (2,000,000 x .8).

How Much of My Settlement Will I Get?

This is the real question, right? How much money will you get from your settlement? You want to know how much of your settlement you will get. Make no mistake. Personal injury cases are about money. Our lawyers never forget that justice is about money.

No doubt, there is more to life than money. You know this if you have suffered a severe injury or lost a loved one. But a civil tort case is about money.

Does this mean you would not rather have your pain go away or bring your loved one back? Of course not. But, unfortunately, money is all the justice you can get when making a personal injury claim.

Let’s go back to that $2 million case that settled for $1.6 million because of the risk of a defense verdict at trial. Two things cut into that $1.6 million payout: (1) attorneys’ fees and expenses and (2) health insurance liens. Let’s look at both of those.

How Much Are Lawyer Fees in for a Car Accident Settlement?

How much money do the auto accident lawyers take from your settlement in a personal injury lawsuit? It is an essential question because it is often a lot of money. Car accident lawyer fees are easy to calculate. They should be carefully spelled out in the retainer agreement.

Fees

So what percentage does a lawyer get in a car accident case? For our clients, the fees are the same in every single case we have: 33% of the recovery if the case settles before a lawsuit is filed. (That contingency fee goes to 40% if a lawsuit is filed.)

So, your attorneys’ fees under this scenario would be $533,333.

Expenses

Your second deduction is expenses. Our firm fronts all client expenses (and our lawyers swallow those expenses if you lose), But we get those costs back from the recovery. There are other ways to do it. But that is how the average car accident settlement works. Our attorneys still have not heard of any of the best personal injury lawyers in severe injury cases doing it any differently.

How much are the client’s expenses? It varies from less than $100 to well over $100,000. If you settle a severe injury case before filing suit, the expenses will be a fraction of the cost of taking a claim to trial. The average expenses in a car accident case that is settled before filing suit is usually a few hundred dollars.

But if that car accident lawsuit goes to trial, the average expenses are approximately $15,000.   A lion’s share of that cost is paying expert witnesses to testify at trial. You can’t know the exact amount that your expenses will be. But you can have an open and transparent line of communication with your attorney about your expenses.

In one of our law firm’s complex medical malpractice practices, the cost will often exceed $100,000 long before the case goes to trial. Our birth injury lawyers might spend $200,000 to $300,000 on a typical labor and delivery malpractice case.

But with Miller & Zois and most law firms, we front those expenses. The client is not obligated to pay them if we do not get a financial recovery that exceeds those costs. In other words, our law firm bears all of the out-of-pocket risks.

How Is a Car Accident Settlement Paid Out?

A common question among victims pertains to the logistics of receiving a settlement payout for a car accident. Understanding the payout process can alleviate some concerns and clarify what to expect.

Check Is Payable to You and Your Lawyer

When a settlement is reached, the insurance company typically issues a check payable to the client and their attorney. This dual endorsement ensures that all parties involved in the litigation process are accounted for and that the disbursement of funds is handled properly.

You Sign Over Check After Approving the Disbursement

Upon receiving the settlement check, the lawyer will seek the client’s permission to endorse it on their behalf. With this consent, the lawyer signs the check and deposits it into a designated escrow account. This escrow account is a secure, separate bank account used to temporarily hold funds on behalf of the client.

How Fees and Expenses Get Deducted

Once the settlement funds are in the escrow account, the lawyer will first deduct any outstanding legal fees and expenses associated with the case. These costs are usually outlined in the initial attorney-client agreement and may include court fees, costs of obtaining medical records, expert witness fees, and other litigation-related expenses.

After deducting these fees, the auto accident lawyer should prepare a settlement statement detailing all deductions and the net amount that will be disbursed to the client. The client is typically required to review and approve this statement before any funds are released.

You Get Your Settlement Check

Finally, the remaining settlement amount is distributed to the client. This can be done via a check or a direct bank transfer, depending on the client’s preference and the lawyer’s standard practices.

In Maryland, we have particular rules for disbursing injury claim settlement amounts. Our lawyers use an IOLTA escrow account. The client, the law firm, and any medical bills are paid from that account.

Medical Bills and Medical Liens

The last significant line item is medical bills and medical liens. Medical bills are an easy one. You have to pay back the provider for your medical bills.

On most medical bills, the client can decide whether they want to pay the outstanding bills out of their settlement.

Negotiate the bills and pay the claim out of the settlement or leave the bills open. You may be legally required to pay some medical bills from a personal injury lawsuit settlement. Some healthcare providers who know they have a motor vehicle collision case will require the plaintiff to sign an “assignment and authorization.”

This agreement requires counsel to reach a deal to pay back the healthcare providers. Hospitals can often put a lien on those funds, requiring the lawyers to pay at least some portion of their bill.

Medical liens are a little more tricky. The rules vary by state. Let’s focus on Maryland because that is where we handle most of our non-birth injury cases.

In Maryland, the health insurance company has a contractual right to be repaid in many cases. If you don’t pay them back, you risk breaching your contract and losing your health insurance.

Let’s say you have $200,000 in medical bills, and your health insurance pays the bills.

But they are not paying out $200,000. They are sending the providers $150,000 to extinguish those bills. In most cases we handle, the patient is not obligated to pay the remaining $50,000.

Our Maryland accident lawyers fight like crazy, so our client is not charged for the difference. We almost always win. However, the jurisdiction and the language of the health insurance policy are essential.

Whether you have outstanding medical bills or medical liens, the best lawyers do not stop fighting for their clients when they get a verdict or settlement. They fight for their clients and work to reduce those medical bills and medical liens.

So, in summary, there is no average car accident settlement calculator. Artificial intelligence has not come that far. But if you do your research – see above – you can get a pretty good understanding of what the typical injury claim reasonable settlement ranges for your case might be.

Many people ask if they can ask their lawyer how much their case is worth and how much money they can hope to put in their pocket. The answer is of course. Your lawyer will unlikely give you the exact compensation payout the lawyer expects. But if you have completed treatment, you should be able to get a range of possible settlement values you might receive.

How Do Lawyers Decide How Much to Sue for in a Lawsuit?

In Maryland, lawyers in personal injury cases sue for either

1. $15,000
2. $30,000
3. More than $30,000

If you sue for more than $30,000, you do not specify an amount under Maryland law. Why, then, are you always reading in the paper about a lawyer suing for $100 million or something similarly crazy? Because those personal injury lawyers are trying to get attention… and it worked.

But that is not how Maryland law works. Lawyers in Maryland and most states should not be asking for a specific amount of money when they file a lawsuit.

What Is Typical Car Accident Settlement Amount with No Injury?

You can get a settlement amount for a no-injury car accident. You are unlikely to find a lawyer to help you. Our firm only handles severe injury and wrongful death claims. But you can do it yourself. What are typical car accident settlement amounts in these types of cases?   If there is genuinely no injury, your settlement will likely be zero. If you have some injury but no medical treatment, you are looking at a typical settlement payout in the neighborhood of $500. But some insurance companies have a bright line: “no treatment, no settlement rule.’

Getting a Lawyer to Fight to Get You the Most Money Possible

Our law firm handles motor vehicle collisions and other tort claims. Our law firm has had multiple million-dollar personal injury settlements and over $100 million in verdicts and settlements. If you have been injured in a motor vehicle collision, call us at 800-553-8082 or get an almost instant free, no-obligation consultation.

Related Articles

• Handling Your Accident Claim Without a Personal Injury Lawyer: This article looks at whether you really need a personal injury lawyer to maximize the value of your claim. The short answer is that it depends on the case.
• Is There a Formula or Calculator to Get the Settlement Payout for My Case? Everyone is looking for a pain and suffering settlement calculator. Is there one out there? The short answer is no, but there are many ways to estimate your personal injury settlement better.