What Are The Typical Settlement Amounts In Car Accidents

Car crashes are happening every day around the nation, and each one is a little bit different. Some may cause significant injuries and large amounts of material damage, while others involve totaled vehicles where everyone walks away unscathed.

What we’re trying to say here is that every car accident is unique to an extent, so it’s impossible to come up with a typical car accident settlement. 

Thankfully, some things may help you reach a rough estimate of what you can recover from a car crash. 

So if you’re wondering about the typical car accident settlement amounts no injury, continue reading and you’ll be able to figure out how much money you can ultimately receive.

Why average settlement amounts might be deceiving

If every car accident is different, why is it quite common to see dollar amounts being thrown around? 

You might have seen ads on TV where lawyers claim six figures as their typical car accident settlement amounts no injury for the majority of their cases. They even show a client putting a big thumbs-up in front of the camera.

Unfortunately, this is pure marketing and these ads are likely completely misleading.

The facts of each case are different as no injury is the same, and the insurance companies involved may all have their methods of handling the claims. In other words, all these factors play a role in the value of the case. More often than not, two seemingly identical cases will have a huge disparity in the final settlement amount. 

Also, factors like economic damages such as hospital bills and lost wages will have a major impact on the outcome. In fact, if a lawyer tells you they can get you $500k for a minor accident with no injuries, stay away from them.

These amounts are not the norm because to recover that much money, there must be severe life-altering injuries that generally occur in major accidents. 

To complicate matters further, there are additional factors that determine the value of a case. While typical car accident settlement amounts no injury and may rely on property damage, even accidents where property damager is low may lead to health complications. For instance, a person may suffer whiplash or a minor amount of force may be enough to exacerbate a previous condition. 

The same can be said if you were at fault for the accident, as well as if the other party was intoxicated or used their phone while driving.

Factors that determine the settlement amounts

While it’s inconceivable to get 500k right out of the gate, you can use the following information to ascertain the approximate amount you can recover. Here are the main factors that matter in settlement amounts:

1. Type of accident

You might be looking at typical car accident settlement amounts no injury, thinking you can recover an extraordinary amount of money but the reality is different. You need to keep your expectations in check. The value of the case depends on property damage and injuries, so if you have none and the damage is minimal, you will recover less money.

It all depends on the following factors:

• Medical expenses
• Material costs
• Estimated costs of future care (severe injuries)
• Fiscal damage such as lost income/lost wages
  
  

2. Insurance policy

Since Florida is a no-fault state, you first have to seek compensation from your auto insurance before filing other claims. This helps you receive coverage for immediate damages before thinking of liability or filing a personal injury claim.

3. Personal injury coverage

If you’re a driver in Florida, you’re required by law to have $10k in personal injury protection (PIP) coverage. With this amount, you can recover expenses such as:

• Costs of transportation
• 60% of lost wages
• Death benefits
• 80% of medical costs

How to calculate the value of the claim

Putting all of this information together, you can figure out how much your case is worth and the most likely settlement you will receive (if everything goes well, that is).

How, exactly?

By using the same formula insurance companies do which projects the settlement on the most likely outcome of the case if it went to a trial.

The formula is fairly simple: special damages x (multiple general damages) + lost wages

First, special damages have a clear monetary value. These are things such as property damage, medical expenses, and loss of wages. 

Many people usually have a problem with general damages as they’re not easily quantifiable. These include:

• Loss of enjoyment
• Loss of consortium
• Pain and suffering (aka. emotional damages)

Attorneys usually use a multiplier method to calculate these damages. They may assign a numerical value based on the impact the injuries had on your life. For example, an attorney or insurance adjuster might assign a multiplier of 1.5 to your damages if your car suffered minimal damage and you had a minor sprain.

Special damages will be then multiplied by the number of general damages and that number will be added to the lost wages you had because of your injury. 

Why you may need a lawyer even for minor damages

But what if you haven’t suffered any injury and you’re wondering about typical car accident settlement amounts no injury? Do you still need legal help?

Well, you do.

The sad reality is that low-impact accidents are not that easy to negotiate. There is a high probability that the insurance company will do anything to downplay the accident to avoid paying what you deserve. 

Even if you had an injury, the insurance adjuster may claim your whiplash was nothing special because the property damage in the accident was only $2.5k, completely ignoring that you missed a week of work and had to go to physical therapy.

This is why you need an experienced attorney who can see to it that you’re properly compensated for both your property damage and injury, no matter how minor it may be.

Don’t go through this alone

While you may not be able to recover extraordinary damages, you still need to make sure you recover the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries and property damage.

This is why you need an skilled attorney with experience in car accident claims. Here at Law Offices of Rite, we have decades of background fighting with passion and ensuring all our clients are accurately compensated for their suffering. 

We know all the tactics insurers are using and can protect you from getting cheated out of a settlement you are entitled to under the law.

Contact us  (904) 500-RITE (7483) or send a message to info@rite4justice.com to book a free case review.

Note: 

The information in this blog post is for reference only and not legal advice. As such, you should not make legal decisions based on the information in this blog post. Moreover, there is no lawyer-client relationship resulting from this blog post, nor should any such relationship be implied. If you need legal counsel, please consult a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.