Getting into a car accident can be painful and traumatic. It can also create a financial nightmare as you try to navigate rising medical bills, unexpected out-of-pocket expenses, and a sudden loss of income. Fortunately, through an insurance claim and/or personal injury lawsuit, you may have the right to seek compensation to help you cope with these consequences.
It’s easy to wonder what your car accident claim is worth. However, there is no simple answer. Every case is different. Every crash victim has a unique experience. The only way to know what a car accident case is worth is by conducting a thorough investigation, evaluating key pieces of evidence, consulting experts, and assessing how the crash has affected your life.
Ultimately, several different factors will be relevant when calculating how much money you might be able to recover after a car accident.
What Types of Physical Injuries Have You Sustained?
When you file a personal injury claim after a car accident, you’ll be able to seek compensation for your medical bills and related costs. So, the type and extent of your physical injuries will have the biggest impact on the value of your personal injury claim.
Minor injuries will likely impose limited costs and have a moderate impact on your ability to get back to your day-to-day life without much interruption. In turn, you can expect a moderate return when you file a car accident claim.
Catastrophic injuries, on the other hand, can require expensive (and often long-term) medical treatment and significantly impair your ability to work and live your life. As a result, the related costs are much higher. When you file a personal injury claim or lawsuit, that will increase your potential recovery.
Just how much can the extent of an injury change the value of a claim? According to the National Safety Council, the average comprehensive cost of a crash that causes “no visible” injuries was $17,500 in 2022. For a crash causing “evident” injuries, the average comprehensive cost was $232,000. When a crash caused a “disabling” injury, the mean cost for victims was over $1 million.
How Has the Car Accident Affected Your Ability to Work?
Economic damages for lost wages, disability, and diminished earning capacity can also be awarded through an insurance claim or car accident lawsuit.
The more of an impact the car accident has on your ability to do your job and earn a living, the more you’ll typically be able to recover from an insurance company or another responsible party.
Do You Share Responsibility For the Car Accident?
Depending on where you live, sharing responsibility for a car accident can limit your damages or, in some cases, bar a financial recovery altogether.
There are three ways that shared fault can affect a legal claim for damages:
- Contributory negligence: sharing any degree of blame for a car accident is an automatic bar to compensation
- Pure comparative negligence: shared fault does not bar a financial recovery, but damages are reduced in direct proportion to fault
- Modified comparative negligence: damages are reduced proportionately to fault up to a certain amount (50 or 51 percent, depending on the state), and are barred when liability exceeds that threshold
How shared fault affects your ability to recover compensation - and how much - will depend on the laws of the state in which you were injured.
For example, let’s say you were injured in a car accident and assigned 60 percent of the blame for the wreck. In California or Washington, which adopt pure comparative fault systems, you would be able to recover compensation, but only up to 40 percent of the value of your damages. In a state like Hawaii, Nevada, or Colorado which have modified comparative fault rules, a financial recovery would be barred altogether because your degree of fault is higher than the statutory bar.
What Type of Legal Claim Are You Filing?
Insurance will typically be your first source of compensation after a car accident. Whether you live in a fault-based or no-fault state, the insurance policy that you file a claim against will have limits. You can receive benefits up to those policy limits.
If you can’t seek additional compensation elsewhere, then the value of your car accident claim will be limited to the insurance benefits available to you.
However, most states give crash victims the right to sue for damages through a civil car accident lawsuit if their injuries are classified as severe or catastrophic. In these situations, the value of a personal injury claim can be much higher.
How Has Being in a Car Accident Changed Your Quality of Life?
Whether you file an insurance claim or car accident lawsuit, you’ll typically be able to seek compensation for your pain and suffering. This can include things like chronic physical pain, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and changes in your quality of life.
The more the car accident disrupts and changes your life, the more you can generally expect to recover in non-economic awards. However, keep in mind that some states, like Hawaii, have caps on non-economic damages, which can limit how much money can be awarded to a crash victim in a lawsuit.
Singleton Schreiber Can Help You Maximize Your Car Accident Recovery
Knowledge is power. The more you know about what your car accident case might be worth, the better prepared you’ll be to engage in meaningful, fruitful settlement negotiations with the insurance company, defense attorneys, and other parties.
Singleton Schreiber can help you understand what your car accident case might be worth and advocate to get you the top-dollar recovery you need and deserve.
We’re award-winning car accident attorneys with decades of collective experience advocating for crash victims across the nation. We’ve helped clients win over $3 Billion in settlement agreements and jury awards.
You can benefit from our local lawyers and national resources by calling one of our nationally acclaimed law offices for help today.
Your initial case evaluation is free. Members of our team are standing by to help right now.
Areas We Serve
