Accidents can be traumatic events. Typically accidents leave physical, emotional, and financial impacts on each and every car accident victim. One crucial aspect after such an event is navigating the complexities of the legal process. Understanding how car accident injury settlement amounts are determined can empower you to navigate this process more effectively and ensure fair compensation for your injuries and losses.
What’s The Average Car Accident Settlement Amount?
Determining a fair settlement amount is unique for every case. Car Accident settlements depend on many factors. More complicated cases have more factors to take into account.
- The severity and type of your injury and suffering and any resulting disability
- Loss of income, workdays
- Damage to your vehicles, other property damages
- The costs covered by your insurance coverage
- The cost of medical bills
- The treatment plan, length of therapy, side effects
There is no perfect formula that will predict the amount of a settlement in a car accident case. However, if you want to get a rough value on “how much should I settle for my car accident?” simply add all your expenses and multiply that sum by three. If the accident results in a permanent medical condition, the amount of settlement will increase.
How Much Should I Ask For My Car Accident Injury Settlement Amount?
In cases where liability or fault is not evident, you must be able to prove fault. You also need to prove whether your injury is related to the accident or not.
Experienced attorneys know the settlement values from their previous cases and can estimate a value for your case. This value depends on how serious your accident injuries are. All your records and medical bills will be examined. You also need to count your lost wages and get a verification statement confirming them from your place of work. Settlement values vary according to the circumstances and state you live in.
The timing of medical care is crucial. Any delay in care could change the settlement amount. You should see a doctor as soon as possible after your accident and as often as your doctor prescribes. It may be that you see an emergency room doctor but then have follow-up care with a specialist. Follow the doctor’s plan. Anything short of that will be to your disadvantage and help the at-fault party and their insurance company. Insurance adjusters assume that if you don’t get immediate care and frequent care for your injuries you have not been seriously injured.
Real Case Scenarios and Their Settlements From Carpey Law
Case 1: Driver Runs Red Light:
$284,000 Total Settlement: Our clients were trapped in their car after a driver ran a red light and struck their vehicle in Montgomery County. After months of rehabilitative treatment, Carpey Law obtained a very favorable settlement on our clients’ behalf.
Case 2: A Nurse Sustained Serious Injuries In A Car Crash
$800,000 Verdict: Carpey Law represented an operating room nurse who was rear-ended by another driver. She sustained serious injuries, including a herniated disc requiring surgical repair, and was disabled form work for an extensive period of time. Liability was not in dispute, however, damages and causation were heavily contested.
Read more real cases here.
What Are The Factors Influencing Settlement Averages?
Car accident settlement averages are influenced by various key factors that play a crucial role in determining the compensation an individual might receive. Understanding these factors is essential for those involved in car accidents seeking fair and just settlements.
Influence of Severity of Injuries
The extent and severity of injuries sustained in a car accident significantly impact settlement averages. Severe injuries often result in higher settlements due to several reasons:
- Medical Costs: Severe injuries require extensive medical care, surgeries, and ongoing treatments, leading to higher medical expenses.
- Long-Term Impact: Serious injuries can cause long-term or permanent disabilities, affecting the victim’s ability to work and live a normal life.
- Pain and Suffering: Severe injuries often result in higher compensation for pain, suffering, and emotional distress endured by the victim.
Higher severity generally correlates with higher settlements as courts and insurance adjusters acknowledge the increased impact on the victim’s life.
Role of Medical Expenses
Medical expenses serve as a fundamental component in determining settlement averages in car accident cases. Key points to consider include:
- Documentation: Accurate and thorough documentation of medical bills is crucial. It validates the expenses incurred due to injuries sustained in the accident.
- Treatment Costs: Medical expenses encompass various costs such as hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation, medications, therapy, and ongoing medical care.
A comprehensive record of medical expenses helps in presenting a clear picture of the financial impact caused by the accident, contributing significantly to settlement calculations.
Consideration of Lost Wages and Income
Lost wages and income constitute a substantial part of settlement evaluations, influencing the compensation amount:
- Evaluating Lost Income: Calculating lost wages involves assessing the income lost due to the inability to work after the accident. This evaluation includes factors like salary, bonuses, and benefits.
- Future Earnings: In severe cases, where the victim faces long-term disabilities impacting future earning potential, the settlement may account for these anticipated losses.
Including lost wages and income in settlement calculations ensures fair compensation for the financial hardships endured by the victim due to the accident.
Evaluation of Pain and Suffering
Quantifying non-economic damages like pain and suffering presents a challenge in settlement negotiations:
- Subjectivity: Pain and suffering are subjective, making it challenging to assign a monetary value. Emotional distress, trauma, and the impact on the victim’s quality of life fall under this category.
- Quantification Methods: Various methods like the multiplier method or per diem method are used to quantify these non-economic damages.
Settlements for pain and suffering aim to acknowledge and compensate for the intangible losses experienced by the victim, contributing to the overall settlement averages.
When to Contact a Car Accident Attorney?
If you are unsure whether you should hire an attorney or not, you can always contact an attorney to discuss your case and the possibilities of pursuing a claim in court.
You should always talk to an attorney about your legal options. If there is a question about who is responsible or the police report does not look accurate, an attorney can help. An attorney can help you to predict the car accident injury settlement amount.
To get more information about “When to Get an Attorney for a Car Accident” Click here.
What Are The Top 10 Causes of Car Accidents?
Victims in catastrophic car accidents, such as rollovers or pileups, can suffer a wide range of injuries. One injury that is not always so obvious to detect is crushed. A Car Accident injury occurs when a body part is subjected to a high degree of force or pressure, usually after being squeezed between or under heavy objects or as a result of extreme forces such as from a collision, and can lead to further complications.
The type of injuries resulting from an accident can be dependent on the type and causes of the car accident. Here is a list of some common causes of car accidents:
- Distracted driving
- Texting (Pennsylvania’s law banning texting while driving has long been in effect)
- Radio/music accessories: i.e., iPods, MP3 players, CD players, tape decks, radios
- Reading, checking e-mail, or eating are also fairly common and incredibly dangerous.
- Using an interior mirror; for instance, when applying makeup.
- Paying too much attention to your passengers or being distracted by passengers.
- “Rubber-necking,” or slowing down in traffic to inspect an accident scene or construction site, causing sudden stops or changes in speed that endanger everyone on the road.
- Speeding
- Disregarding posted speed limits.
- Reckless speed in certain conditions (i.e., night-time, rain, snow, ice, etc.).
- Speeding on different road types.
- Drunk or intoxicated driving
- Under the influence of drugs or alcohol, driving ability is impaired. Fatal accidents are hundreds of times more likely to occur (the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimated that a drunk driver is 385 times more likely to be in a fatal accident than a sober one) when drivers are drinking.
- Reckless driving & racing
- Reckless drivers do not take into account other motorists on the road. They may race, change lanes without signaling, and treat the road as their playgrounds. These at-fault drivers endanger not only themselves but also others.
- Weather conditions
- Slick surfaces like bridges are much more likely to be icy than roadways
- Black ice
- Un-plowed roads should be avoided or reported to the appropriate authority. Snow on the road covers such hazards as water, rocks, and black ice.
- Rainy conditions obscure vision.
- Hydroplaning
- If your wipers are in bad shape, your visibility is shot. It’s important to remember to check your windshield wipers and replace the blades when necessary.
- Disobeying traffic signals
- Running stop signs. Also, the “the rolling stop” is not considered stopping at a stop sign. Practice waiting a few seconds at a stop sign before proceeding. This will statistically reduce your chance of a collision with another driver approaching the intersection
- Chasing yellow lights is incredibly dangerous. Do not attempt to “make” the light by accelerating. If you aren’t sure if you have enough time, do NOT try. Many accidents occur from these scenarios, whether someone has chased a light or has tried to speed through one. It is just as important to give ample time to stop as it is to wait before crossing an intersection.
- Failing to yield the right of way.
- Night driving
- Light and distance perception is altered.
- Be sure not to try to drive when you are tired.
- Vehicle defects
- Manufacturer faults– most notable are tire and brake failures. It is important to know your vehicle’s appropriate tire pressures and to maintain your brakes.
- Unsafe road maneuvers
- Sudden lane changes, or lane changes without signaling
- Sporadic braking and uneven speed are incredibly dangerous on the road
- Road defects
- Changes in road gradients, slopes, and surfaces require more attentive driving.
- In construction sites, lane shifts and other tactics are meant to keep drivers safe. When you are instructed by signage to “Stay IN Lane,” that usually means the pavement ahead is uneven and may cause you to lose traction or a safe driving line.
Read more about “What to Do After a Car Accident” Click here.
Chronic Pain and its Relationship to Accidents
Chronic pain is acute pain that lasts beyond the expected period of healing. Acute pain is often treatable with medication, surgery, or both. However, there are times when pain does not go away after a reasonable healing period for a particular injury. That is chronic pain. While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain continues over a long period and is likely to interfere with daily activities.
If you have been in an automobile accident you should be aware of the following signs and symptoms of chronic pain.
- Pain that continues three to six months after your body is expected to be healed
- Shooting, burning, or aching pain
- Discomfort, soreness, tightness, or stiffness
- Tiredness or loss of energy
- Trouble sleeping
- Irritability decreased concentration, anxiety, or depression
- Inability to perform daily activities
Chronic pain can be a permanent injury and should not be taken lightly. Attorneys who are knowledgeable in the area of personal injury lawyers should always take chronic pain symptoms into account when they are evaluating a car accident victim’s case.
Read more about How long After a Car Accident Can You Claim Injury
How Long Do You Have to Seek Medical Attention After a Car Accident?
You should seek medical attention if you are injured and follow your doctor’s prescribed medical plan. There is no exact science as to how people recover from injuries. Your doctor may predict your recovery time, but everyone is different and you may require more or less time than the average.
Stuart A. Carpey, who has been practicing as an attorney since 1987, focuses his practice on complex civil litigation which includes representing injured individuals in a vast array of personal injury cases.