How to Calculate Personal Injury Settlement

When there is a personal injury lawsuit filed, there is no distinct formula for calculating personal injury settlements due to the unique nature of each case. 

The framework of each case will vary, and the compensation may differ widely depending on various factors. To help you argue your case properly and maximize any compensation due to pain and suffering, you should always consult an expert in personal injury law.

DWA LAW provides extensive knowledge to help you better understand pertinent personal injury laws necessary to expedite your claim. Below are factors that go into a personal injury claim and how they determine compensations.

The severity of your injuries will determine how much money you can claim. For example, an injury that requires amputation will warrant higher compensation than a mere bruise.

You can file a personal injury claim for two types of injuries: permanent injuries and temporary injuries.

These are injuries leading to long-term or life-term disabilities. They include paralysis, brain tumors, vision loss, spinal cord damage, amputations, etc. 

If your permanent injury resulted from someone’s negligence, the court might not use a simple multiplier to your account, as it’s inadequate. Instead, you’ll get compensation based on the cost associated with the specific injury. 

However, an experienced attorney will also consider the financial wellness of the party at fault to reach a fair and practical payout.

These are injuries that last only a few weeks or months to heal. The most common one is whiplash–a sharp whipping of the head or neck that often occurs when vehicles collide. Most whiplashes span only a few minutes, but they warranty a claim. 

The amount you can receive for a temporary injury claim depends on several factors, including:

• Duration your symptoms last
• Your age (if you’re younger than 18 years old)
• Your occupation or employment status
• Whether there was a previous injury at work or not

Lost wages refer to the sum of money you would have made had you not been injured. For example, if you were out of work for one week, your lost wages would equal a week’s pay. Lost wages can also include overtime pay, tips, gratuities, and bonuses missed due to the injury.

The attorney will sum the duration spent away from work and estimate your compensation based on your previous earning history to calculate lost wages. For example, you were off work for three weeks and made $1,000 per week before the accident. Therefore, your lost wages would be $3,000 (3 weeks X $1000). This includes compensation for time off during recovery and any time after recovery when you still could not work due to ongoing symptoms. 

For a permanent disability that can potentially keep you off work for life, the attorney will use compensation for your specific condition.

Your insurance provider will most likely cover property damages like a car wreck. However, if you don’t have insurance, you can include your property damages in your personal injury claim. Property damages in personal injury claim comprise:

Physical damages can be broken windows, damaged walls, broken furniture, and other similar items that resulted from the accident. The amount of compensation will depend on the extent of damage and its replacement cost.

This factor denotes the inability to use your property due to the accident. For example, you can claim compensation if you have no place to live because your damaged rental apartment is no longer habitable.  Here, the court may order the repair of your house or compensate you with an amount equaling your property’s value at time of the accident.

One of the most critical factors in any personal injury case is determining personal injury claim settlement. These are all medical treatment expenditures, including:

• Emergency room visits
• Hospital stays
• Surgery and other related procedures
• Medication
• Physical therapy, chiropractic visits, and other types of treatment

Note that the statute of limitations for personal injury claims differs from one place to another. For example, in the United States, California’s statutory limitation is two years from the date of the accident. Therefore, any medical expenses incurred more than two years after the accident will not be recoverable in your claim. Furthermore, if you were involved in an accident that caused injuries while visiting California, you must file within two years after returning to your home state. The same kind of limitations exist in Canada, and may differ by province,, so it’s always best to consult a personal injury lawyer to understand the details.

In a personal injury lawsuit, the insurance policy limit is the maximum amount an insurance company will pay for a loss. You can find the policy limit in an insurance policy stated as dollars or cents. 

To calculate the number of dollars or cents that an insurance policy will pay for a loss, you must know:

This is the maximum amount an insurance company will pay under its policy.

These are expenses that you have incurred concerning your case. For example, if you seek compensation for medical costs and lost wages because of an accident, those would be claimed damages.

To calculate your insurance policy limit, you need to know how much coverage you have on your policy. Most auto policies include $50,000 in liability coverage per person in an accident and $100,000 per accident. If you have more than one vehicle insured under the same policy, you will also get additional coverage. For example, if you have two cars insured on your policy, each vehicle will have $100,000 in liability coverage per person in an accident and $300,000 per accident.

To get the final amount you can recover from your insurance company, subtract the total of all available medical bills from the total amount of available liability coverage on your policy.

Shared fault means the plaintiff shares some of the blame for their injuries. When there is a shared fault, it can reduce damages or even result in the dismissal of the case.

To determine a shared fault, the attorney will look at two factors:

• The percentage of negligence attributable to each party involved. For example, if one person were 50% responsible for an accident, the other would also be 50% responsible for the same accident.
• The percentage of compensatory damages attributable to each party involved. For example, if you’re 30% responsible for the accident, you will pay 30% of the total compensation, while your partner pays the remaining amount. 

To make certain you receive the fairest amount for your personal injury claim, talk to a lawyer from DWA LAW today. At DWA LAW, we can help calculate your claim and help remove the guesswork from this complex math. 

Book a free consultation today, and we will assign you an expert personal injury lawyer to take you through calculating your personal injury claim.