Personal Injury Case Settlement Calculator

Calculating Settlement Value of a Case

If you’re calculating the settlement value of a case, our calculator can help you predict how much your case is worth. After you enter a few key pieces of information, our calculator will estimate your case value. Start by entering your medical expenses, property damage, and lost wages, which are your economic damages. The calculator will then estimate your non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering.

We’d like to share a note of caution. Be aware that most calculators use overly simplified assumptions or are simply designed to lure you in, and so may not provide accurate values.

Before using the settlement calculator, bear in mind that we provide free and confidential consultations with experienced personal injury attorneys, we can help you develop the best estimate for your case’s worth. At best, our calculator is only capable of estimating how much your case might be worth. To understand the full range of outcomes, it’s better to consult with a lawyer.

Case Settlement Calculator

Every Personal Injury Case Is Unique

When calculating the settlement value of a case, you must understand that every case is unique and no two cases have the same value. Depending on how severe the injuries are, the potential for future injury or if someone was killed in the accident, your case could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

A talented Indianapolis personal injury lawyer can make a more precise calculation of your case based on three significant factors. The three key factors in determining the value of a personal injury lawsuit are:

  1. Who is at fault?
  2. What are the damages?
  3. Who should pay?

Let’s look at each of these factors in detail so you can understand their impact on your total case value.

 

Who’s at Fault?

In Indiana, personal injury cases operate under the law of comparative negligence. This means that everyone’s role will be evaluated and their blame assigned according to their proportional contribution. You will have partial responsibility for causing your own injuries even if you didn’t intend it or were completely innocent.

If you are partially responsible for an accident, your award will be reduced based on the percentage that you were at fault. For example, if you’re 50% to blame and injury compensation is $1 million, it would reduce to $500k.

When you use a settlement calculator, it does not typically take into account negligence. It is difficult for an internet site to know how much blame or fault you have for an accident. You cannot just enter your best guess and expect accurate results.

In the end, it’s an insurance company, arbitrator, judge, or jury that decides. A personal injury lawyer helps make your case strong and ensures a positive outcome.

What are the Damages?

Medical expenses are a large factor when considering how much your settlement will be. The higher the bills and conditions, the larger your settlement may be.

For example, if you were in a car accident caused by a drunk driver, the police would be responsible for charging them with the crime of driving while intoxicated. However, there may also be an option to hold them civilly liable for your injuries – this could be done by filing suit against them through a personal injury claim.

Your injury damages include your past and future medical expenses, lost time from work, inability to do your normal chores, lost enjoyment of your activities plus any property damage that occurred. Your injuries also include pain and suffering which can be extreme after a severe accident but are hard for an online calculator to measure.

Another important factor that is not accounted for in a settlement calculator is lost wages. A stay-at-home mom’s contribution to her family, which cannot be quantified monetarily, is not considered at all; the same goes for self-employment or investment bankers, neither of which have tangible wage information available.

Personal injury settlement calculators exist to help people predict the worth of their case. Their accuracy, however, depends on the input you use – if any of those pieces of information are incorrect, such as medical expenses and pain and suffering, your estimate will be inaccurate.

Who Should Pay?

Now let’s talk about who should be paying for your damages. In most car accident cases, the insurance company is the one who pays. Insurance companies that have a vested interest in keeping their settlement payments to their policyholders as low as possible often hire hard-ball adjusters and high-powered attorneys to minimize their payout obligations.

Insurance companies will only pay out the policy limit, which is typically much less than you need to cover all of your damages.

Unfortunately, that’s because most drivers don’t carry enough insurance to cover a claim. Therefore, if your damages exceed what they are insured for and you can’t recover any of it from the insurer; chances are good you will be receiving just a fraction of the compensation awarded in court.

As you fill in the calculator with your medical expenses, property damage, and lost wages, the calculator will estimate your non-economic damages to help give a better idea of what you may be eligible for. This includes pain and suffering. But don’t give up! There are still ways to end up with a high-value settlement.

Get A Much More Accurate Case Settlement Estimate

Keep in mind that every judge’s decision may vary and it is impossible to predict the outcome of your case ahead of time.

In other words, there’s no way to know your exact settlement value ahead of time. Any lawyer who tells you differently is not being truthful. This is why online calculators tend to give inaccurate results, either overestimating or underestimating the value of your case.

Online personal injury calculators are a great starting point, but they should not be relied upon to calculate the value of your case. Instead, contact Crossen Law Firm for a free consultation with one of our experienced and qualified attorneys. They will assess your legal position and advise you on how best to proceed.