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You are here: Home / Personal Injury / How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth? Settlement Formula

October 31, 2020 By Justin Ziegler, Lawyer 13 Comments

How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth? Settlement Formula

Calculating a Florida injury settlement

If someone else’s negligence causes your injury in a Florida accident, or on a cruise or boat, you may want to know how much your case is worth.

Formula Applies If Someone Else is At Fault

Careful. Careless.

This article applies to car accidents, motorcycle wrecks, truck crashes, slip or trip and falls, bike accidents, pedestrian accidents, cruise ship accidents, dog bites and many other types of accidents in Florida.

Formula Doesn’t Apply if Your Employer is Only 1 LiableDoesn't Apply to Work Accidents

The settlement formula usually doesn’t apply if your employer is the only one responsible for your injuries.

Formula Applies if Someone Other Than Your Employer is Liable; Even If You’re Working

However, if you are injured on the job in Florida you may also have a personal injury claim for damages in addition to a workers compensation claim.

Although it is not an exact science, there is a general formula that is used to calculate the settlement value of a personal injury case.

If Both Sides Evaluate Case Right, It Should Settlecircles settlement in middle

If both the injured person and the insurer calculate the fair value of the case correctly, it should settle.  The above diagram shows that a fair settlement is where both the claimant and the insurer’s evaluations overlap.

Basic Personal Injury Case Settlement FormulaFlorida Accident Settlement Calculator

The very basic version of a settlement formula in a Florida personal injury case is:

Settlement = (Full Value of Damages) x (100% – % Chance of Losing Case) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

Need to Know Every Part of Settlement Formula

If you don’t know any part of this formula, you settlement calculation will be way off.  Let’s take a look at each of the parts of the formula.

1st Step. Get Full Value of Your DamagesFull

The first step to determine the final injury claim settlement value is to figure out the full value of the case.  

Full Value = Out of pocket medical bills (or liens) + Lost wages + Pain and Suffering

Example of Full Value from $210,000 Settlement for Labrum Tear

Front Damage to Negligent Driver's Truck

Let’s take a case where a driver got $210,000 for a labrum tear and a herniated disc.  Let’s look at what the full value was in that case.  I’ll round off the real amounts to keep it simple.

The full value of the out of pocket medical bills were $60,000, and the lost wages were $70,000.  I estimated the pain and suffering component at $160,000.

A quick word about pain and suffering…

Pain and suffering is the toughest part of compensation to estimate.  However, there are some general rules when estimating pain and suffering.  For example, every injury lawyer knows that surgery increases the full value of pain and suffering.

Another general rule is that the pain and suffering  fracture is worth more than pain without a fracture.  Thus, someone’s who has a broken leg has a higher pain and suffering value than just leg pain.

Also, some companies pay more for pain and suffering than others. For example, GEICO, State Farm, and  Progressive all offer less money for pain and suffering than USAA.

Ok. Let’s get back to the full value formula.

Here is the formula to calculate the full value:

Out of pocket medical bills (or liens) + Lost wages + Pain and Suffering

Now, let’s plug in the amounts.

$60,000 + $70,000 + $160,000

Full Value = $290,000

2nd Step. Figure Out Odds that Defense Wins

You need to estimate the percentage chance of a defense verdict or dismissal.

Insurance Company Agreed Its [Insured Driver Was At Fault]

The above example was a rear end accident where the careless driver’s insurer agreed that my client did nothing wrong.

So let’s again look at the above formula from Step 1.

Settlement = (Full Value of Damages) x (100% – % Chance of Losing Case) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

We already calculated the full value of the damages to be $290,000.  We’ll plug that in to the formula:

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – % Chance of Losing Case) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

Since this was a rear end crash, I estimated that there was 0% chance of that a jury would find that the other driver wasn’t negligent.

We’ll plug in that number.

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – 0%) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100%) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

This gets us to the formula below.

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

Difficult to Do Without Experience

In many cases, you likely won’t be able to know this percentage unless you’ve done this hundreds of times.

Easier to Do in Rear End Accident or Passenger Casesrear end damage to car

It’s easiest to estimate the percentage chance of a defense verdict in a rear end car accident.  The chance of a defense verdict is usually zero in a rear end accident.

This is usually true unless the defendant says that you suddenly stopped for no reason.

Step 3. Estimate Your FaultHow Your Fault Affects a Florida Slip and Fall Injury Case Settlement Value

You then need to know your percentage of fault, if any.

In most rear end accidents, the car that is hit from behind isn’t at fault.

The same is true for passengers who are injured in any type of accident. For example, passengers of Uber or Lyft cars usually don’t have their case reduced for their fault.  The exception would be if the passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, or knew that the driver was drunk.

Let’s continue using the formula from above for this rear end accident.

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

We’ll use 0% as your fault as a cause of the crash.

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – Your % of Fault)

Let’s plug in 0%.

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100% – 0%)

Settlement = ($290,000) x (100%)

The fair value of the case was $290,000.

Further Reduce for Difficult Proving Shoulder Injury Caused by Crash

I wanted to keep the above calculation simple.  In the actual case, I cut the pain and suffering component of the shoulder joint tear (glenoid labrum tear) in half.

Since the defense doctor said that the crash didn’t caused the driver’s shoulder tear, I used about $70,000 for the pain and suffering component of the shoulder injury instead of $135,000.  That’s why the actual case settled for about $210,000.

Don’t Use an Online Settlement Calculator

Why You Shouldn't Use an Injury Settlement Calculator

I sometimes use my Florida injury and car accident settlement calculator as a starting point to determine the fair settlement value of a case.  But you shouldn’t use an online settlement calculator.

If you get one part of the formula wrong, the entire formula will be wrong.  You’ll have no idea what a fair settlement is.

Are There Some Injuries For Which It’s Tougher to Calculate Settlement Value?

Yes, it’s more difficult to calculate a fair settlement for a case involving a herniated disc, back pain and many other types of injuries.  This is because the injury could’ve existed before the accident.

76 Factors that Affect an Florida Accident Case Settlement

Factors you know. Ones you don't.

Now is where we factor in the more than 76 factors that can affect a Florida injury case settlement value.

Florida accident victims should hire a lawyer if they are injured

One of the many benefits of hiring an experienced Florida injury lawyer is because they know the amounts that are put into this settlement formula and how to figure out the amounts that are put into the formula.

It has taken me many years to really understand the value of a personal injury case.  It is an art because juries are constantly awarding different verdicts for similar injuries.

Did someone’s carelessness cause your injury in an accident in Florida, or on a cruise or boat? 

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Check out some of the many Florida injury cases that we have settled, including but not limited to car accidents and much more.

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Our Miami law firm represents people injured anywhere in Florida in car accidents, truck accidents, slip, trip and falls and many other types of accidents.

We want to represent you if you were injured in an accident in Florida, on a cruise ship or boat. If you live in Florida but were injured in another state we may also be able to represent you.

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Call us now at (888) 594-3577 to find out for FREE if we can represent you. 

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Filed Under: Personal Injury

I will not become your attorney by you leaving a comment. There is a time limit to file a lawsuit. All comments will be public. This includes the name that you enter. I only represent people who were hurt in Florida or on a cruise ship; or if the injured person lives in Florida or a family member (in the case of a death) lives in Florida. This is because I am only licensed in Florida.

Comments

  1. Luis says

    December 23, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    My mother was injured in her foot while shopping in a supermarket as another customer was trying to pull out a large box from high above her, and the boxes on top of it fell on my mother’s food. At first my mother didn’t think it was serious, so she did not report it to the supermarket. However, a few hours later her foot started hurting a lot, and she couldn’t walk. The next day (today) we took her to the doctor, and she has a hairline fracture on her foot. She can’t even walk well at all, and can’t put any pressure on her foot. Tomorrow we have to take her to an specialist to take care of her injury. Does she have a claim against the store even if that day (yesterday) when the accident happen she didn’t report it?

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler says

      December 24, 2015 at 12:19 am

      Luis:

      Thank you for your question. Yes, she may have a claim against the store even if she didn’t report it immediately.

      She should speak with a personal injury lawyer immediately. There is a time limit to sue or your claim is forever barred. This is not legal advice.

      Reply
  2. christine says

    May 26, 2016 at 7:50 pm

    i was a passger in the car with my daughter can i still get pain and suffering from her insurance company.

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler says

      May 26, 2016 at 8:31 pm

      Christine:

      Thank you for your question.

      Did the accident happen in Florida? Was your daughter driving the car? If not, who was driving the car?

      Disclaimer: You should speak with an injury lawyer immediately. There is a time limit to sue or your claim is forever barred. I’m not your lawyer.

      Reply
  3. jackie says

    June 1, 2016 at 10:08 am

    Hi, I was rear-ended on 5/20/16. Started having lower back soreness about 3 days ago. Other driver’s Ins Co admitted fault and wants to total the car because they can’t fix frame damage. Would you recommend me going to doctor to get checked out?

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler says

      June 1, 2016 at 11:19 am

      Hi Jackie:

      Sorry to hear that you are having back pain. I assume that your rear end car accident happened in Florida.

      My motto is “When in doubt, get checked out.” After a Florida car accident, you should go to the doctor or hospital very quickly after a car accident so that you don’t lose Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits.

      PIP benefits apply in most, but not all, Florida car accident cases.

      If you’re looking to hire a lawyer, please give us a call at 305-661-9977.

      Disclaimer: You should speak with an injury lawyer immediately. There is a time limit to sue or your claim is forever barred. I’m not your lawyer.

      Reply
  4. Y.P. says

    September 26, 2016 at 9:04 am

    Although I’m from Kentucky, I was doing some on-line research on personal injury. This is an excellent website that avoids “legalese” and explains things in a way that the average person can follow. This is a complex area of the law (well, what area isn’t) and it shows the need for a trained individual to help in the majority of cases. (No, I’m not an attorney and no I don’t know/am not related to Mr. Ziegler and/or work for his firm or any company doing business with his firm).

    I have heard the law described by attorneys as a “niche” profession–that is to say, the law is so complex and involved that even attorneys, like doctors, tend to have to concentrate on one area or so of the law in order to keep up with the latest information, court decisions, etc. and in order to be fully effective in court, negotiations, etc. As I said, I don’t know Mr. Ziegler but this website is certainly an indication of someone who is staying on top of things in this complicated area of the law.

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler says

      September 26, 2016 at 12:19 pm

      Y.P.:

      Thank you very much. This is one of the nicest comments/compliments that I’ve received in the past 5 years.

      I do my best to stay up to date on Florida personal injury law. Each state has different laws.

      Some aspects of Florida personal injury law change weekly as judges often issue opinions/decisions that may affect many cases.

      Disclaimer: You should speak with a lawyer immediately. There is a time limit to sue or your claim is forever barred. I’m not your lawyer. This isn’t legal advice.

      Reply
  5. jr says

    April 18, 2017 at 4:22 am

    hi
    i work for a company for 10 years
    fail from the ladder and all weigh of my body hit my left shoulder
    i am on workcomp for a year.
    doctor say i need surgery and they keep sending me to different doctors.
    do i have a case???

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler, Lawyer says

      April 18, 2017 at 1:20 pm

      Hi Jr.

      I’m sorry to hear that you were injured. My response only applies to accidents in Florida, which is where I’m licensed. It seems like you have a case. You should speak with a lawyer immediately.

      If your accident happened in Florida, you can call me at 305-661-9977 to see if I can represent you.

      Disclaimer: There is a time limit to sue. This is not legal advice. I am not your attorney.

      Reply
  6. Zaburoni says

    December 19, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    Hello 👋 am Canadian I had accident on stop 🛑 Someone hit me from behind. My wife hand her injury.
    Concaction and juns and treatment brean back pain.

    Please help me to know how much the will give my wife for settlement
    Now she still in treatment 1 year go from December 31 to now please help me thank you.

    Reply
    • Justin Ziegler, Lawyer says

      December 31, 2018 at 2:45 pm

      Zaburoni:

      Thank you for your question.

      You’ve told me that your a Canadian. I assume this means that you live in Canada.

      Did the accident happen in Canada?

      Unfortunately, I am not licensed in Canada.

      Therefore, I can’t comment on this claim. (I am only licensed in Florida. If the accident happened in Florida, please let me know.)

      You should immediately ask a Canadian lawyer for legal advice.

      I wish you good luck, and hope that your wife feels better.

      Disclaimer: My reply is written for general information only. Individual cases demand individual treatment. I am not your lawyer. My reply is not intended as legal advice or opinion. You should speak with a Canadian lawyer immediately.

      There is a time limit to sue. If you miss the time limit, you forever lose your right to sue.

      Reply
  7. Ton says

    November 18, 2019 at 3:34 pm

    I was driving North bound on Dixie highway in the middle lane going 30 miles per hour and the Broward County city bus was in the right lane and merged into my lane, there for sideswiped my car and he had no business coming into my lane he had another stop ahead of him.

    now my car is deemed a total loss And I have no car, and I have two herniated discs, and what is the laws when it comes to the city bus and I am at no fault that police report came out and the city bus is at 100% fault I have no car my car is my office the bus is 100% wrong

    I have 3 herniated disc how long will this take

    Reply

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