What is the Average Settlement with USAA in a Personal Injury Case?
Over a 3 year period, my average personal injury settlement with USAA was $41,667. (Further below, I talk about my USAA car accident settlements.)
In my career, my average settlement in injury cases with USAA at one point was $63,981. It’s lower now since I had a $10,000 uninsured motorist insurance claim settlement with USAA in 2021. (State Farm paid $25,000 in that case.)
My average settlement with USAA is much higher than my average injury settlement most other car insurance companies combined.
(When calculating my average settlement with USAA, I used the total settlement in cases where USAA was a bodily injury liability (BIL) auto insurance, and there was additional BIL insurance that I recovered from another insurer. For example, I settled a case with USAA for $100,000, but another insurer paid an additional $100,000. I used $200,000 as the settlement figure, even though USAA only paid $100,000.)
There are two reasons that my average injury settlement with USAA has been much higher than my average settlement with all other insurance companies combined.
The first reason is that USAA typically has largerbodily injury liability (BIL) auto insurance policies than many other car insurers. For example, none of my recent USAA settlements have involved a BIL policy with less than $25,000 per person in coverage.
The second reason is that USAA tends to pay better than other car insurance companies. USAA has a reputation for paying better than Progressive (Uber’s insurer in Florida), State Farm and GEICO and Allstate. I’m referring to the personal injury part of a claim.
Can USAA pay out more than the coverage limit?
It depends on the state where the accident happened. For example, Florida has bad faith laws. Bad faith laws put pressure on USAA to pay the policy limits if the case is worth the limits or more.
If USAA fails to pay the coverage limit and protect its insured driver/owner, USAA may be on the hook for the entire judgement (after a verdict).
However, to have a valid bad faith uninsured motorist (UM) insurance claim, the injured party (or his/her attorney) must file a civil remedy notice of insurer violation. Additionally, 60 days must expire after filing the notice against USAA. In other words, USAA has 60 days to cure the bad faith and not face an excess judgment.
Driver Gets $200K Settlement with USAA (and Another Insurer)
Mary (not real name) was driving her car in Miami, Florida. She was heading through a green light. Unbeknownst to her, a driver of another car ran a red light. Mary t-boned the other driver. Mary’s damaged car is above.
An ambulance took Mary to the hospital. An x-ray showed that she had a broken wrist. At the hospital, a doctor performed surgery on her wrist. Specifically, they put a plate and screws put in her wrist.
Shortly after the accident, Mary hired me as her attorney. USAA insured the at-fault driver with a $100,000 bodily injury liability limit. But I didn’t stop there. Through aggressive representation, I was able to discover that the other driver was working at the time of the accident.
This was big news!
Old Dominion (Main Street America Group) insured the employer of the at-fault driver.
Also, surgery greatly increases the full value of a car accident injury case. And this case was no exception. Without surgery, Mary’s case may have settled for under $100,000. If Mary wouldn’t have learned that the at fault driver was working at the time of the crash, she would’ve been limited to a $100,000 settlement.
$100K Settlement with USAA for Bike Rider Hit By Car (Miami-Dade County)
A passenger, Daisy (not real name), was in a car driving down the street in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was daylight outside.
Daisy saw a hose in the middle of the street. She decided that she wanted to get the hose.
The driver (Barbara) of the car that she was in made a u-turn. The driver stopped the car.
Daisy got out of the car and walked to the middle of the street. Thus, she was a pedestrian. She was walking on her way back to the median. Before reaching Barbara’s car, another driver (William) hit her.
USAA insured the driver of the car that hit Daisy. USAA’s first offer was just $30,000! Ultimately, I settled her auto insurance claim with USAA for $70,000.
Here is a settlement check:
On the bottom left of the settlement check, you can see that it says “Fed-Ex Overnight”.
I told the USAA claims adjuster that I would only accept the $70,000 offer if they sent the check via overnight delivery. And they did so. It never hurts to ask.
Here is a comparison between USAA’s first offer and settlement:
Like most cases where a car hits a pedestrian, most of the settlement was for pain and suffering.
I estimate that about $68,057 of the $70,000 settlement was for pain and suffering.
The rest was for the out of pocket medical bills.
After my lawyer fees, costs and paying back my client’s medical bills, I gave her a check for $44,667.
The $70,000 payout was about 36 times the final out of pocket medical bills.
In other words, the pain and suffering multiplier was about 36.
In 2021, Pierre was driving a company car near Orlando, Florida at night. He was heading west. (In the above diagram, Pierre’s car is #2.)
John was driving a van heading East. That car is #2 in the diagram above. Pierre made a left hand turn to pull into a gas station.
While doing so, John’s van hit Pierre’s car almost head on. Pierre claimed that John’s van had its lights off. The crash report said that an independent witness said that he couldn’t see the van.
As a result of the crash, the airbags in Pierre’s car deployed.
Paramedics took Pierre to the hospital.
There, a doctor took an x-ray of his finger.
It showed that his finger was broken.
The doctor put a cast on Pierre’s finger:
USAA insured the other driver on his personal car.
At the time of the accident, the other driver was driving a rental car. However, he didn’t purchase rental car insurance.
Fortunately, Pierre did not need surgery to his finger.
Pierre also had neck pain. An MRI of his neck showed that he had a C6-7 broad based central posterior disc herniation resulting in impingement of the thecal sac.
The same cervical (neck) MRI said that Pierre had straightening of the normal cervical lordotic curvature which can be seen with muscle spasm due to ligamentous sprain and disc Injury.
I got USAA to pay us the other driver’s $50,000 bodily injury liability policy limits.
I think that USAA likely felt that the pain and suffering value of this case was over $36,000. I say this because the final medical bills were almost $14,000.
$10K USAA Car Accident Claim Settlement (State Farm Also Paid $25K)
Sandra’s employer gave her a car to use for work. In August 2020, Sandra was driving east in Crestview (near Pensacola), Florida. Daniel was in a car heading south. He ran a stop sign.
As a result, the front of Sandra’s car struck the passenger side of Daniel’s car.
You can see the damage to Sandra’s car here:
You can see the actual diagram from the crash report here:
State Farm insured Daniel’s car (#1 in the diagram) with $25,000 in bodily injury liability insurance coverage.
After the accident, Sandra had back and neck pain. She said that her workers’ compensation insurance company gave her limited information about how wage loss worked.
Sandra searched Google for how wage loss works with workers’ compensation. She found my website my website. She got a free consultation with me.
Sandra was working at the time of her accident. Thus, her workers’ compensation paid all of her medical bills.
In February 2021, I got State Farm to pay me its driver’s $25,000 BIL insurance policy limits. You can see the settlement check:
This was about 6 months after the car accident.
It gets better:
USAA insured Sandra’s personal car with $10,000 of uninsured motorist insurance coverage. At the time of this accident, Sandra was not driving her personal car. However, her underinsured motorist insurance (from her personal car) covered her for this accident.
In February 2021, I got USAA to pay me Sandra’s $10,000 limit of uninsured motorist coverage.
Normally, you have to pay back the workers’ compensation insurance company from your personal injury settlement. However, they must reduce their claim (lien) by your attorney’s fees and costs and other factors.
Here, Sandra’s workers’ compensation lawyer got the workers comp insurer to waive it’s lien. Sandra was happy with our personal injury settlement.
Sandra also settled a workers’ compensation claim with her employer’s insurance company.
$30K Settlement for Meniscus Tear from Orlando Car Crash
The 29-year-old man claimed that the accident caused his herniated disc with impingement. The careless driver was driving a friend’s vehicle at the time of the accident. State Farm paid its policy limits of $10,000.
The car that the claimant was in (“host car”) had UM coverage with USAA. USAA paid $9,850.
USAA Offers $44,500, Gets Hit With $173,250 Judgment for Golf Cart Accident Case
Boca Raton, Florida
Look:
I’ve said that USAA pays better than the other big auto insurers in Florida. However, they still pay less than the fair value of the case. Here is one example.
This isn’t my case. Roslyn Posner claimed that on January 13, 2009, Linda Berger-Buvitt ran a stop sign at the intersection of the golf cart path and pedestrian sidewalk.
Posner was allegedly 82 years old at the time of the crash. USAA insured Berger-Buvitt.
Posner also sued The Polo Club for failing to maintain the bushes in the area. Berger-Buvitt blamed the bushes for blocking her line of sight. Zurich insured The Polo Club.
USAA offered $44,500 to Mrs. Posner to settle her personal injury case. She didn’t accept this offer. At trial, the jury found Posner 25% at fault.
The good news for her?
They found USAA’s insured, Berger-Buvitt, 75% at fault. Thus, after reducing the value for Posner’s fault, she got a $173,250 judgment against USAA’s insured.
This is crazy:
Settlement isn’t an exact science. However, USAA’s offer was too low by $128,750. It’s not like USAA’s offer was off by $1,200. Or even $12,800.
USAA was off by over $128,000!
Point this case out to USAA the next time they try to lowball you.
Wife’s Death Results in $10 Million Dollar Judgment Against USAA Insured
This is not my case. USAA issued an automobile insurance policy to Andrew Booth Buckman.
In November 2010, Buckman was involved in an automobile accident that resulted in the death of Dennis Lee Kemp’s wife. Kemp sued Buckman for wrongful death in a Florida state court. He got a $10 million dollar judgment against Buckman.
USAA Offers $100K to Settle Injury from Fall (from Dog Encounter)
This is not my case. In 2011, a claimant sustained personal injuries when the claimant fell. She fell after an encounter with dogs owned by Colleen Brennan, a USAA insured.
The claimant made a pre-suit demand for the $100,000 policy limit of Brennan’s insurance policy. USAA accepted the demand and tendered its check for the policy limits.
Rather than cashing USAA’s settlement check, the claimant, in March 2013, filed a personal injury lawsuit against Brennan. She sued Brennan and others in the Palm Beach County.
USAA Argues That PIP Doesn’t Have to Pay Off a Workers’ Compensation Lien
If you have PIP insurance with USAA, and were working at the time of a car accident, should you still give all of your medical providers your USAA PIP information?
Yes. Even if workers’ compensation pays your bills and/or lost wages.
Otherwise, USAA may argue that USAA PIP doesn’t have to pay a workers compensation lien. USAA is has a reputation for making this argument.
If a court agrees with USAA, this would put less money in your pocket.
Hit by a Drunk Driver Insured With USAA (Claims and Settlements)
What happens if a drunk driver (insured with USAA) hits you and injures you?
Either way, you want to make a personal injury protection (PIP) and Medpay claim with your car insurance company. You should give your PIP and Medpay information to the hospital.
If you are from out of state and you’re in a Florida car accident, you may or may not have PIP. It may depend on whose car you were in at the time of the accident. If you were in your own car (from another state), you need to see whether your out of state car insurance covers you with PIP. It will depend on the language in your auto insurance policy.
Either way, the hospital should bill your PIP or Medpay coverage before your health insurance. Failure to give your PIP or Medpay insurance to the hospital can delay your settlement. Also, give the hospital your health insurance information.
If Medpay pays your medical bills, your car insurance company may be entitled to get reimbursed. One of the 13 advantages to hiring a personal injury lawyer is that a Medpay insurer often has to reduce the amount that you’ll pay it back by your attorney’s fees and costs. In Florida, the Medpay insurer must do this. Thus, if you have an attorney, you get a benefit. If you don’t have an attorney, you don’t get this benefit.
The solution is simple:
Get an attorney.
If you’re from another state, whether you’ll have to pay back Medpay may depend on the other state law.
If the DUI driver who hit you has BIL coverage, this is good news. DUI means driving under the influence. Of course, you can make a claim with the DUI driver’s insurance company for your out of pocket medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering. This assumes that the DUI driver’s carelessness caused your injury.
You can also tell USAA that you are also making a claim for punitive damages against the DUI driver. A Florida auto insurance policy won’t cover punitive damages against the DUI driver. However, USAA as a duty to settle claims against the drunk driver if it could and should.
A punitive damage claim increases the full value of the personal injury case against a drunk driver. Thus, a punitive damages claim against the drunk driver adds pressure for USAA to settle for more money (and quicker).
USAA May Not Be Able to Remove an Uninsured Motorist Insurance Cases To Federal Court
Many car insurers like to remove UM injury cases from state court to federal court. They believe that having a UM injury case in federal court means that they will owe less money than if the case was in state court.
Different rules of procedure apply in federal court. If you sue USAA for uninsured motorist insurance benefits, they may be able to remove your case to federal court. It will depend which USAA entity you sue.
Look at the USAA declarations page to see if USAA is listed as United Services Automobile Association (“A Reciprocal Interinsurance Exchange”). If they are, they won’t be able to remove the case to federal court. This is because its members it is a reciprocal with its members everywhere so they cannot remove.
However, USAA owns at least one incorporated insurer, that is incorporated in Texas, and they can remove the lawsuit to federal court. I know a personal injury lawyer who says that this USAA will remove when they want to, based on how they feel about the state court judge assigned to the case.
USAA is more likely to remove to federal court if they think that the state court judge is more liberal (leaning towards favoring the plaintiff as opposed to an insurance company) in his/her decisions. USAA General Indemnity Company is an incorporated insurer who can remove personal injury lawsuits to federal court.
I also believe that USAA Insurance Inc. can remove injury claims to federal court.
Is Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Company the same as USAA?
Yes. Although they are different businesses, your claim is basically handled the same way, and by a USAA adjuster.
In Florida, USAA issues liability policies as:
USAA Casualty Insurance Company
USAA General Indemnity Company
Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Company
You can go to Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Company Search to get USAA’s current mailing address for Florida claims.
You can go to A.M. BEST to get USAA’s main fax number.
However, sending a fax to the main corporate office may not speed up a claim. From my experience, USAA adjusters do not give out their email address.
As with larger insurers, USAA adjusters tend to me more educated than adjusters at smaller insurers.
You can call USAA at 1-800-531-USAA (8722) to report a car accident claim.
However, I can’t emphasize this enough…
An injured person should not give a recorded statement if he or she is making a claim against someone who USAA insures.
Why not?
The injured person doesn’t legally have to. The statement can be used against them. It can decrease the full value of the case.
As with every insurance company, the representative will ask you some basic questions.
The USAA representative will then give you a claim number. The claim will be assigned to a particular adjuster. If you have a more serious injury, the claim will be assigned to a higher level adjuster.
USAA Claims Adjusters Tend to Be Nice
The USAA insurance claims adjusters whom I’ve dealt with have been nice. Below are just a few of them:
PIP
Christine Gutierrez Southeast Regional Office USAA General Indemnity Company
Many others
I’ve had claims with USAA bodily injury liability adjusters Kathy Gegan, Jodi Weaver, and Shannon Luker and many others.
What types of liability insurance does USAA offer?
USAA also offers enters Insurance, Homeowner Insurance, Rental Property Insurance, Home and Property Insurance, Umbrella Insurance, Motorcycle, RV and Boat Insurance, and Small Business Insurance.
Did someone’s carelessness cause your injury in a Florida car crash or other type of accident?
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 2013 and has been completely revamped and updated.
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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.
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