Why Most Personal Injury Claims Are Worth Very Little
Most personal injury claims are worth very little. I'll explain why. Now I know what you may be thinking: I see billboards everywhere that show huge settlements. Here's the deal: those big settlements are not the average settlement. Often, the advertised settlement is one of the lawyer's best settlements. They're showing you their best work.
I heard a great saying at a personal injury seminar over 15 years ago. It still holds true today: "When a plane lands, it doesn't make the news." This means that common events do not make the news. Thus, you are not going to see the most common settlements on billboards or the news or TV. If they were, I wouldn't have to make these videos. I could be at a resort sipping a pina colada. Can you please bring me another one?
Soft Tissue Injuries
Let's start by looking at soft tissue injuries. These are injuries where you have pain but you don't have a broken bone or tear in your ligament or tendon. Examples of soft tissue injuries are pain in your neck, your back, your shoulder, or your knee. On your best day, you're typically looking at a $25,000 settlement. However, this assumes that six things happen:
- Someone else is clearly at fault for the accident.
- There is a lot of damage to the vehicles (assuming it's a car accident).
- You got medical treatment shortly after the accident.
- Your out-of-pocket medical bills are big.
- The other driver has bodily injury liability insurance or you have uninsured motorist insurance.
- You're dealing with one of the better insurance companies.
For example, I represented O'Dallas and her son in a car accident. She and her son were rear-ended. I settled each of their personal injury cases for $25,000. But that was only because they had all six of those factors in their case:
- Another driver crashed into the back of the car that O'Dallas and her son were in.
- There was a lot of damage to the vehicles.
- They took an ambulance to the hospital, which means they got treatment shortly after the accident.
- They didn't have health insurance, so their out-of-pocket medical bills were big.
- The other driver had bodily injury liability insurance.
- We were dealing with a good insurance company: AAA Auto Club South.
Another factor pushed the at-fault driver's insurance company to pay $25,000 to each injured person: the per-accident policy bodily injury liability limits were $50,000. This means the most that the insurance company had to pay to all the injured people combined was $50,000. That insurance company made the decision to pay the claim and be done with the case.
Typical Settlement Outcomes
Now, getting a $25,000 settlement for soft tissue injuries is usually your best day. On the flip side, most car accident settlements are small. A few years ago, GEICO's confidential documents were revealed. Their average payout was about $14,000 for personal injury. It gets worse if there is little damage to the cars involved in the accident, and you just have pain in your neck, back, shoulder, or knee. You might not get more than $1,000 or $2,000.
Broken Bones
If you have a broken bone, your best day is likely a $105,000 settlement. This is because the settlement value of pain and suffering for most broken bones is worth much less than $100,000. Insurance companies know this.
Factors Affecting Higher Settlements
FAQs
- What factors affect the value of a personal injury settlement?
- How are soft tissue injuries compensated?
- What is the typical payout for a broken bone injury?