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Claim valuation

How much is my personal injury claim worth?

LegalZoom
8 min read
The short answer
Most personal injury claims are valued by adding up economic damages - medical bills, future care, and lost income - then multiplying that total by a severity multiplier between 1.5x and 5x to account for pain and suffering. The result is reduced by your share of fault and capped by state statute where one applies.
Key takeaways
  • Claim value = economic damages + (economic damages × severity multiplier), adjusted for fault and statutory caps.
  • The multiplier runs 1.5x for minor soft-tissue injuries up to 5x for permanent or catastrophic injuries.
  • Property damage is added at the end and never multiplied - a common error that inflates DIY estimates.
  • Future medical care and reduced earning capacity are the two damages claimants most often omit entirely.
  • Industry claims data puts the average third-party bodily injury payout at $27,373 per injured person, which skews low because it includes minor claims.

Why there is no lookup table for claim value

Roughly three out of four tort cases settle out of court, and settlement agreements are almost always private. There is no public register of what claims like yours settled for, which is why any tool promising to match your case against a database of real settlements is either using a paid licensed feed or estimating.

What the industry actually uses is a valuation formula. It has been applied by plaintiff firms and insurance adjusters for decades, and it is transparent enough that you can run it yourself. The rest of this guide walks through it step by step.

Step 1: Add up your economic damages

Economic damages are the losses with a receipt attached. They form the base that every other number is built on, so documentation quality drives your entire valuation.

What counts as economic damages

  • Medical expenses already billed - emergency care, imaging, surgery, physical therapy, prescriptions.
  • Estimated future medical care - additional surgeries, ongoing therapy, assistive devices, lifetime care for permanent conditions.
  • Lost income to date - missed wages, used PTO, and self-employment income you could not earn.
  • Reduced future earning capacity - relevant when you cannot return to the work you did before.

Step 2: Apply the severity multiplier

Pain and suffering is calculated by multiplying your economic damages by a factor scaled to how severe and lasting the injury is. These are the five tiers, and they are the same tiers our calculator uses.

Severity tier
Multiplier
Typical profile
minor
1.5x – 2x
Soft-tissue injury (sprain, strain, minor whiplash)
moderate
2x – 3x
Fractures without lasting complication, moderate whiplash, herniated disc without surgery
serious
3x – 4x
Injury requiring surgery, significant fractures, or long-term rehabilitation
severe or permanent
4x – 5x
Traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, loss of limb, significant disfigurement
catastrophic outlier
5x and up
Multipliers above 5x are rare and typically reserved for the most catastrophic cases with egregious defendant conduct

Source: EvenUp Law - How to Calculate Personal Injury Settlement Value. The multiplier is judgment-based practitioner convention, not a figure published by any official body.

Every claim is different. Find out what yours could be worth.

A few details about your accident can help you understand what your claim may be worth. Answer a few quick questions to get an estimate based on what happened and where it took place.

Start your estimate

Is the multiplier a legally fixed number?

No, and any source implying otherwise is overselling it. No government or court body publishes an authoritative multiplier table. The 1.5x-to-5x range is a synthesis of widely published practitioner guidance, and where your case lands inside a tier is a negotiation, not a calculation.

Multipliers above 5x do exist, typically where the defendant's conduct was egregious, but they are rare enough that they belong in a conversation with an attorney rather than in an automated estimate.

Step 3: Subtract your share of fault

Your gross figure is then reduced by whatever percentage of fault is assigned to you - and in a handful of states, any fault at all can eliminate the claim entirely. This is the single largest source of variation between two otherwise identical injuries in different states, and it is covered in detail in our guide on liability.

Step 4: Apply any statutory cap

Some states cap non-economic damages in ordinary personal injury claims, still others cap the total recovery rather than just the pain-and-suffering portion.

At times a cap can change, several state caps have been struck down as unconstitutional with no replacement enacted, including general tort caps. In other states the constitution prohibits capping personal injury recovery outright.

A worked example

A moderate car accident claim in Texas, with no fault assigned to the claimant.

Step
Calculation
Running total
Medical bills to date
-
$15,000
Estimated future care
-
$7,500
Lost income
-
$6,000
Economic damages subtotal
15,000 + 7,500 + 6,000
$28,500
Pain and suffering
$28,500 × 2.0x to 3.0x (moderate tier)
$57,000 – $85,500
Gross estimate
28,500 + 57,000 to 85,500
$85,500 – $114,000
Fault reduction
0% fault - no reduction
$85,500 – $114,000
Statutory cap
No general-PI cap documented in Texas
$85,500 – $114,000

Change one input - the state, the severity tier, or the fault percentage - and this figure moves substantially. That sensitivity is the point.

What this method cannot tell you

The formula does not know your insurance policy limits, and in practice those cap most settlements regardless of what a claim is theoretically worth. It does not weigh your evidence, the credibility of your medical records, gaps in treatment, or the jurisdiction's jury tendencies. It cannot account for a disputed liability picture.

Treat the output as a planning range that tells you whether you are being offered something reasonable - not as a number to quote to an adjuster.

Frequently asked questions

How is pain and suffering calculated in a personal injury claim?

Pain and suffering is most commonly calculated with the multiplier method: your total economic damages are multiplied by a factor between 1.5x and 5x based on injury severity. An alternative per-diem method multiplies a daily rate, usually your pre-injury daily wage, by the number of days of recovery. The two methods are alternatives, not additive.

What is the average personal injury settlement?

Auto insurance claims data from CCC Intelligent Solutions put the average third-party bodily injury payout at $27,373 per injured person as of Q4 2024. That figure skews low because it includes a large volume of minor claims, so it is better used as a sanity check than as a benchmark for a serious injury.

Does a higher medical bill always mean a bigger settlement?

Usually yes, because medical expenses form the base that the pain-and-suffering multiplier is applied to. But treatment must be documented, medically necessary, and free of unexplained gaps. Inflated or poorly documented billing invites the adjuster to challenge causation and can reduce the total.

Should I include my car repair cost in my claim value?

Include it in your final total but not in the base you multiply. Practitioner convention treats property damage as a separate line item because the multiplier is meant to compensate bodily injury and suffering. Multiplying repair costs is a common error that overstates claim value.

Can I calculate my claim value myself?

You can produce a defensible planning range yourself using the multiplier method, and our free calculator runs exactly this pipeline in about two minutes. What you cannot do alone is verify your state's current damage caps, negotiate the fault percentage, or know your realistic policy-limit ceiling - which is where an attorney changes the outcome.

Not sure which of these applies to you?

A free consultation sorts it out faster than reading. An attorney licensed in your state can confirm your filing deadline, tell you what fault share to expect, and give you a realistic range in one call.
Speak with an attorney at LegalZoom
Sources
Keep reading
How do I deal with the adjuster?
Who is actually liable - and which policies pay?
Do I need a personal injury lawyer?
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Damage caps, comparative fault rules, and filing deadlines vary by state and change over time. Confirm the figures that apply to your claim with an attorney licensed in your state.

This tool is informational and not legal advice. Estimates are calculated from publicly documented settlement methodology and aggregate industry statistics, and are not a prediction or guarantee. Outcomes depend on facts not captured here. © 2000-2026 LegalZoom.com, Inc. · Terms · Privacy choices