Calculate Your Personal Injury Settlement Value
“You should be compensated appropriately for an accident that negatively affects your well-being.”
Depending on the circumstances of your accident, you may need to consider the value of the settlement package. Here are some tips for determining how much compensation you may be able to receive after suffering a personal injury.
Factors That May Influence Your Settlement
When it comes to calculating compensation for personal injury, there are a number of factors to consider.
- How much will you expect from the driver at fault when you are in an accident?
- If your treatment period requires you to miss work, will your medical bills increase in the coming weeks or months?
- What will happen to your work income if you miss out on work?
- Is finding a competent lawyer who can help you file a claim going to be challenging?
It is important to know the types of damages you can be compensated for depending on your state before you begin the compensation process.
Damages Covered in Personal Injury Settlements
Arizona law advises that you calculate all the costs incurred during the accident. By calculating these costs, you will have a better chance of generating evidence that will support your compensation claim.
The state of Arizona recognizes three types of damages: economic damages, non-economic challenges, and punitive damages.
Economic Damages
In order to recover damages in a personal injury claim, the claimant must prove that they have suffered economic losses as a result of the negligence of the defendant.
Economic damages cover compensation for all monetary expenses incurred as a result of your injury. The term economic damages refers to damages that can be quantified in monetary terms and may include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity.
While economic damages are typically easier to prove than non-economic damages, both types of damages may be recovered in a personal injury claim. Calculating the total value of these damages is relatively easy through the use of medical receipts and some other formulas.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are the types of losses that are not easily quantified in monetary terms. In a personal injury claim, they may include damages for pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium.
These types of losses can be harder to prove than economic damages, which are directly related to monetary costs such as medical bills and lost income. However, non-economic damages can often have a greater impact on an individual’s quality of life, making them an important part of any personal injury claim.
Non-economic damages affect the victim in the same way as economic damages. In Arizona, the civil justice system permits the victim (or plaintiff, in this case) to file for personal injury settlements for both the economic and non-economic damages.
Punitive Damages
In addition to the compensatory damages previously mentioned, punitive damages may also be awarded to the victim for evil or malicious acts committed by the at-fault party.
Punitive damages usually surpass negligence or accidents that cause injury to the victim. In addition to punishing the defendant, punitive damages serve as a warning to others who may commit misconduct of this nature in the future.
As a general rule, victims of personal injury settlements are not eligible for punitive damages. In Arizona, punitive damages are only awarded when the defendant has shown gross negligence, malicious intent, or wanton conduct.
An experienced personal injury attorney can help ensure that all types of damages are properly considered in any personal injury claim.
How to Calculate Your Personal Injury Settlement Value
Once you know the damages you might be able to recover in a settlement for a personal injury, it is time to figure out the value. It is a good idea to consult your lawyer for a good financial and legal analysis of your settlement value. However, you can use our Personal Injury Settlement Calculator to get an estimate.
To determine a rough estimate of the payout on a typical injury claim in Arizona, attorneys and insurance adjusters apply a certain formula.
The formula goes like this: Economic damages x 1.5 (based on the injury severity) + lost income = Damages
Let’s look at an example that assumes you fractured an arm in a motor collision:
- Your medical expenses equal $10,000.
- The injury made you miss 2 months of work which totals $20,000.
- Total estimated damages would be $30,000.
Does that track? Here’s what your formula would look like:
Medical expenses ($10,000 x 1.5) totaling $15,000 + lost income $20,000 = $30,000.
A common formula used in Arizona to estimate settlement values.
You should note that this formula is just a starting point for determining your settlement value. The personal injury claim settlement amount may increase or decrease based on several factors such as:
- The length of your recovery.
- The permanence of your injury.
- Impact of your injury on your day-to-day life.
Arizona is a comparative negligence state, which means your compensation may be reduced based on how much you contributed to the accident.
Settlement amounts for personal injury claims may also be influenced by factors such as the quality of evidence presented, negligence of the defendants and the willingness of the victims. In order to obtain the best compensation, you need to present quality evidence.
Maximize Your Settlement With Goodnow McKay
If you are utilizing our Personal Injury Settlement Calculator, chances are that you have already experienced enough pain and suffering. Make sure you are pursuing the maximum amount of compensation for any physical and emotional injuries you’ve endured.
Get started now by scheduling your free consultation with our team. We can help you move forward with your accident and injury claim as quickly as possible and recover the compensation you deserve.
