Pain and suffering...how much?

3X med bills is typical (In Kalifornia, anyways). There could be other issues that could enhance the award, but you would need a lawyer to help out with that. My $.02 is to make sure you are being honest with yourself and your claim is not frivolous......Remember the Karma thang!

 

yes and no. i got an insurance settlement about 2 years ago, and it came out to be about a third of the medical bills, which i must admit were pretty high. i think you're only hope of figuring this out is to contact a lawyer. i did and was pretty much told that there's a chance i'd lose, and that the total amount more i could have gotten would probably wind up being his. just my .02.

 

There is no exact formula. For a typical soft tissue injury "whiplash" type case 3 to 5 times medicals is a good rule on thumb for a lay person to use. However, a multitude of other factors go into evaluating the value of a personal injury claim including, type of injury(diagnosis and prognosis), severity of impact, duration of time until first treatment sought, type of treatment sought(MD or DC), aggravation circumstances such as was the at fault party DUI, talking on cell phone, been involved in several prior at fault accident, prior criminal record, the injured party's pre-existing conditions and prior claims, venue and many more. A PI case has no intrinsic value but is rather worth what a jury would give you at trial if the case is not settled. So, you need to research on what juries in the proper venue of your accident on average award in cases with similar facts and injuries as yours...then demand 3 times that amount from the insurance carrier...after a few weeks of negotiation the adjuster's final offer should be close to that venue's jury award average. Good luck...

 

Augment:

About three years ago in my 4-Runner, I braked hard for a Jeep in front of me that stopped for stomething stupid. I hit the back of the drivers Jeep at about two miles an hour. You could hardly see any damage * (Scratch on tire holder). She got out of the Jeep and told me her neck hurt. During this 'Oh so violent crash', her Jeep tapped the car in front of her, her boyfriend (A city cop) in a mini truck with the tail gate down that made a quarter-sized dent on his tailgate (*Took out her front-left turn signal).

Her boyfriend told me that this is the 5th such accident she has had in two years (I smelled a rat). Well, low and behold, I get a letter from my insurance company stating that they were being sued by the girl in the Jeep and I ended up with a claim for 'Bodily Injury' (Yes, I was cited for the accident). I tried to fight the claim with my insurance company and they basically told me to pound sand! At the sceen, I told the Jeep driver and the cop that I would pay for the damages out of my own pocket if I was not cited. He was a jerk and told me that he has a fellow cop on the way to make an investigation, cite me and take his horribly injured girlfriend to the hospital (and probably to some abulance chasing lawyer to see how much they can milk out of my insurance company).

 

If they get caught, pain and suffering will have a new meaning for them.

 

Her neck hurt instantaneously? Buuuuuuuuulllllllllll****.

 

How much did end up paying

 

I asked that of my insurance company and they stated they could not tell me (Which I call BS on). If I pushed it, I could probably get the information and push the issue. The other side of makig a case out of it is the fact that I live in a small town. Know what I mean?