SettlementCalculatorPersonal Injury & Legal Estimators
Home / Car Accident Settlement Calculator

Car Accident Settlement Calculator

Plug in your bills, wages, and property damage to see the kind of number a demand letter would open with, and the bracket an adjuster might counter inside. Educational only, built to prep a conversation, not to replace one with an attorney.

Details

1.5 = minor soft tissue; 2.5 = moderate; 4-5 = severe or permanent

Results

Estimated settlement--
Economic damages--
Pain and suffering--
Typical range--

Estimates only.

The short answer

Priya Raman
By Priya Raman, Contributing Writer, Policy & Regulation
Updated 2026-07-03

A demand letter needs two numbers an adjuster can check against your file: what you can document, and what you're asking for beyond it. This tool builds both, plus the typical bracket an insurer might counter with.

What adjusters look at before they name a number

Before an adjuster runs any formula, they read your medical file for gaps. A claimant who saw a doctor once and stopped looks very different from one with continuous treatment through discharge. A clean crash report and clear vehicle photos matter too, mostly because they head off any later argument that the impact was too minor to have caused what you're claiming. Only once that groundwork checks out does the arithmetic below start to matter.

What this tool totals as economic damages: medical bills, lost wages, and property damage. All three go in the demand letter; only the first two feed the pain and suffering line below.

Turning your bills into a demand figure

Medical bills and lost wages get multiplied by a severity factor to produce a pain and suffering number, then added back to your full economic total including property damage. The multiplier field defaults to 2.5, a middle setting; drop it toward 1.5 for a strain that resolved in weeks, or push it toward 5 for an injury with lasting restrictions and a clear surgical record.

Multiplier this tool allowsWhat it's built for
1.5Minor, fully resolved soft-tissue injury
2.5 (default)Moderate injury, months of active treatment
5.0Severe or permanent impairment

Where the number gets negotiated down

An adjuster's first counter is usually anchored near the low end of a plausible range, not because your claim lacks merit but because that is how opening offers work. Comparative fault, if any, gets applied after the injury value is set, and the at-fault driver's coverage ceiling can leave a strong file collecting less than it's worth on paper. None of that changes the math above; it changes what happens to the number afterward.

What this estimate leaves out

This is a starting range built from three inputs and a multiplier, nothing more. It does not know your state's fault rules, the at-fault driver's policy limits, or how a specific adjuster reads your file. Treat it as a number to test against an actual offer, not a prediction of one.

Related calculators

Good to know

Common questions about car accident settlements

What number should go in a car accident demand letter?

Lead with what you can prove: medical bills, wage-loss documentation, and repair or replacement estimates. State that total plainly, then let how long treatment ran and whether the injury left lasting limits set your general-damages ask. Adjusters check whether your number is consistent with your own medical file before they engage with it at all.

How do adjusters bracket their first offer?

Most carriers start with your economic total, then apply an internal severity scale, often through claims software, to arrive at a general damages figure well under what a demand letter asked for. The opening number is a bracket floor, not a final word. It is built to leave room for one or two rounds of negotiation before either side commits to a figure.

Why do two similar crashes settle so differently?

Liability clarity and documentation quality separate them more than the crash itself. A rear-end collision with a clean police report and continuous treatment records settles faster and higher than a disputed-fault crash with treatment gaps, even when the underlying medical bills are close in size.

Does vehicle damage affect the injury portion of the claim?

Property damage is paid as its own line item and is not folded into the pain and suffering math. It can still matter indirectly: insurers sometimes point to minor vehicle damage to argue an injury could not have been severe, so photos and a body shop estimate are worth keeping even if the repair cost itself never touches the pain number.

How much does shared fault cost you?

In a pure comparative fault state, a claim worth $80,000 with 20 percent of the blame assigned to you settles closer to $64,000. Some states cut off recovery entirely once your share passes 50 or 51 percent. Fault percentage is negotiated separately from injury value and can move a final number more than the medical bills do.

Can this tool tell me what to accept?

No. It produces a starting range from the inputs you give it. Jurisdiction, policy limits, liability disputes, and the quality of your records all move the real number in ways a calculator cannot see. Run any real offer past a licensed personal injury attorney before you sign a release.