Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Metro Verdicts Monthly provides the following data to give the median (not average) settlement and verdicts for ankle fracture injuries:

District of Columbia: $66,000

Virginia: $21,700

This is a sample demand letter in a relatively small case with approximately $8,000 in medical bills.

But this personal injury car accident case settled for a lot more than any kind of simple multiplier of medical bills.

This “times special damages math” where you try to determine a settlement amount with a formula is dangerous. It often causes plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers (and victims) to substantially undervalue a claim.

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This post looks at the average settlement amount in back injury car accident claims. I last updated this page on December 14, 2021.

Let’s start with a few statistics.  A verdicts and settlements database found that the median plaintiff’s verdict award for motor vehicle cases that involved back injuries is $212,500.

For all car, truck, and motorcycle accident injury cases in the database that earned a plaintiff’s verdict, the median award is $300,000.

We buy car insurance hoping we never need to go through the process of submitting a claim. When accidents happen, we hope the claims process is smooth and simple.  Seems like a reasonable expectation because you or the at-fault driver paid your premium every month in a way that made it smooth and simple for the insurance company.  But it does not work that way, right?

There are several reasons that your claim may be denied. This denial can often cause a significant financial strain on you and your family. . If you’ve recently been in a car accident, you may be counting on the money from the insurance claim to pay medical and other bills.

If your claim has been denied, you need to figure out quickly why and what you can do to get the money you deserve.

How fast am I driving?

The one thing defendants (and plaintiffs, for that matter) consistently screw up at deposition is time, speed, and distance calculations. The don’t know how fast they were driving and, if they do, they don’t screw it up with their time distance calculation.

• Learn more about crash speed calculations and how they are used in car accident cases

I like many GEICO adjusters and lawyers.  I like Warren Buffett.  But I don’t like GEICO. This new opinion by a California appellate court in Mazik v. GEICO after a jury slapped GEICO reminds me why.

Mazik v. GEICO Facts

The plaintiff suffered a crushing type of foot fracture of his left calcaneus (heel) in a car crash.  This is a tough injury. We can all agree that the value of an injury like this is more than $100,000, right?  The plaintiff received policy limits of $50,000 from the at-fault driver’s insurer.  The plaintiff sought an additional $50,000 from GEICO for underinsured motorist coverage (his policy was more than the at-fault driver).  The plaintiff accident attorney says he asked GEICO four times to pay the policy limits.  But GEICO refused.

After a night on the town, a taxi is no longer your only option to get back home. Uber, and other “ride-sharing” companies, have given the taxi companies a run for their money by offering cheap(er) and easier transportation. The idea is great: link drivers and those in need of a ride via a smartphone app, allow them to communicate with the tap of a finger, and get rid of on-the-spot payment.

Riders are happy because they can get from A to B cheaper and faster.  Drivers are happy because they can earn a living (or extra money) as a cab driver without dealing with the logistics of a cab company which have been historically some of America’s worst run businesses.  Of course, Uber is happy too because they make so much profit by brokering the transaction that their company may be worth as much as $40 billion.

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Last week, after a three day trial, a jury awarded a Vancouver man $1.3 million dollars for injuries suffered in a Hillsboro traffic crash in 2011.

The defendant driver was driving a commercial truck toward the plaintiff when he turned left at a flashing yellow traffic light that gave the plaintiff the right of way. The Plaintiff sustained a broken leg, fractured knee, strained neck, and sprained shoulder. The most serious of the injuries was the knee injury and plaintiff will eventually require a knee replacement.

The award included $300,000 for economic damages, including past and future medical costs and job retraining, and $1,000,000 for non-economic damages. The suit originally sought $2.8 million in damages.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is pushing for a rule that would have an impact on the evidence that car accident lawyers can utilize in making their cases at trial: a requirement that car makers install “black boxes” in all new cars to record accident data.

You know this car was not in a big rig truck accident because it is one piece

Maybe. The reality is that most everyone already has a black box in their car. The problem is that the feds don’t propose who owns and has access to the data. Certainly, the federal government realizes the privacy implications of this and that every state has different laws in this regard. But there is a simple solution: let the car’s owner own the data. This would protect privacy and still give plaintiffs’ lawyers the ability to seek the records in discovery.