Bodily Injury Claim Amounts: How Much Will You Actually Get?

Bodily injury claim amounts vary widely due to many factors, including more than just damages. The amount you calculate from all your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc, isn't necessarily the amount that you'll receive for your bodily injury settlement.

Just because your personal injury damages total ten thousand dollars, doesn't necessarily mean you're entitled to that ten thousand dollars.

Why you may not get your full bodily injury settlement...

First, you've got to make everyone agree with your damage amount. Assuming your case is well put together, you'll be able to get the insurnace claim adjuster to agree on a figure pretty close to yours. Convincing them of your monetary damages is easy. Turning that figure into punitive and other general damages can be hard.

You may have calculated your personal injury damages at $10,000, but after personal injury insurance negotiations are over you may find you can't get more than $9,000. And the number can still go down from there.

Remember earlier on, when we were discussing the issue of fault? Fault, negligence, liability...all of these issues come back into play. Your case is more than just calculating money. You have to establish liability.

When you file a bodily injury claim, you must show that the liability lies entirely on the other party. Don't get caught off guard if you can't do this. It isn't always possible. Some say it's less common that an accident is entirely the defendant's fault.

Unless it's obvious and unavoidable, don't accept any liability for as long as possible. Your personal injury demand letter should indicate why it's the defendant's fault. It should suggest that the fault they're trying to place on you is unjust. In the end though, you may have to concede that you also did something wrong.

• If the stairs you tripped on were damaged, then it's the owner's fault. But if you were running unsafely, you're partially to blame.


• If your car was rear-ended, the other driver is at fault. But if your break lights weren't working, then you're partially at fault.

Assuming you are partially at fault, you and the adjuster have to work out who's responsible for the bodily injury claim damages, and how much each has to pay.

Some adjusters talk strictly about fault, legality and negligence. Others discuss things in terms of what percentage each person is liable. Either way, the conversation is more or less the same, so don't get thrown.

With all damages totaled, it's just a matter of coming up with a percentage of responsibility, so you'll know who has to pay what.

This is when you must use your evidence to show how the other person was more liable. Eventually, a compromise will be reached. Whatever you come up with will directly affect the personal injury compensation you'll receive.

If the other person was 80% at fault, they'll pay 80% of what your total bodily injury settlement is worth. Of course this assumes your state personal injury laws allow for partial fault settlements. This isn't always the case so check with your state insurance board.

There are also accidents where multiple parties are at fault, and none of them are you. If this is the case, then in almost all situations this part of the math doesn't concern you.

If the bodily injury claim damages are being split between multiple parties, other than yourself, it's up to them to decide who owes what percentage. You only deal with the primary insurer. If you file a bodily injury claim like this, you'll still receive the total amount of what your personal injury damages are worth.