Settlement calculator

There is no legal formula for what an injury claim is worth. Instead, insurers and attorneys estimate a settlement in two parts. Economic damages (also called special damages) are the bills you can document — medical treatment and lost wages. Non-economic damages (general damages, or "pain and suffering") cover physical pain, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, which have no receipt. The estimate adds the two together. The disagreement is almost always about the second part.

Two methods are in common use. The multiplier method multiplies your economic damages by a factor of 1.5 to 5. The per-diem method assigns a daily dollar amount to your suffering and multiplies by the number of days affected. Both are starting points for negotiation, not awards. The Sacramento County Public Law Library and Nolo both state plainly that the law provides no set formula.

The multiplier method totals your economic damages and multiplies that figure by a number between 1.5 and 5, chosen to reflect how severe and lasting the injury is. A minor injury with a full recovery sits near 1.5. A permanent, disabling injury sits near 5, and in extreme cases attorneys argue for higher. The product estimates pain and suffering, which is then added back to the economic damages to reach a target figure.

The multiplier is the subjective part. Two attorneys can value the same case differently, and the same injury may justify a higher multiplier for someone whose livelihood depends on the affected body part. That is why this calculator shows a band for each severity level rather than pretending a single multiplier is correct.

Per diem means "per day." This method assigns a daily dollar value to your pain and suffering — often your daily wage — and multiplies it by the number of days from the injury until you reach maximum recovery. If your daily rate is $150 and you are affected for 200 days, the per-diem estimate of pain and suffering is $30,000, added to your economic damages. Per-diem and multiplier estimates rarely match; the gap between them is normal and simply brackets a negotiating range.

Suppose you have $20,000 in medical bills and $6,000 in lost wages, for $26,000 in economic damages, after a moderate injury. Using a multiplier band of 2 to 3, pain and suffering is estimated at $52,000 to $78,000. Added back, the multiplier-method range is $78,000 to $104,000. That is a range you could take into a negotiation — not a number you are owed. If the at-fault driver's policy caps at $50,000, that cap, not the estimate, sets your practical ceiling from the insurer.

It does not predict your settlement, and no honest tool can. It does not account for who was at fault or your state's comparative-fault rules, which can reduce or bar recovery. It does not know the insurance policy limits that often cap what you can collect. It does not weigh the strength of your evidence, the venue, or the skill of the negotiation. It gives you one thing: a transparent view of how the common methods turn your documented losses into a range, so you can read any offer with open eyes.