If you’ve been involved in an accident and are trying to get a personal injury settlement, one concern is how much are most personal injury settlements worth. You have medical bills, serious injuries, and lost wages to consider. In Louisiana, the statute of limitations to file your case is two years. But when does that begin?
Having a personal injury attorney can help you understand the laws and improve your chance of a better than average personal injury settlement. Your attorney will review the factors influencing the settlement and help you get the ideal bodily injury claim settlement amounts.
Key Factors Influencing Settlement Amounts
In typical personal injury settlements, a number of factors are considered when determining the settlement amount. The settlement is based on the victim’s medical costs, injuries, and time away from work, among other things.
- Severity of Injuries. A more serious injury requires more care. Serious injuries not only need repeated surgeries and recovery time, but the patient may also be permanently disabled. These factors must be included in the settlement figure.
- Pain and Suffering. Louisiana courts use three methods to calculate pain and suffering. All these methods depend on the severity and nature of your injuries. Louisiana law gives great discretion to the judge and jury to award pain and suffering and other damages.
- Medical Bills. Your medical bills are essential to prove the seriousness of your injuries. More than anything else, the medical reports and doctor’s invoices are analyzed by the insurance companies and reports to determine how badly you were hurt and how much you should receive.
- Lost Wages. If you’re seriously injured and can’t work, you should be compensated for the income you couldn’t earn. If you were employed before the accident, you’ll need proof of employment and the wages you earned to show how much you lost because of your accident.
How Insurance Companies Calculate Settlements
Insurance companies must follow the laws and legal guidelines of their states. Although there are federal regulations regarding the sale and nature of policies, each state sets its own laws about insurance.
Fault and Comparative Negligence
When determining an insurance payout, the insurance company first determines who is at fault in the accident. Fault in a personal injury claim means the person whose actions make them legally responsible for the accident.
For instance, a driver who is speeding and runs a red light can be held liable for any injuries they cause.
Negligence is a legal term for failure to exercise reasonable care resulting in harm. Negligence requires a duty to act in a certain way, and a breach of that duty which caused the victim’s injury. A negligent action may be unintentional. But the person is still responsible for any harm which comes from it.
States generally use one of two methods in assigning fault in insurance claims:
- Comparative negligence means that even if you are partially responsible for your accident, you can still recover damages for your injuries.
- Contributory negligence means if you share any responsibility for the accident, you cannot recover anything for your claim. Only a few states use this harsh method of assigning fault.
State-Specific Laws
Louisiana uses a pure comparative negligence rule in apportioning fault and recovery. In a pure comparative negligence system, a victim can be partially at fault for the accident and still recover on their claim. The claim is reduced by their percentage of fault.
For example, if you are determined to be 30% responsible for your accident — and the total settlement amount was $100,000 — you can recover $70,000. Even if you are 99% at fault, you can still recover that remaining 1% in damages.
Louisiana differs from some states, which use a modified comparative negligence rule. In these states, you must be 49% or 50% responsible or less in order to recover. Your payout will still be reduced by your percentage of liability.
In the handful of contributory negligence states (Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia) you cannot have any shared responsibility for your accident if you hope to recover damages.
Variations in Settlements by Jurisdiction
Your settlement or recovery in court depends on where you live. Each state has different processes and outcomes for personal injury settlements.
Louisiana
Louisiana recently updated its statute of limitations. As of July 1, 2024, claimants have two years to file claims after an accident or other injury. Louisiana uses a pure comparative negligence method of assigning fault. There is no damage cap in personal injury claims.
However, there is a $500,000 pain and suffering cap for medical malpractice and government claims.
Comparisons with Other States
Other states have similar rules, with a few exceptions.
Here is a brief overview of settlement processes in Maryland, New York, California, Texas, and Ohio for context.
California
California has a two-year statute of limitations. They also follow the pure comparative negligence rule. California has a $250,000 medical malpractice damages cap.
Texas
Texas also has a two-year statute of limitations. Texas courts have a 51% comparative negligence rule: Victims must be less than 51% responsible for their injuries in order to recover in a settlement. Texas has a $250,000 medical malpractice damages cap.
Ohio
Ohio has a two-year statute of limitations. The courts use a modified comparative negligence rule. Victims must be 50% or less at fault for their injuries to receive a settlement. The non-economic damage cap is currently $250,000 or three times the economic damages, whichever is greater.
There are no caps for catastrophic injuries or wrongful death claims.
Maryland
Maryland has a three-year statute of limitations and a generous $935,000 non-economic damages cap. To offset this, Maryland is one of four states that uses the restrictive contributory negligence rule. If you are even 1% responsible for your accident, you cannot recover anything in a settlement.
The Role of Personal Injury Lawyers
Since so much of the work seems to be done by the insurance companies themselves, you might wonder why you need a personal injury lawyer. In fact, even if your case is straightforward, you should have a personal injury attorney at each step of the process.
- Importance of Legal Representation. Even if your case never goes to trial, you should have an attorney review all documents before you send them to the insurance company. This includes anything they send back to you for your signature. According to insurance companies themselves, some of the top reasons claims get rejected are simple paperwork errors. Missed deadlines and incomplete paperwork top the list. Your attorney can help avoid those simple mistakes.
- Negotiation Strategies. Once you turn over all your bills and records to the insurance companies, they try to find deductions and denials. You may not know enough about your coverage or state laws about insurance requirements to challenge their decisions, but your attorney will.
- Understanding Lawsuit Implications. The layperson does not always understand the benefits or detriments of going to court. Sometimes it isn’t in your best interests to go to trial. You may get a better deal by not going to court. Your attorney will explain the pros and cons of taking a case all the way to trial and when you should accept a settlement offer.
Tools for Estimating Settlements
There are no guarantees for any settlement, but some attorneys and websites offer methods (and even calculators) for estimating your possible settlement. Note that these are at best very rough estimates, since your settlement depends entirely on the facts in your case.
Settlement Calculators. A typical calculator takes your total medical costs, including your estimated future expenses and adds your lost wages, if any. These are your economic damages. Then the calculator asks for how many days you were “in pain” or how long the injury lasted and applies a multiplier between 1 and 5. This is the non-economic damages. The total is a rough estimate of your settlement.
Historical Case Data. A more realistic method, although more difficult to look up, is examining case data for similar claims in your area. A Google search can reveal average claims in Louisiana, although this is less helpful than you might imagine. The range can be from $3000 to millions of dollars.
Types of Damages and Legal Considerations
Damages in a lawsuit refer to the monetary harm suffered by the victim, not the physical injuries. When your attorney refers to “economic damages” they mean personal injury settlement amounts, not the harm to your bank account. Damages and other legal jargon can be helpful in understanding your case.
Economic vs Non-Economic Damages
- Economic damages are those which can be readily tallied and documented. Doctor’s bills, medical expenses, lost wages and so forth are all economic damages. Your attorney and the insurer can take your bills and total them to find out how much your accident cost.
- Non-economic damages are less easily calculated. These include pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium (that is, the loss of companionship and care) and emotional trauma. Non-economic damages are often calculated using a “multiplier.” This method takes your economic loss and multiplies it by a number from 1 to 5, depending on the severity of your injuries.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages, as the name suggests, are meant to punish the negligent party. Louisiana law does not allow punitive damages in a personal injury case unless there is a statutory allowance for such an award. Some kinds of personal injury claims may allow you to request punitive damages.
Statute of Limitations in Louisiana
The statute of limitations is the amount of time you have after an injury to file a lawsuit. In Louisiana, it was one year after the injury. But as of July 1, 2024, it is now two years. This change only applies to cases which occur after July 1, 2024.
The statute means that once a car accident or slip and fall injury occurs, you have only two years from that date to file legal action. If you suffer a type of injury that can’t be discovered immediately, then you have two years from the date you discovered the injury.
If you miss that deadline, you are barred from filing your claim. It is essential you meet the statute of limitations.
Personal Injury FAQs
Anyone involved in a personal injury lawsuit has many questions. These are some of the most common questions personal injury lawyers are asked by anxious clients.
What is the average payout for a personal injury claim?
It is almost impossible to set an “average personal injury settlement” payout since each claim is different. Also, most settlements are confidential, so people only hear about the big headline-making settlements in class-action lawsuits.
The median award in personal injury cases ranges from under $20,000 in small auto accidents, to over a million in product liability cases. One reason is simply because a bump in a parking lot will not bring in the same payment as a lifetime of cancer. The average settlement in Louisiana may be around $96,000 according to Forbes magazine.
What is a typical amount of pain and suffering?
Pain and suffering (non-economic damages) depend on the severity of your injuries, and how long it takes to recover from the accident. Louisiana gives judges and juries great discretion in awarding damages. The more serious your accident, and the longer it takes to rehabilitate after the injury, the greater your pain and suffering award is likely to be.
What injuries pay the most?
Unfortunately, the highest paying settlements go to people with a severe injury. After wrongful death lawsuits, the largest payouts go to serious traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. These victims will need lifelong care and therapy.
Victims with multiple injuries after severe accidents, such as multiple bone fractures and organ damage can receive large payments because their recovery time is long. Plus, they will be out of work for a long time.
Is there a limit to the amount paid for pain and suffering?
Louisiana does not have a limit (or “cap”) on pain and suffering in personal injury claims. However, medical malpractice claims and claims against the government do have caps. In medical malpractice and government claims, you’re limited to $500,000 in pain and suffering, regardless of the number of claimants.
Maximizing Your Personal Injury Settlement in Louisiana
Having an attorney is the best way to ensure you receive the maximum personal injury settlement. There are no guarantees. But you should have someone at your side to explain the legal jargon and help you get the compensation you deserve.
