Personal Injury Calculator

Personal Injury Calculator: Your Personal Injury Law Firm

If you have been injured because another person broke the rules, a skilled personal injury lawyer can help you hold the negligent party accountable and recover from your injuries and other damages. After you or a loved one have been in an accident, it is important that you speak to a lawyer as soon as possible. Speak to a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer from Burger Law for free at 314-500-HURT now.

The personal injury lawyers at Burger Law have helped hundreds of injured individuals and their families recover millions of dollars after another person’s negligent actions hurt them. Our accomplished personal injury lawyers have worked on every type of personal injury case — car accidents, truck accidents, slip and falls, dog bite cases, medical malpractice lawsuits — and have been successful in demanding maximum compensation for our clients in these cases. With our decades of experience and finely-tuned trial skills, we know how to get you maximum compensation for the injuries sustained in your personal injury case.

Using a Personal Injury Calculator

A personal injury calculator can be helpful in estimating the settlement you will receive and setting your expectations for your personal injury case. Burger Law is a leading personal injury law firm and is proud to bring you a simple, easy-to-use personal injury calculator to help you understand what your claim may be worth.

Before using this free personal injury calculator, you should understand how this personal injury calculator is used and what this information means. We estimate a possible settlement value range based on your medical bills and other related factors. However, it is critical that you recognize how other variables can influence the amount of compensation you can receive for your claim.

Factors that Affect Your Personal Injury Calculator Estimate

Because of the comparative negligence law, your recovery could be reduced if you are found partially to blame for the accident. In addition, you may have difficulty receiving compensation if you do not receive medical treatment after the accident. Pre-existing medical conditions, too, can complicate your recovery. The only way to ensure that you get the full recovery you deserve and to protect yourself against the dishonest ploys of the big insurance companies is to hire a skilled personal injury lawyer to represent you, fight for your compensation and keep you informed and educated throughout the entire process. Burger Law’s injury attorneys can help you get a great recovery. Talk to our lawyers now for free here.

While our personal injury calculator is a useful tool in finding out what your personal injury claim might be worth, it is important to remember that it is just an estimate and that filling out the form does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. For a free case evaluation, call us at 314-500-HURT or contact us online right away. When you hire the personal injury lawyers at Burger Law, we start fighting for you immediately to get you the full recovery you deserve to help make you whole again. Do not settle your case or sign anything without speaking to a personal injury law firm first.

Types of Compensation You Can Receive for Damages

In personal injury cases, there are typically three types of damages that a plaintiff, or injury victim, can recover: economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive damages. How much you receive in damages depends on the severity of your injuries and the skill of your personal injury lawyer. That is why it is important that you take your time to choose the right personal injury law firm to help you decide how to best move forward with your claim.

Special or Economic Damages

• Property Damage

  Property damage in personal injury cases usually refers to damage done to your car or another vehicle and any other property that the negligent party is responsible for. Typically, a mechanic, insurance adjustor or both will calculate the value of the damages done to your car.

• Medical Expenses

  These refer to the cost of any medical care or treatments you either already needed or will need in the future. They can include, but are not limited to:

  • Doctors or specialists appointments
  • Surgeries
  • Therapy or rehabilitation
  • Medication
  • Special equipment, such as wheelchairs or vehicle modifications
  • Special needs, such as if a child with cerebral palsy will need speech or occupational therapy in the future

  Past medical expenses are usually easy to calculate as the sum total of all your medical bills so far. Future medical expenses are more difficult, and will require both medical and economic experts to provide insight into what treatments you will need, how much they will cost, and how much inflation will rise by the time you need them. For example, if your injury required you to need a hip replacement, you will need a new one in fifteen to twenty years. Burger Law’s network of medical and economic experts will help our personal injury lawyers calculate exactly how much you will need to cover your medical expenses past, present and future.

• Lost Wages

  If you were unable to work after the accident due to the nature of your injuries for any amount of time or were reduced to a different position or lesser hours due to light duty restrictions, you deserve to be compensated for the earnings you would have otherwise received. Typically, this is a simple calculation of how many hours you lost and what your rate of pay is. It is critical that you continue to report to work if you are medically cleared to do so. Your employer is required to reassign you to modified work duties if your medical condition calls for it and if they have that type of work available. By hiring a personal injury lawyer right away after your accident, you can receive invaluable legal guidance on how to handle work and other factors that impact your case.

• Lost Earning Capacity

  Like future medical expenses, the money you would have earned but will no longer be able to earn due to your injuries is a little more abstract and difficult to calculate. If you are a warehouse worker and can no longer lift over twenty pounds because of your injury, that will affect you for the rest of your life. Again, economic experts will need to be involved to tell an insurance representative or jury exactly how much money you will lose out on because of your injury. Lost earning capacity also includes any employment benefits you will no longer receive. The amount you can recover for lost future earnings also depends on the occupation you were in, how long you were in that occupation, your education and your previous work history.

General or Noneconomic Damages

These damages are harder to quantify than economic damages, as they generally refer to the emotional impact your injury had on your life. In Senate Bill 239, the state if Missouri defines Noneconomic Damages as:

• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Inconvenience
• Physical impairment
• Disfigurement
• Loss of capacity to enjoy life
• Loss of consortium

The noneconomic damages you are entitled to will depend on the severity of your injury and the full scope of the impact it has on your life. Because it can be hard to place a dollar amount on general damages, insurance companies and juries will often use a simple formula to calculate how much compensation you are owed. Your economic damages are multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5, depending on how much pain and suffering you feel for your injuries. The highest multiplier is saved for personal injury cases involving catastrophic injury or wrongful death.

Economic Damages X Noneconomic Multiplier (1.5-5) = Total Compensation

For example, you were injured in a slip and fall accident and the total value of your economic damages are $20,000. However, your broken arm keeps giving you pain and interrupting your daily life, and you become panicked at intersections due to the memories of the accident, leaving you unable to drive. A jury finds that your economic damages should be multiplied by 3 for your pain and suffering. Thus,

$20,000 X 3 = $60,000

So in this case, your total compensation would be $60,000.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are typically only awarded in rare cases where somebody hurt you on purpose or displayed gross negligence, such as a doctor who intentionally botched a surgery or a driver in a drunk driving case. These damages are meant to punish the reckless part and deter similar harmful actions in the future. Punitive damages are not always easy to collect, and you will have to rely on the skill and knowledge of your personal injury attorney to prove them.

Personal Injury Calculator: Understanding the Multiplier

The multiplier method — that of multiplying your total medical costs by a chosen number — is one common way to determine the value of your personal injury claim. Most personal injury calculators use this multiplier method to estimate the value of your claim. The multiplier that is ultimately used in your personal injury case is not necessarily a straightforward number. Most often, personal injury cases are settled at a value between 1.5 to 3 percent, and some range up to 4 or 5 percent. This is the typical range, yet some extraordinary cases may use a higher multiplier.

You may feel that your case is especially deserving of a high multiplier, and that may or may not be true. Each case is different and depends on a number of factors. The nature of your injuries and the permanence of your injuries or disability are major variables in any injury claim. The multiplier in your case will depend on many factors, but high multipliers (above 5) are used most often only in cases where:

• It is clear that the defendant is 100% at fault
• Your injuries are obvious and undisputed
• Your injuries are obviously painful and catastrophic
• You are diagnosed and treated by physicians and/or hospitals
• Your physical recovery is prolonged (longer than 6 months)
• You have some manner of permanent damage (i.e. scarring, disfigurement, immobility, loss of limb, pain)
• Your physician(s) clearly states that you will suffer recurring, permanent, or future disability or distress as a result of your injuries

You may feel that you are entitled to an exceptionally high settlement based on the severity of your injuries or the circumstances of the accident. This does not mean that the insurance company will be willing to pay you what you deserve. You need the skilled and dedicated representation of Burger Law’s personal injury lawyers to demand the full compensation you are owed and negotiate a fair settlement. Learn how our experienced legal team can help you recover by calling us today.

How Can I Receive Maximum Compensation?

Give yourself a chance at recovering the maximum settlement available to you by hiring a qualified injury attorney. After using our personal injury calculator to understand what your claim may be worth, contact Burger Law right away to obtain quality legal representation from lawyers you can trust. Our personal injury lawyers have over seventy years of combined experience and have helped our clients win more than $170 million dollars in verdicts and settlements. We are the best and highest-rated personal injury law firm in the midwest. When you hire Burger Law, we start working on your case immediately and do not stop fighting for you until we have won you a full recovery. Call us at 314-500-HURT or contact us online for a free case evaluation today.