Settlement data for U.S. motor-vehicle injury claims is published in three places, each with limitations. The Insurance Research Council surveys carriers and publishes mean and median figures for closed bodily-injury claims. The Bureau of Justice Statistics tracks tort verdicts at the state court level, which is a small subset of cases (most settle out of court) but the public record is complete. Industry verdict-research databases like Jury Verdict Research, JuryNet, and VerdictSearch publish per-case detail on verdicts and reported settlements.
This article works through what each source shows for 2026 and then layers in the four state-level rules that explain most of the geographic variance.
The headline numbers
From the Insurance Research Council's most recent Auto Injury Insurance Claims Study covering closed bodily-injury claims:
- Mean settlement (all closed BI claims): approximately $26,500
- Median settlement (all closed BI claims): approximately $18,000
- Mean settlement, soft-tissue injury (most common): approximately $16,500
- Mean settlement, fracture/displacement injury: approximately $42,000
- Mean settlement, internal injury or TBI: approximately $82,000
- Mean settlement, fatality: approximately $295,000
The mean-median gap of $8,500 for all closed claims reflects the long-tail effect. A handful of catastrophic-injury settlements in the $500,000 to $5,000,000+ range pull the mean materially upward. For most plaintiffs, the median is the more representative number.
These numbers are gross settlements before attorney fees, medical liens, and Medicare/Medicaid recovery. Net to the plaintiff is typically 50 to 65% of gross for represented plaintiffs after fees, costs, and lien resolution.
The four state-level rules that move the number
Rule 1: comparative fault
The five remaining pure-contributory-negligence jurisdictions (Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and DC) bar all recovery if the plaintiff is even 1% at fault. The practical effect is that case values in these jurisdictions are systematically lower because the carrier has the all-or-nothing leverage of any plaintiff-fault evidence.
Modified-comparative states with a 50% bar (Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia) allow recovery up to 49% plaintiff fault, with recovery reduced proportionally.
Modified-comparative states with a 51% bar (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming) allow recovery up to 50% plaintiff fault.
Pure-comparative states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington) allow recovery at any plaintiff-fault percentage, with recovery reduced proportionally. A plaintiff 80% at fault still recovers 20% of damages.
Case values, all else equal, are roughly 15-25% lower in pure-contributory states and 5-10% lower in modified-comparative 50% states compared to pure-comparative states.
Rule 2: damage caps
Most states cap non-economic damages only in medical-malpractice cases. Texas caps medical-malpractice non-economic damages at $250,000 per defendant, $500,000 against all defendants combined. California caps medical-malpractice non-economic damages on a sliding scale that reaches $750,000 by 2033 (under AB 35 reforms). Maryland caps non-economic damages in all PI cases at a statutorily-indexed amount, currently around $920,000.
A handful of states cap non-economic damages in non-medical cases too. Kansas, until the 2019 Hilburn v. Enerpipe decision, capped non-economic damages in all civil cases at $250,000; that cap was struck down as unconstitutional.
Damage caps reduce headline settlement amounts in capped cases by the difference between the unconstrained calculation and the cap. In medical-malpractice cases with serious injury, this differential can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rule 3: no-fault PIP
The 12 no-fault states (Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah) require PIP coverage that pays medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. The plaintiff cannot sue the at-fault driver for general damages unless the injury meets a serious-injury threshold (death, permanent injury, significant scarring, fracture, loss of body function).
The serious-injury threshold definitions vary materially:
- New York: Insurance Law section 5102(d) lists nine categories; courts have interpreted these strictly.
- Florida: Permanent injury, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.
- Michigan: Death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement. The "serious impairment" standard was reinterpreted in McCormick v. Carrier (2010) to require objective evidence of impairment.
Settlements in no-fault states are lower for sub-threshold injuries (PIP covers medical and wage loss but no general damages) and roughly comparable for threshold-meeting injuries (suit is permitted).
Rule 4: jury venue environment
This is harder to quantify but bigger in dollar impact than the other three combined. Plaintiff-friendly venues (parts of South Florida, the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, certain New York City counties, Madison County Illinois historically) produce verdicts 2 to 5 times higher than defense-friendly venues (rural state-court counties in most states, federal court in business-defendant cases).
Carriers price settlement offers against jury-venue expectations. A case worth $100,000 in Miami-Dade is worth $40,000 in Hillsborough County (Tampa) on identical injuries and identical liability, simply because the verdict-expectation differs.
The plaintiff usually has limited venue choice. Filing where the injury occurred or where the defendant resides is conventional. Filing where the defendant is doing business is permitted in some cases and can shift the venue meaningfully.
What changes the settlement most: the documentation gap
The four state-level rules above explain about 60% of geographic variance in settlement outcomes. The remaining 40% is documentation quality.
A case with $25,000 in medical specials, documented per-diem pain-and-suffering, and a clear liability narrative settles 60-80% higher than a case with the same medical specials, no pain-and-suffering calculation, and an unclear liability narrative.
The single largest controllable factor in settlement value is the demand letter's documentation appendix. Carriers verify every claim. Claims that cannot be verified get discounted to zero. Claims that are documented get paid at close to face value.
Use the calculators on this site to anchor the math. Use the state pages to confirm the local rules. Then build the documentation appendix. That is where settlements are won.
This is a syndicated post. Original article + interactive calculator: https://caseworthnow.com/articles/car-accident-settlement-amounts-2026/
