What Is the Average Settlement for a Head-On Collision?

Getting into any car accident is scary, but few things can compare to the terror you feel knowing you’re milliseconds away from a head-on collision. These crashes can result in devastating injuries to both drivers involved, as well as any passengers. If you’ve suffered serious injuries in a crash you didn’t cause, you might wonder — what is the average settlement for a head-on collision?

Settlement values for head-on collisions and other kinds of car accidents vary widely. The only way to understand what your case may be worth is to talk to an experienced car accident attorney.

What Is the Average Settlement in Head-On Collision Cases?

Many accident victims want to know how much compensation they can reasonably expect to receive from a head-on collision or any other car accident. While we understand why clients want to know what an average settlement looks like, the truth is that there is no “average” — many circumstances go into shaping a case, and settlements range from a few thousand dollars to well into the millions.

It’s very difficult to calculate an accurate average settlement for a head-on collision.  For one thing, many personal injury settlements (particularly the larger ones) are confidential. The only way to get an understanding of your own case’s value is to talk to an experienced car accident lawyer, but it may be helpful to understand some of the main factors influencing the value of a case.

Factors That Influence the Total Value of Your Case

Here’s a closer look at some of the circumstances that determine how much compensation you might be able to receive:

Total Cost of Medical Treatment

In many cases, it’s the cost of medical treatment that pushes injured people to file a car accident lawsuit. Even relatively minor injuries can cost thousands. If your injury requires long-term care or proves to be very expensive to treat, your total settlement value is likely to be greater.

Severity of Your Injuries

Compensation in car accident cases isn’t just about covering monetary losses. Most victims have some level of compensation for pain and suffering. If your injuries have a major impact on your life, your compensation may be greater. For example, someone whose leg was amputated will likely be compensated more for pain and suffering than someone whose leg broke but healed completely.

The Value of Your Lost Wages

Compensation for lost wages is often a large part of any settlement. If you miss a significant amount of work, are a high earner, or both, your settlement is likely to be greater.

Whether You Were Partially at Fault

Texas is a modified comparative negligence state, which means you may not recover compensation if you were more than 50% at fault for your accident. If you were partially responsible, your total compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault.

Have you been hurt in a head-on collision? We’re here to help. Call Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law now at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 for a free and confidential consultation.

Calculating Your Case’s Value

How Courts, Lawyers, and Insurers Determine Compensation

In any personal injury case, you can typically recover two main kinds of compensation. “Economic damages” refers to compensation for losses you can quantify, like lost income and medical costs. “Non-economic damages” refers to compensation for more subjective losses, like pain and suffering and loss of quality of life. Your legal team must calculate the value of your economic losses and the value of your non-economic losses and then add them together.

Totaling Economic Losses

Determining your economic damages usually isn’t too difficult. Over the course of your medical treatment, make sure to keep all medical bills and receipts — your lawyer will need them. Part of calculating your economic losses is adding up the financial losses related to your injury:

• The cost of medical treatment
• The cost of physical therapy and other rehabilitative treatment
• Transportation costs
• The cost of medical equipment and/or prescriptions
• Lost income from being unable to work.

Calculating economic losses can get a little more complex when it comes to estimating future expenses. If you have a condition that will require ongoing care (like a serious traumatic brain injury), your lawyer may seek compensation to cover those future costs for you. Your lawyer may talk to your doctors and possibly to medical experts to obtain an accurate estimate of the cost of your future medical care.

If your injuries force you to take a lower-paying job, you may be compensated for the additional income you could have earned if not for your injuries. For example, imagine you have an engineering job that pays you $100,000 per year. After you suffer a brain injury in a car accident, you are unable to continue to work as an engineer. You are forced to take a job at the grocery store, where you earn $30,000 per year. In this case, you might receive $70,000 (the difference between your former wages and your new wages) each year for the rest of your working life.

How Do You Value Non-Economic Losses?

Although there are a few situations when it becomes more complicated, calculating economic losses is usually relatively straightforward. Calculating non-economic damages is more challenging, but attorneys and insurance companies often use something called the “pain and suffering multiplier.” They start by adding up your economic damages and then multiplying that value by a number between X and Y.

Serious injuries that have a significant impact on your day-to-day life are likely to result in a larger multiplier. Similarly, injuries that lead to long-term or permanent disability are more likely to result in greater compensation for non-economic losses.

Here’s an example. Imagine you get hurt in a car accident caused by someone else. Your medical bills add up to $20,000, but all your injuries heal completely with no lasting damage. In this case, you might be assigned a multiplier of 2, which would make your compensation for non-economic losses $40,000. This amount is added to your economic damages, giving you a total compensation of $60,000.

Now imagine your medical bills still add up to $20,000, but you suffer a permanent injury that limits your ability to engage in hobbies or family activities. In this case, you might be assigned a multiplier of 5. That gives you total non-economic damages of $100,000, bringing your total compensation to $120,000.

Have You Been Hurt in a Head-On Collision?

The Right Legal Representation Makes a Difference

When you’ve suffered a serious injury, just getting through each day can feel like a challenge. You might not feel like you can gather the energy to reach out to an attorney. However, if you make the first call, the team at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law can handle the logistics of your case. Since 1985, we have been committed to helping injured Texas citizens receive the compensation they deserve.

If you’ve been hurt in a head-on car accident you didn’t cause, you deserve a dedicated car accident lawyer who will fight for your right to compensation. Call Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law today at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 for a free and confidential consultation.