What Is the Average Personal Injury Settlement Amount in Florida?
February 23, 2024
If you have been injured in an accident, you have the right to seek compensation for your suffering. Personal injury law in Florida allows victims to seek compensation for economic and non-economic damages resulting from someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing. The injured party could get compensation for lost wages, medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, long-term care costs, and emotional suffering.
The amount of compensation you can recover depends on several factors, including the severity of injuries, percentage of fault, and jurisdiction factors. Having experienced legal representation can also impact the amount of compensation you can receive in a personal injury settlement.
Average Personal Injury Settlement in Florida
Personal injury settlements can range from a few hundred to millions of dollars. The average personal injury settlement in Florida is around $20,000 to $40,000. However, your settlement could be higher or lower than that. For example, if you suffered minor injuries such as sprains and strains, then the compensation is less compared to cases that involve traumatic brain injuries, paralysis, and other life-changing injuries. Your lost income, medical expenses, liability, and several other factors play a key role in the settlement amount.
The settlement amount can also be influenced by insurance limits. Florida uses an at-fault system for car accidents, which are among the most common causes of personal injuries. All drivers in Florida are required to have personal injury protection (PIP). This provides some financial coverage, but it has limits and does not include compensation for pain and suffering.
Other types of personal injury cases — such as slip and fall accidents — are governed by a fault-based system, where the party responsible for causing the injuries is responsible for paying for the damages.
How Is Personal Injury Payout Calculated?
The typical personal injury settlement is an agreement between the injured party and the fault party or the insurance company of the at-fault party. The economic expenses are calculated based on documented evidence such as medical bills and lost wages.
While expenses already incurred are easy to calculate, the future expenses for the injury can often be contested. Your attorney can consult medical or financial experts to determine the future expenses of the injury. They can help determine what lifetime earnings have been lost due to injuries, long-term medical expenses as a result of the injury, and other expenses.
Non-economic expenses — such as loss of quality of life and pain and suffering — are more difficult to calculate. In some cases, the parties agree to use a multiplier method, where the financial losses are multiplied by some factor based on the impact of the injury.
Another method used for calculating non-economic expenses is the per diem method, where the total amount is calculated based on the number of days the injured party is expected to experience the damages and multiplying that number with the daily rate of expenses.
Consult with an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer
Knowing the average personal injury settlement can give you an idea of what to expect. However, calculating damages as a result of the injury can be challenging. While you want to get full and fair compensation, if you want to settle the case, you have to be willing to negotiate with the other party. It’s best to consult with an experienced personal injury lawyer.
Get in touch with us at Lewis & Castagliola, P.A. Our personal injury lawyers can assess your case to guide you on what injury settlement amount you could expect from your case.