You’ve got a stack of medical bills, a few weeks of missed pay, and an adjuster asking what it will take to settle. Before you answer, you want a number you can stand behind.
This car accident settlement calculator gives you one, built from your own numbers and Washington’s rules. It adds your losses, takes off your share of fault, checks the insurance available, and subtracts what comes out before you’re paid. It won’t guess what your case is worth. Here’s how each step works.
The short answer: A settlement starts with your losses: medical bills, lost pay, future care, and pain and suffering. Washington lowers it by your share of fault, and insurance limits often cap it. Fees, costs, and insurance paybacks come out before you’re paid. No calculator can predict what a jury would award.
How does this car accident settlement calculator work?
It follows the same steps a settlement follows. You enter your losses and your own number for pain and suffering. The calculator lowers the total by your share of fault, caps it at the insurance you enter, and subtracts the fee, costs, and paybacks. What’s left is an estimate of what you’d take home. It runs only in your browser.
- Add your losses. Bills, lost pay, future care, other costs.
- Add pain and suffering. Your own number. There’s no formula.
- Subtract your share of fault. Washington’s comparative fault rule.
- Check the insurance. The limits can cap what you collect.
- Subtract what comes out. Fee, costs, and paybacks.
Why doesn’t this calculator use a pain and suffering multiplier?
Because Washington law doesn’t. Many online calculators multiply your medical bills by 1.5 to 5 and call it pain and suffering. No statute or court sets that formula. A jury decides that amount from the evidence, and Washington’s Supreme Court struck down the old cap on it in 1989. So you enter your own number instead.
That rule comes from Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp. (1989). What moves that number is proof: how long you treated, what your doctors wrote, and how the injury changed your work, sleep, and family life. See typical car accident settlement amounts in Washington.
What counts as your losses in Washington?
Everything the crash cost you, plus what it will cost later. That includes medical bills, future care your doctor expects, lost pay, lost earning ability, and out-of-pocket costs. Then there’s the part no bill shows: pain, stress, and the things you can’t do anymore. Each number is stronger when a record backs it up.
| Loss | Examples | Proof that backs it up |
|---|---|---|
| Medical bills | ER, imaging, surgery, therapy, medicine | Bills and records |
| Future medical care | More therapy, injections, surgery | Your doctor’s written plan |
| Lost pay | Missed shifts, used sick leave | Pay stubs, an employer letter |
| Future lost pay | Fewer hours, a lighter job | Doctor’s limits, job records |
| Other costs | Rides to appointments, help at home | Receipts and a mileage log |
| Pain and suffering | Pain, sleep, lost activities | Records, a journal, people who know you |
How does your share of fault change the number?
It lowers it by your percentage, but it doesn’t wipe it out. Washington uses pure comparative fault. If a jury finds you 20 percent at fault, you can still recover 80 percent of your losses. That’s why insurers argue about fault so often. A few points of blame can move a settlement by thousands of dollars.
Example only: fault and a $60,000 claim
Why can insurance limits cap your settlement?
Because an insurer pays only up to its policy limit. Washington’s minimum is $25,000 per person for injuries. If your losses are bigger, the rest has to come from somewhere else, usually your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. Many of Rich Martin’s car crash results are policy-limits settlements, where the insurer paid everything the policy allowed.
| Coverage | What it pays | Washington rule |
|---|---|---|
| At-fault driver’s liability | Your injury losses, up to its limit | Minimum $25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash (RCW 46.29.090) |
| Your UIM | What the at-fault driver’s insurance can’t, up to your limit | Must be offered; you can reject it only in writing (RCW 48.22.030) |
| Your PIP | Medical bills and lost pay early, whoever caused the crash | At least $10,000 medical if you didn’t reject it (RCW 48.22.095) |
Finding every policy that applies is often the biggest thing a lawyer adds. See what UIM coverage does and what PIP pays in Washington.
What comes out of a settlement before you’re paid?
Usually the lawyer’s fee, case costs, and paybacks to insurers that already paid your bills. The settlement goes into your lawyer’s trust account first. Your PIP insurer can ask for money back only after you’re fully paid, and it shares the legal cost of getting it. Health plans and Medicare may ask too. You get a written statement.
| What comes out | Why | What protects you |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyer’s fee | The percentage in your written agreement | A signed agreement and a final statement (RPC 1.5(c)) |
| Case costs | Records, filing fees, experts | Listed on the final statement |
| PIP payback | Your PIP insurer asks to be repaid | Only after you’re fully paid, and it shares the legal cost (Thiringer, 1978; Mahler, 1998) |
| Health plan or Medicare | They paid crash bills | Ask for an itemized list; your lawyer can ask for reductions |
How is a car accident settlement calculated, start to finish?
Step by step, the same way the calculator does it. Add the losses, take off the injured person’s share of fault, and check the insurance. Then subtract the fee, the costs, and the paybacks. The example below uses made-up numbers to show how far the final check can sit from the first total. That gap surprises most people.
| Step | Example only | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Medical bills, lost pay, other costs | $40,000 | $40,000 |
| Pain and suffering (the person’s own number) | + $50,000 | $90,000 |
| 10% of the fault was theirs | − $9,000 | $81,000 |
| Insurance available: $50,000 liability + $25,000 UIM | capped | $75,000 |
| Lawyer’s fee from the agreement (one-third in this example) | − $25,000 | $50,000 |
| Case costs | − $1,500 | $48,500 |
| PIP paid $10,000; payback after its share of legal costs | − $6,467 | $42,033 |
Is there an average car accident settlement in Washington?
No official one. No court or state agency in Washington publishes an average car accident settlement. The averages you see online are law firms’ own estimates, often from other states. Two crashes that look alike can settle far apart, because the injuries, the proof, the fault, and the insurance are different. Your own numbers matter more than anyone’s average.
How much more do people get with a lawyer?
There’s no reliable public number for Washington, and we won’t quote one. What a lawyer can change is easier to point to. A lawyer finds every policy that applies, proves future care with your doctors, pushes back on fault, and asks insurers to reduce paybacks. With No Win, No Fee, you pay nothing unless there’s a recovery.
What is a demand letter?
It’s the package your lawyer sends the insurer to ask for a settlement. It lays out how the crash happened, why the other driver is at fault, and every loss, with the records attached. The numbers you enter here are the same building blocks. A demand usually goes out after treatment ends, when the full cost is known.
- Keep every bill, record, and pay stub.
- Write down how the injury affects your days.
- Ask your doctor for a written treatment plan.
- Find your declarations page for your UIM and PIP limits.
- Don’t sign a release until you know your full losses.
Is a settlement taxable? Usually not the part for a physical injury. See are personal injury settlements taxable. Hurt in a fall instead? See what a slip and fall case is worth.
Talk to Rich about your numbers
A car accident settlement calculator can show how the rules work. It can’t read your records. Rich Martin has handled more than 2,000 injury cases in 28 years and taken more than 30 to a jury. He handles each case himself and prepares every case for trial. Press “Send these numbers to Rich,” or call. Your case review is free.
We help people in Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma, and across Washington. No Win, No Fee. We speak English and Korean.
Call (425) 635-2000 or see how we handle car accident cases.