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Methodology

How we calculate and verify

Every state rule on AccidentMath comes from a statute, court rule or state agency, and every calculator shows its formula. This page explains both, and what an estimate cannot account for.

Settlement estimate

  1. Economic damages = medical bills (past and future) + lost wages and earning capacity + other documented costs. In no-fault states, amounts already paid by your own PIP are subtracted, because they cannot be claimed twice.
  2. Pain and suffering = medical bills × a multiplier. Default ranges by injury: Minor 1.5 to 2; Moderate 2 to 3; Serious 3 to 4; Severe 4 to 5. These are negotiating conventions, not law; juries are told to award a reasonable amount with no formula. In no-fault states, this is zero unless you say the injury meets the threshold.
  3. Fault: the total is reduced by your share of fault, or set to zero, under the state's rule: pure comparative, modified with a 50% or 51% bar, contributory, or South Dakota's slight/gross comparison.
  4. Policy limit: if you enter the at-fault driver's bodily injury limit, the injury claim is capped at it. Vehicle damage is handled separately because it comes from a separate limit.
  5. Net: the attorney fee is a percentage of the recovery; case costs and liens are then subtracted.

Noneconomic damage caps are flagged, not applied, because most caps depend on facts such as the type of injury or the total award.

Where the state laws come from

For each of 51 jurisdictions we record six rules: the statute of limitations, the comparative fault rule, the no-fault or at-fault system with PIP and the tort threshold, minimum liability insurance, damage caps and dog bite liability. Each rule is stored with its citation, the official page we read, and a short quote of the text.

  • 192 rules were read on the official legislature, court or agency site.
  • 72 were read from an Internet Archive copy of the official page, because the official site blocks automated access. The copy date is recorded.
  • 42 were read from a published copy of the statute (such as Justia or FindLaw) because no official copy could be retrieved, and are noted as such.

We check for amendments from 2023 onward, such as Florida's 2023 switch to a modified comparative fault rule, and the 2025 increases in minimum insurance in several states.

The tables: Statute of limitations, Comparative negligence, No-fault states, Minimum car insurance, Dog bite laws, Damage caps.

What an estimate cannot capture

  • How strong the evidence of fault and injury is, and how a particular adjuster or jury will see it.
  • Preexisting conditions, gaps in treatment and disputes over whether treatment was necessary.
  • Medical bill reductions: what health insurers actually paid can be less than the billed amount, and states treat that differently.
  • Several defendants, multiple insurance policies, umbrella coverage and your own underinsured motorist coverage.
  • Exceptions to deadlines and rules, which can be decisive in a specific case.

Updates and corrections

State laws were last checked November 5, 2026. We recheck after each legislative session and when a reader reports a change. Report an error through our contact page.