How Much Can Someone Sue for a Car Accident?

How much someone can sue for a car accident depends on medical bills, property damage, and additional factors like pain and suffering. Amounts can easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for severe accidents. 

If you’ve been involved in an accident, a skilled car accident lawyer in Phoenix from Gage Mathers can help. We’ve won thousands of cases in five decades of arguing cases just like yours. We offer no-risk consultations and only get paid if you win. 

In this post, we’ll explore how lawsuit amounts and settlements are calculated. 

What Can I Sue For?

When a car accident lawsuit is filed, lawyers will typically ask for money based on three different categories of damages.

Economic Damages

This is the easiest type of award money to calculate. The amount is totaled from various sources such as:

• Property damage: The value of the damage to your car and the items inside it
• Medical bills: All medical bills related to the accident, including the initial visit, x-rays, tests, and follow-up procedures and appointments
• Lost wages: The amount of pay lost when an accident victim misses work to recover from the accident and attend doctor visits

Non-Economic Damages

These damages are harder to calculate, as no true dollar amount can easily be added up. However, the amounts awarded can be far more than the previous category.

• Pain and suffering: Medical bills have a dollar amount, but how much money is all that pain and suffering worth? This can be far more than the medical bill. 
• Emotional distress: The harm done by an accident is more than physical damage to the body. Accident victims may not be able to see friends and family while recovering, or they may have recurring nightmares. Permanent disability can severely damage a person’s sense of self. 
• Future medical bills and inability to work: Accident victims may need multiple surgeries over many years to fully recover. Future doctor appointments and potentially years of lost wages must be accounted for. 

Arriving at a total cost can be challenging. Fortunately, well-qualified car accident lawyers have experience calculating these numbers. 

Punitive Damages

The money awarded in punitive damages is not calculated as damage to the victim. Instead, it is meant to serve as punishment to the other party. Any punitive damages are charged to the victim, not the court. 

Punitive awards are possible when the other party was driving recklessly or under the influence. If the accident happened because of a defect in the victim’s car that the manufacturer knew about, punitive damages may also be awarded. In this case, the lawsuit is against the car maker, not the other driver. 

In some cases, a victim may have been rushed to the hospital without hearing from the officer who wrote the report. Can you claim a car accident without a police report? Yes, but getting a copy is simple, and the police report may be crucial in providing details that earn you additional punitive damages.

Adding It All Together

Following an accident, people are often approached by the insurance company offering money. The amount may seem reasonable, leading people to wonder if they even need a lawyer for a car accident–but hiring a lawyer after an accident is always a good idea. 

The amount offered by the insurance company will never include pain and suffering, emotional distress, or punitive damages. By accepting this initial offer and not working with an attorney, victims may lose out on a lot of money.

At Gage Mathers, we’ve calculated damages for every imaginable scenario, and to date, our clients have been awarded $275 million. We also understand that life may be difficult after an accident, which is why receiving proper compensation can at least remove financial stress and provide some peace of mind. Let us help–reach out for a free consultation today!

About the Author

Joseph D'Aguanno

Guided by the belief that being a highly skilled specialist in a narrow field is better than being ordinary in everything, Joseph “JD” D’Aguanno leads Arizona’s best personal injury law firm in Phoenix, AZ. Having extensive cross-training in pre-litigation negotiations and trial lawyer skills, with decades of experience, JD strives to provide clients with the most valuable legal services a personal injury lawyer can provide. Under his direction, Gage Mathers Law Group is an award-winning personal injury law firm providing aggressive representation to victims of a car accident, medical malpractice, dog bite, motorcycle accident, and other injurious events. Gage Mathers is trusted by thousands of lawyers and clients throughout the country because of their reputation for getting clients the maximum compensation they deserve.

Years of experience: Over 23 years
Bar number: 020421
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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