Average Settlement for a Car Accident

A car accident settlement could be life-changing. Car accidents are a leading cause of death in the United States. Over 33,000 Americans died in car accidents in 2019, with Georgia recording over 1,000 deaths. After a car accident, most people are concerned with their health and ensuring that they are not severely injured.

However, those who are aware of their ability to pursue a car accident claim soon begin to worry about the process. They may start to wonder whether they can receive financial compensation, how long it could take, and what they need to do.

We often get asked what an average car accident settlement is, and our Smyrna auto accident attorney provides some answers in this article. Here, you’ll learn the factors that impact your car accident, what you can do to improve your chances of success, and how much you can expect to receive.

Factors That Affect Your Car Accident Settlement

Several factors affect the settlement you can get for your car accident case and whether you’ll get anything. We explore some of these factors here.

The Laws in Your State

The laws in your state could affect the compensation you get. For example, Georgia is an at-fault state. This means that car accident victims can recover losses if the other party is primarily at fault. 

Your Injuries

Injuries and property damage are often the most common losses in a car accident. However, the severity of your injuries will determine the amount you get as a settlement. Minor injuries will attract little compensation. The same goes for serious injuries.

Your Financial Losses

A car accident claim aims to compensate victims for their losses. Usually, the most significant losses are financial and include medical bills, lost income, and future lost wages. You may also be awarded compensation to cover your pain and suffering. Any settlement decision will consider these factors before arriving at a decision.

Available Insurance Policies

It’s one thing to make a car accident claim, but you may not get it if the offending party does not have enough insurance coverage or even has car insurance. Unfortunately, about one in eight drivers do not have car insurance, so there’s a chance you could get into an accident with such people.

Your lawyer will help you determine if the defendant can pay. They can also help you find other ways to get your compensation that someone without their training and experience may not know about.

What Can You Do to Improve Your Chances of Winning a Car Accident Settlement?

Winning fair compensation for your accident case is often affected by your actions, but how do you know which actions will help your chances and which will not? This section answers some of your questions.

Seek Medical Help Early

Not all car accidents result in severe injuries, and so many people who sustain minor wounds do not see a doctor. However, that could harm their case in the future. So-called minor injuries could become severe after a while, and seeing a doctor can help you prevent this and document the wound. Beyond helping you document your accident, it enables you to get treatment early.

Document Your Injuries

Your car accident case’s success will depend not only on your ability to show that the other party was at fault but also that their actions caused your injury. However, even where the injuries are apparent, you need to be able to connect them to the accident.

This is where documenting injuries becomes valuable. Take pictures or videos immediately after your accident. Where you cannot do so, you can ask someone else to help you. Your doctor’s records can also serve a similar purpose.

Smyrna car accident lawyer concept driver on phone after crash

Follow the Doctor’s Instructions

Follow every instruction given by the doctor. This way, not only do you heal faster, but the defendant cannot claim your injuries worsened because you refused to follow the doctor’s instructions.

Stay Off Social Media

Just as you have to prove that the defendant was responsible for your injuries, they have to show evidence to support their claims. Many times, your social media activity will be checked.

Any action that seems to show your injuries are exaggerated or that you didn’t observe all the instructions from your doctor will be used to devalue your case. Therefore, it is helpful to avoid social media or reduce your presence until your case is settled.

What Is the Average Settlement for a Car Accident?

As we’ve seen, various factors affect the value of your car accident. Therefore, it is difficult to give an exact value of a car accident settlement. However, an experienced  Smryna auto accident attorney can provide an estimate after looking at some of the factors we discussed earlier.

An average settlement could be tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds. If the victim suffered severe bodily injury and permanent disability, it could be higher. The amount will be lower if there is minimal bodily injury or property damage.

How Does a Smryna Auto Accident Attorney Help Your Car Accident Case?

While you heal from your car accident injuries, you may not be able to do much for your car accident claim. However, having a lawyer will help you improve your chances of success. We explore how a lawyer can be valuable to your car accident case below.

The first benefit of having a lawyer on your side is experience. If you hire a competent lawyer, you’ll get one that has both the knowledge needed to win a personal injury case and the experience to back it up. With this experience and expertise, they can prepare for any outcome. They are also able to anticipate the moves of the insurance company.

A competent lawyer can also help you investigate your case to determine who is at fault and the best course of action. In doing this, they need to go through the evidence. Therefore, it is crucial that you reach out to a lawyer early as evidence can be lost or weakened if left for too long.

Finally, they’ll also help you communicate with relevant parties to obtain information or conduct negotiations. This includes your doctors, the insurance company, or the other party in the case.

Hire a Competent Smryna Auto Accident Attorney to Improve Your Chances of Getting Compensation

Except you’ve not been hurt badly or had minor damage from an accident, you’ll need the services of a car accident lawyer. At Jamie Ballard Law, we treat every client we have with the same seriousness regardless of their complaint. We understand how much a car accident can upset your life, and we try to take some of the burdens off you.

Our personal injury attorney in Smyrna, Georgia, offers free consultations for prospective clients. This helps them determine if we are the right lawyers for their case and sets the tone for the rest of our working relationship. We’ll love to hear from you, so give us a call today.