How we calculate the bands.

Editorial principles.

Three rules govern every band on the site. First, a band either names the source that sets it, with a link where the source is online, or is labelled as a MyClaimWorth estimate. Second, where a band is wide, the page explains what moves a case to either end: severity, prognosis, recovery time, comparative-fault deduction, the strength of medical evidence, the procedural pathway. Third, we use the local currency and local notation that the courts themselves use, and we do not convert across currencies for comparison purposes, because different jurisdictions price different heads of loss differently and a converted number implies a false equivalence.

We treat the methodology page as the canonical answer to “why should I trust this number?” for every band on the site. The methodology is not a marketing document; it is the point at which we expose the working.

Estimates.

Many countries have no official table that puts a figure on an injury, and the United States has none at national level. For those, the band tables show a MyClaimWorth estimate: a rounded range we set so readers can compare injuries and countries. An estimate is not taken from a court table, is not a prediction for any claim, and is marked “MyClaimWorth estimate” next to the range. Any settlement range on the site with no source named next to it is an estimate in the same sense.

The researched guides show how real claims ended. Each US state guide for an injury lists reported decisions with their outcome and a link to the court record, and the guides for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, British Columbia, New South Wales, Queensland, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Germany and Japan quote the statutes, guidelines and decisions that decide a claim there, each linked to its source.

United States.

US figures are state by state. Each of the fifty states plus the District of Columbia maintains its own tort law, statute of limitations, comparative-fault rule (pure comparative, modified-50, modified-51, or contributory negligence), and statutory caps on non-economic and punitive damages. Each state page cites the statute or the court decision behind its fault rule, deadline and caps, and each state injury guide lists reported decisions with links to the court record. There is no national quantum guideline in the United States, so the national ranges in the US band table are MyClaimWorth estimates.

Where a state imposes a cap that bites, such as California's MICRA on medical malpractice or the Texas medical-malpractice cap, the state page gives the cap as in force on the date shown. MICRA in particular has been substantially restructured by AB 35 (effective 2023) on a phased schedule split between cases involving death and cases not involving death.

Federal overlays are noted where relevant. The Federal Tort Claims Act limits recovery against the federal government and bars punitive damages in those claims. The Federal Employers' Liability Act governs railway-worker injury. The Jones Act governs seafarer injury.

United Kingdom.

In England and Wales general damages are assessed with the Judicial College Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases, currently in their 18th edition (April 2026). The Guidelines are a paid publication that readers cannot open online, so the UK bracket rows in our band tables are labelled as MyClaimWorth estimates, and the guides for each UK nation quote the brackets that judges applied in reported decisions, with links to the judgments.

For road traffic whiplash, the Civil Liability Act 2018 and the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021 replace the Guidelines with a fixed tariff. For injuries on or after 31 May 2025 the tariff runs from £275 for symptoms lasting up to three months to £4,830 for 18 to 24 months, or up to £4,975 with minor psychological injury. The tariff rows in our tables link to the regulations.

For Scotland we cite reported decisions of the Court of Session and the sheriff courts, which often refer to the same Guidelines. Scotland has no whiplash tariff and applies its own prescription regime under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. Northern Ireland has its own Green Book of guideline brackets.

Republic of Ireland.

Irish general damages are assessed with the Personal Injuries Guidelines, adopted by the Judicial Council on 6 March 2021, which replaced the Book of Quantum. The Guidelines are used both by the Injuries Resolution Board (formerly PIAB) and by the courts. Irish band rows that come from the Guidelines link to them; rows for claims the Guidelines do not price as a category, such as medical negligence as a whole, are MyClaimWorth estimates.

The Ireland guides list High Court decisions from 2024 to 2026 that applied the Guidelines, each linked to the judgment.

Canada.

Canadian non-pecuniary damages are capped by the trilogy decided by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1978: Andrews v Grand & Toy Alberta Ltd., Thornton v Prince George School District No. 57, and Arnold v Teno. The cap was set at C$100,000 in 1978 dollars and the courts adjust it for inflation; in Funk v. White, 2025 BCSC 2001, the Supreme Court of British Columbia used about C$470,000. The cap applies only to non-pecuniary loss; pecuniary loss (lost income, future care) is uncapped. Canadian band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates, and the British Columbia guides list reported decisions with links.

Province-specific frameworks are noted on the relevant page. In Ontario, the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) governs first-party accident benefits paid by the injured driver's own insurer, sitting alongside the tort claim against the at-fault driver, and a statutory deductible applies to non-pecuniary tort awards below threshold amounts. In British Columbia, ICBC's no-fault scheme has substantially restructured PI compensation since 2021; tort recovery has been narrowed and replaced for many accident classes with a benefits-based regime. Quebec operates entirely under a no-fault auto regime administered by the Société de l'assurance automobile (SAAQ) for motor injury, with civil-code damages applying outside the motor sphere.

Australia.

Australia is jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Each state and territory has its own Civil Liability Act, Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance scheme for motor injury, and impairment thresholds. We name each scheme on the relevant page: New South Wales under the Motor Accidents Injuries Act 2017 (MAIA) administered by SIRA and icare; Victoria under the Transport Accident Act 1986 administered by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC); Queensland under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 administered by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC); and analogues in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, and the Northern Territory.

Non-CTP personal injury (workplace, premises liability, public liability) is governed by the relevant state's Civil Liability Act and case law. Most states impose a statutory cap on general damages and a threshold below which general damages are not recoverable. Australian band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates; the New South Wales and Queensland guides quote the statutes and reported decisions, with links.

Spain.

Spanish road traffic injuries are valued with the Baremo, the scale set by Law 35/2015, whose amounts are updated each year; the 2026 tables are published by the Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones. Every after-effect is given a points score, and the euro value of a point depends on the claimant's age. The scale binds road traffic claims and is used as a reference in other personal injury and medical negligence cases.

The Spain guides quote the 2026 tables directly, with links: Table 2.A.2 for the value of a point by age, Table 2.B for loss of quality of life, and Tables 3.A and 3.B for each day of temporary injury. The Spanish band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates.

Italy.

Italian law sets the value of road traffic injuries itself. Minor injuries of up to 9 points of permanent invalidity are valued under article 139 of the Insurance Code, with amounts updated each year by ministerial decree, and injuries of 10 points or more under the single national table in force since 5 March 2025. Outside road traffic, courts widely use the Tabelle Milanesi published by the Tribunale di Milano, which the Corte di Cassazione has endorsed as the reference scale for non-pecuniary damage. In each case a medico-legal expert assesses the percentage of permanent invalidity, and that percentage is converted to euros, adjusted for age.

The Italy guides quote the 2026 decree values and the statute, with links. The Italian band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates.

Germany.

German law has no statutory tariff for pain and suffering. Section 253(2) BGB allows fair compensation in money for non-financial damage, and courts look at awards in comparable cases, collected in commercial compilations such as the Hacks/Wellner Schmerzensgeldbeträge. Those compilations cannot be opened free online, so the German band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates.

The Germany guides quote the statutes that decide who pays and for how long you can claim, with links: the keeper's liability under the StVG, the direct claim against the insurer under the VVG, the time limits in sections 195 and 199 BGB, and the patient's rights in sections 630e and 630h BGB.

France.

France lists heads of loss with the nomenclature Dintilhac, a court-developed taxonomy in use since 2005 that breaks each claim into pre-consolidation and post-consolidation, pecuniary and non-pecuniary heads (déficit fonctionnel temporaire, souffrances endurées, préjudice esthétique, and others). Courts of appeal use non-statutory reference scales such as the Référentiel Mornet to put amounts on those heads.

For motor injury, the Loi Badinter (Law 85-677 of 5 July 1985) imposes near-strict liability on motorists toward non-driver victims. The French band rows are MyClaimWorth estimates.

Inflation adjustment.

We do not inflate older figures ourselves. Where a figure is indexed by law or by the courts, the page uses the value published for the year it names: the Andrews cap as applied in the 2025 British Columbia decision, US caps that a statute indexes each year, the 2026 Spanish Baremo tables and the 2026 Italian decree values.

When authorities conflict.

Authorities sometimes give different numbers. In England and Wales, the Guidelines bracket for a soft-tissue neck injury and the whiplash tariff figure for the same injury can differ by an order of magnitude; the tariff governs cases within its scope and we use it. In Italy, the statutory values for road traffic injuries and the Milan Tables can differ for the same percentage of invalidity; the statute governs road traffic claims.

The general rule is to be transparent. Where two authorities disagree, we say so and explain which we are using and why. We do not pick whichever authority is larger.

Editorial review.

Every case name, statute and figure in a researched guide is checked against the source it cites before the page is published, and anything that cannot be traced is left out. Ranges that no source sets are labelled as MyClaimWorth estimates rather than presented as sourced.

The byline on every page is “MyClaimWorth Editorial”, and every page names its reviewer: Abd Shanti, the founder and editor. The date at the top of each page shows when it was published and when its facts were last revised.

Known limits.

The methodology has limits we are explicit about. First, guidelines and statutes change, and a page can lag a new edition until it is updated; the date at the top of the page shows when it was last revised. Second, an estimate is a broad starting point and can be wrong for a particular case; the reported decisions in the state and country guides show how real cases ended, including cases that ended with nothing. Third, most settlements are private, so the published figures are mostly court awards, which can differ from what claims settle for.

These limits are why every band is a starting point, not a quote. The page that hosts the band makes that clear.

Corrections.

Corrections are accepted at [email protected]. We aim to reply within 24 hours and to update affected pages within five business days.

Frequently asked.

• Where do the settlement bands actually come from?

  From two places. Where a published guideline or statute sets the figure, the band row names it and links to it: the whiplash tariff for England and Wales, and the Personal Injuries Guidelines in Ireland. Where no official table sets a figure, which is the case for the United States as a whole and for most other countries, the band is a MyClaimWorth estimate and is labelled that way. The researched state and country guides add reported decisions and statutes, each linked to its source.
• How do you adjust older figures for inflation?

  We do not inflate older figures ourselves. Where a figure is indexed by law or by the courts, such as the Andrews cap in Canada, US caps indexed by statute, the 2026 Spanish Baremo tables or the 2026 Italian decree values, the page uses the value published for the year it names.
• What do you do when two authorities give different numbers?

  We name both. In England and Wales, for example, soft-tissue injuries falling within the whiplash tariff are valued at the statutory tariff figure even though the Guidelines bracket would yield a higher number. We label each band with its source and explain when each applies. We do not pick whichever authority is more favourable to the claimant.
• Are the bands point estimates or ranges?

  Ranges, except where the law fixes a single amount, as the whiplash tariff does in England and Wales. A band gives the realistic settlement value for a category of injury at a given severity tier. The position within the band depends on facts the page cannot see, prognosis, contributory fault, the strength of medical evidence, and the procedural pathway.
• How often is the methodology updated?

  When a guideline or a statute changes, the affected pages are updated and the date at the top of each page moves forward. Law changes that affect many pages are listed on the law changes page.
• What can go wrong with the methodology?

  Three things, and we name them. First, guidelines and statutes change, and a page can lag a new edition until it is updated. Second, an estimate is a broad starting point and can be wrong for a particular case. Third, most settlements are private, so the published figures are mostly court awards, which can differ from what claims settle for.
• Do you ever invent or estimate figures?

  We never invent cases, citations or quotes. Some settlement ranges are estimates: where no official table sets a figure, the band table says "MyClaimWorth estimate" next to the range, so you can always tell an estimate from a sourced figure.
• How do you handle currency conversion?

  We do not convert. Each country page shows figures in the local currency that the courts and authority documents themselves use, pounds for the UK, euros for Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, US dollars for the US, Canadian dollars for Canada, Australian dollars for Australia. Cross-jurisdiction comparison tables show local-currency bands side by side without conversion to avoid implying a false equivalence between systems that price losses differently.