Personal injury claim values in the United States vary state by state. Each state has its own tort law, statute of limitations, comparative-fault rule, and statutory caps on non-economic and punitive damages.
The United States is not one personal injury system — it is fifty-one. Each state, plus the District of Columbia, maintains its own tort law, statutes of limitation, fault-allocation rule, and damages caps. There is no national quantum guideline. A claim that would be worth $400,000 in California can be worth zero in Maryland on the same facts because Maryland still applies pure contributory negligence.
For practitioners and claimants, that means three things matter most: which state's law applies, what comparative-fault rule that state uses, and what statutory cap (if any) bites on the heads of damages at issue. Country-page coverage here states the framework and links to the state pages where bands live.
On top of state law sit several federal overlays — the Federal Tort Claims Act for claims against the federal government, the Federal Employers' Liability Act for railway workers, and the Jones Act for seafarers. Where one of those applies, the federal regime, not the state's default tort rules, controls.
Indicative settlement values, sourced to the authority documents above. These are starting points for valuation, not quotes for any specific case.
| Injury type | Band | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Whiplash / soft tissue (minor) | $3,000 – $15,000 | Settlement aggregates from insurance industry sources |
| Whiplash / soft tissue (1–2 years) | $10,000 – $40,000 | Insurance settlement data plus VerdictSearch tabulations |
| Back injury (moderate, no surgery) | $30,000 – $100,000 | Reported decisions plus settlement aggregates |
| Back injury (severe, surgery) | $80,000 – $400,000+ | Reported decisions; statutory cap states constrain the upper end |
| Concussion / mild TBI | $25,000 – $100,000 | Reported decisions |
| Severe traumatic brain injury | $500,000 – multi-million | Catastrophic-case reported decisions |
| Wrist or arm fracture | $15,000 – $80,000 | Settlement aggregates |
| Medical negligence (non-fatal) | $30,000 – statutory cap | State medical-malpractice cap as in force on the date of injury |
| Wrongful death | $500,000 – multi-million | State wrongful-death statute and reported decisions |
State codes
Range: Florida and Texas at 2 years (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003); New York at 3 years (CPLR § 214); Maine at 6 years (14 M.R.S. § 752, the longest in the US). Statutes of repose layer on top in product-liability and construction-defect cases. Federal Tort Claims Act has its own two-year administrative limitation.
Pure contributory negligence (1% bars recovery) in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and DC. Pure comparative in 13 states including California, Florida, New York, and Washington. Modified comparative with a 50% bar in 10 states. Modified comparative with a 51% bar in 23 states.
Caps that bite on damages awards in United States, ordered by impact.
Use the figure for the year and category (death / non-death) the case falls into.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.301.
HB 837 narrowed punitive recovery and tightened other procedural levers.
BMW v. Gore and State Farm v. Campbell set due-process limits at typically single-digit ratios.
Each sub-jurisdiction has its own variations. State and province pages will follow.
Pure comparative · MICRA cap on med-mal · §3333.2
Modified-51% · med-mal cap · 2-year SOL
Pure comparative · 2-year SOL post HB 837 · PIP no-fault
Pure comparative · 3-year SOL · serious-injury threshold (no-fault)
Modified-51% · 2-year SOL · Fair Share Act
Modified-51% · 2-year SOL
Modified-51% · 2-year SOL · non-economic cap on medical claims
Modified-50% · 2-year SOL
Pure contributory negligence — 1% bars recovery
Modified-51% · No-fault auto regime
Modified-51% · verbal threshold under no-fault
Pure contributory negligence
Pure comparative · 3-year SOL
Pure comparative · 2-year SOL · constitutional bar on damages caps
Modified-51% · 3-year SOL · No-fault PIP
Pure contributory negligence
Pure contributory negligence
The procedural pathway from injury to settlement under United States law.
Medical records, imaging, expert reports, payslips for lost wages, and receipts for out-of-pocket costs. Documentation gaps drive under-valued settlements.
For an interstate accident, the conflict-of-laws analysis matters. Most states apply lex loci delicti, but a few apply most-significant-relationship analysis under Restatement (Second).
Past and future medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, property damage, and reasonable out-of-pocket costs. Future expenses require expert testimony.
Compare to verdict reporter aggregates in the state. The multiplier method (1.5×–5× medical specials) is a starting point used by adjusters; courts do not impose it.
Pure comparative reduces by the claimant's percentage; modified-50/51 cuts off above the threshold; contributory bars at 1%.
Medical-malpractice caps in CA, TX, OH and others bite on non-economic damages; punitive-damages caps and the State Farm constitutional ceiling apply on punitives.
Most states allow direct demand against the insurer. Many states require pre-suit mediation in medical-malpractice cases. Suit is the last resort and is rare — over 95% of cases settle.
Reported decisions that shape the framework. None of these is a substitute for advice on your case.
Set due-process limits on punitive damages, naming reprehensibility, ratio, and comparable-penalty factors.
Reinforced the BMW factors and indicated that single-digit punitive-to-compensatory ratios are presumptively constitutional.
Not a personal-injury case, but reshaped the constitutional landscape against which several state tort-reform statutes have been re-examined.
Each answer is independently coherent — built so AI engines can lift a single Q&A without losing meaning.
Vocabulary that comes up in any conversation about claim value in this jurisdiction.
Every claim turns on its own facts: severity, prognosis, recovery time, the medical paper trail, lost income, the applicable cap, and the published band that most closely matches. The figures on this page are illustrative aggregates, not a quote. For representation, consult a solicitor or attorney qualified in United States. See our disclaimer for the full scope of what we do and don't do.