Ryan Bradley | November 29, 2025 | Car Accident \ Missouri Law
Key Takeaways:
- Settlement calculations use four main factors. Your settlement amount mainly depends on your injury severity, medical costs, lost income/earning capacity, and available insurance policy limits.
- Documentation is critical for your claim. To recover compensation, you’ll need proof of your damages, such as medical records detailing your healthcare bills and pay stubs showing lost wages.
- Insurance limits can cap your recovery. Missouri’s minimum coverage of $25,000 per person means you may need to identify additional avenues for compensation, including your own underinsured motorist policy and a personal injury lawsuit.
Getting into a car accident disrupts your life in unimaginable ways. Medical bills pile up, you miss work while recovering, and the insurance company is pressuring you to agree to a lowball settlement. If you’ve been injured, you’re probably wondering what your claim is really worth, and how anyone decides that number.
Car accident settlements aren’t arbitrary amounts pulled out of thin air. They are calculated using concrete factors, such as your financial damages (the severity of your injuries, your medical expenses, and lost income) and the impact the injury has on your life.
At Bradley Law, we’ve guided countless injured individuals through this process in Missouri and Illinois. Our guide breaks down how settlements are calculated so you can recognize a fair offer.
Recovery Math: How Shared Fault Changes Your Payout
Expected recovery = Proven damages ×
1−your fault %
1−your fault %”—followed by one concise example, then link to your deeper recovery‑math resource
Missouri uses pure comparative negligence, which means you can still recover compensation even if you share some blame for the accident. Your payout gets reduced by your percentage of fault, but you’re not completely barred from recovering compensation.
The formula is straightforward:
Expected recovery = Proven damages × (100% minus your fault %)
How this works in practice: Say your total damages are $100,000, but you’re found 30% at fault for the crash because you were slightly speeding when the other driver ran a red light. Your recovery would be $100,000 × 0.70 = $70,000. You’d lose $30,000 because of your share of responsibility.
This is why accurate fault determination is crucial for your car accident settlement. Every percentage point assigned to you reduces your recovery. Insurance companies know this and will argue aggressively that you share more blame than you actually do. Working with an attorney who can challenge an insurance company’s inflated fault assessments protects your compensation.
The Severity of Your Injuries
The scope of your injuries forms the foundation of any car accident settlement. A fender-bender that leaves you with mild whiplash for a few days won’t carry the same value as a crash resulting in a brain injury or paralysis.
Insurance adjusters look at your diagnosis and prognosis. They’ll also assess your treatment plan and whether you require surgery and months of physiotherapy, or even lifelong care. The more severe and long-lasting the car accident injury, the higher your settlement value.
Different injuries command different settlement ranges:
- Minor to Moderate Injuries. Such injuries typically heal within weeks or months and include sprains and strains, minor fractures not requiring surgery, and minor concussions expected to resolve with rest.
- Severe to Catastrophic Injuries. Severe injuries can significantly affect your quality of life and ability to manage daily tasks. They can include herniated (slipped) discs, complex fractures requiring surgery and rehabilitation, severe traumatic brain injuries causing cognitive impairment, and spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis.
Injury severity also determines how your non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, are calculated. Insurance companies often use a multiplier method where your total economic damages are multiplied by a factor between 1.5 and 5 based on how serious your injuries are. For example, factor 5 would be used to calculate pain and suffering damages for the most severe injuries, such as paralysis or amputations.
Your Medical Costs Now and in the Future
Your medical expenses are some of the most straightforward components of a settlement, but they don’t just encompass what you have already paid. You’re also entitled to amounts for past and future medical bills, including any ongoing care needs you might have due to a car accident injury. And these future expected needs can make calculating medical costs complicated.
Past medical costs are easy to calculate and include everything from the ambulance ride and emergency room visit to diagnostic imaging, surgeries, prescriptions, and physical therapy. To qualify for compensation, you’ll need to document all of the costs with bills and receipts.
Future medical costs, on the other hand, don’t come with receipts and require projections and estimates. If your doctor says you’ll need additional surgeries and months of physical therapy, those anticipated expenses become part of your total claim and should be detailed in your demand letter. Medical experts can estimate what your care will cost over the years ahead.
Your Lost Income and Earning Capacity
If your injuries kept you out of work, you’re entitled to recover lost wages. This includes any time you missed due to medical appointments, recovery, or physical limitations that prevented you from doing your job.
Calculating lost income is straightforward if you’re a salaried employee. Show your pay stubs and employer verification to prove exactly what you would have earned if you hadn’t been injured. For hourly workers or freelancers, the math gets more complex, but damages are still recoverable, provided you can show documentation of your earnings.
Here’s some of the evidence you’ll need to provide for a lost income claim:
- Pay stubs and employer letter. As proof of your lost earnings, provide recent pay stubs and bank statements showing your regular earnings, plus a letter from your employer confirming how much time you missed.
- Tax returns and profit-loss statements. If you’re self-employed, these documents help show your income history and what you likely would have earned if you hadn’t been injured.
- Medical restrictions. Written opinions from your doctors can be essential to show what tasks you can no longer perform and how your injuries limit your ability to do your previous job.
- Vocational expert assessments. For serious injuries affecting your future employability, expert assessments can be vital to establish just how much earning potential you’ve lost due to a crash.
Remember that lost earning capacity is not just your immediate wages. For example, if your injuries prevent you from returning to your previous job or limit your ability to earn at the same level, that future income loss also becomes part of your claim. Your demand letter should itemize your immediate lost wages and any estimated future losses.
Insurance Policy Limits
Your injuries may justify a six-figure settlement, but you typically can’t collect more than the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage. As a minimum, the Missouri Department of Insurance requires drivers to carry liability coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury. While many drivers carry only these minimum insurance requirements, the amounts are inadequate to compensate victims for catastrophic or life-altering injuries.
If your damages exceed the at-fault driver’s policy limits, your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage can fill the gap. You could also pursue the at-fault driver’s personal assets with a lawsuit, allowing you to recover a personal injury settlement.
Missouri’s Pure Comparative Fault Rule
Missouri follows pure comparative fault under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.765, meaning you can still recover damages even if you were partially at fault for an accident. However, your settlement will be reduced by your percentage of blame. For example, if the court finds you 20% responsible for the crash and your total damages are $100,000, you can only recover $80,000.
How These Car Accident Settlement Factors Work in Real Cases
Imagine you’re rear-ended at a stoplight in St. Louis. You suffer a herniated disc that requires surgery and rehabilitation therapy. You also develop chronic pain due to the injury. Your economic (financial) damages may break down like this:
- Past medical bills: $60,000
- Lost wages (eight weeks at $1,000/week): $8,000
- Future care and pain management: $15,000
- Total economic damages: $83,000
Using a multiplier of 3 (for a surgical injury with lasting effects), your pain and suffering might be valued at $249,000. That means the total value of your claim would now be $332,000.
Now imagine the at-fault driver only carries Missouri’s minimum $25,000 bodily injury policy. This would leave you with a gap of more than $300,000. That’s why having an experienced car accident attorney is essential if you suffer severe injuries. Skilled attorneys push back on lowball offers and can identify every at-fault party in your accident, which may include a government agency if poor road maintenance contributed to your crash, or even a car manufacturer if your vehicle had a defect.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Missouri or Illinois, don’t let an insurance company dictate what your case is worth and risk getting less than you deserve. At Bradley Law, we can handle all aspects of your claim. Our legal team can liaise with your medical providers to prove your injuries, calculate current and future damages, and negotiate aggressively with insurance companies.
The time to file a car accident lawsuit is limited in Missouri, so get started today and contact us for a free consultation to discover your legal options.
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FAQs
How do you calculate a car accident settlement in Missouri?
You calculate it by adding your economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, etc.) and then applying a multiplier, usually between 1.5 and 5, based on injury severity to account for pain and suffering. Our attorneys can value your damages properly so you don’t risk getting shortchanged by an insurance company.
What if the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance coverage?
If the at-fault driver’s policy limits are too low to compensate you properly, your underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage can help fill the gap. You could also have legal claims against other liable parties, so make sure you speak to a personal injury attorney who can identify all available sources of compensation.
Does Missouri have a deadline for filing car accident claims?
Yes. In Missouri, you generally have five years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120. While there are some rare exceptions, missing this deadline typically means you’ll lose your right to recover compensation.
Will I have to go to court to get a car accident settlement?
Most car accident cases settle before trial, but you should be prepared that yours may not settle out of court, especially if you experienced extensive or disabling injuries and have high damages. If the insurance company won’t offer a fair amount, filing a lawsuit may be necessary.
How much of my settlement will I keep?
After the settlement check comes through, there will be several deductions depending on your case’s specifics, such as attorney fees and medical liens. Your attorney should explain the breakdown so you know what to expect and how much of the settlement you can expect to keep in your pocket.