Average Car Accident Settlement in Maryland: Injury Settlement Value mdautoaccident

What is the Average Car Accident Settlement in Maryland?

The question is, what is the average car accident settlement? That is the question for most accident victims. Surprisingly, there is little data available (our accident lawyers looked everywhere). But there is older verdict data available that gives some lens as to what the numbers hold, both in Maryland and around the country.

The 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts (older data, but that is the most recent our accident lawyers located) found that of the 14,170 bench and jury trials that plaintiffs won in 2005, less than 5 percent received damages more than $1 million. The median award for all 2005 civil trials in which damages were awarded, was $28,000. The picture for car accident cases – statistically – is even more bleak. The most common trial cases in 2005 were motor vehicle accidents, car accident cases being the bulk of these accident lawsuits. These accident claims made up 35 percent of all civil trials in 2005. The median verdict in these accident lawsuits was $15,000.

Jury Verdict Research just published a new Maryland specific study on the median compensation awards – as opposed to average settlement which is a different animal – for car, truck and motorcycle accidents. In the Maryland accident lawsuits that went to trial, the median recovery was $11,328. In 1% of the Maryland accident lawsuits that went to verdict, the jury awarded more than $500,000. Plaintiffs won 74% of Maryland accident lawsuits that went to trial in motor vehicle cases.

This data on the average verdict in Maryland accident cases involving motor vehicles is interesting but, ultimately, useless. As we have written elsewhere, Maryland’s jury verdicts are grossly distorted by the Maryland accident lawyers hired by the insurance companies who “bump up” what should be small court claims to Circuit Court. In other words, if an auto accident lawyer in Maryland files on small claim for more than $10,000 but less than $30,000 (which is the new District Court maximum), the insurance company’s accident lawyers may remove the case to Circuit Court, which generally requires a jury trial and almost invariably leads to greater expenses from both parties. As a result, juries hear personal injury cases – particularly in Baltimore accident cases for a host of reasons – that are soft tissue, whiplash injuries that should not be heard by a jury. This makes data of median or average Maryland car accident verdicts somewhat useless.

The take home message from that last paragraph – which is probably confusing for anyone who is not a Maryland auto accident lawyer – is that if you have a serious injury car accident claim and these numbers discourage you, relax. This is not the average recovery at trial for our Maryland car accident lawyers, and serious accident claims are weighed less heavily in these numbers which are median – not average – verdict statistics. Below we have provided more detailed information that might be far more useful for you than what the average car accident settlement is in Maryland or anywhere else in the United States.

If you have other questions or need a Maryland accident lawyer, our Maryland accident law firm handles, among other things, serious injury car accidents involving such injuries as broken or fractured legs, both in Maryland and throughout the country. If you or a loved one has suffered a serious leg injury as the result of the negligence of someone else, call our accident lawyers at 800-553-8082 or get no obligation Internet consultation with a Maryland accident lawyer.