Methodology

Published by The Click Lab Agency LLC. Last reviewed September 2026. Not legal advice.

This page documents how the pedestrian accident settlement calculator produces its estimates. Every multiplier, every fault rule, and every assumption is disclosed here. Pedestrian accident outcomes vary with injury severity, insurance policy limits, comparative fault allocation, jurisdiction, and the quality of representation; the ranges below reflect the settlement-valuation conventions adjusters and plaintiff attorneys use as a starting framework, not a prediction for any case. The worked examples on the calculator page apply each step to concrete facts.

Step 1: Economic damages

The calculator takes two direct economic damage inputs: medical costs and lost wages. These are the verifiable financial losses from the collision.

Medical costs should include all past and anticipated future medical expenses: emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, imaging, physical therapy, rehabilitation, assistive devices, and future care for permanent conditions. For serious pedestrian injuries, future care typically dwarfs the bills to date; a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury may require decades of care, and in litigated cases a life-care planner prices it. Enter the billed amount, not the amount your health insurer paid; the billed-versus-paid question (the “collateral source” rule) is handled differently by state and is discussed below.

Lost wages should include all income lost from work — wages, salary, self-employment income, benefits — and any reduction in future earning capacity if the injury affects long-term ability to work. Permanent partial or total disability makes this the largest component in many serious cases.

Step 2: Pain and suffering multiplier

The calculator estimates non-economic damages with a multiplier applied to economic damages, the method adjusters and plaintiff attorneys both use as an opening framework:

Conventional multiplier guidance for motor-vehicle injury claims runs from about 1.5× to 5× of economic damages. The calculator uses the upper part of that band and extends it to 7× for catastrophic injuries because pedestrian collisions produce disproportionately severe injuries at a given impact speed — there is no crumple zone, airbag, or seatbelt — and because permanent-disability cases are where the multiplier framework most understates non-economic loss. The multiplier is applied to medical costs rather than to total economic damages so that a long period of lost wages does not inflate pain-and-suffering arithmetically; lost wages instead carry a flat 2×.

Step 3: Comparative fault reduction

The calculator reduces gross damages by the pedestrian’s estimated percentage of fault, using the rule of the state where the collision occurred:

Fault percentages in pedestrian cases turn on crosswalk use, signal compliance, lighting and clothing, intoxication of either party, vehicle speed, and distraction. Police reports assign fault informally; the percentage that matters is the one the adjuster or jury settles on. In practice the allocation is negotiated, and each ten points is worth ten percent of gross damages.

Step 4: Insurance policy-limit cap

Damages are only collectible to the extent there is insurance or assets to pay them. The calculator accepts an optional “available insurance” figure and caps the estimate at it. The relevant layers are: the at-fault driver’s bodily-injury liability limit (state minimums range from $15,000 to $50,000 per person, and many drivers carry only the minimum); any umbrella policy the driver holds; and the pedestrian’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which applies to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle even though they were not in a car, and which is often the largest recoverable layer in a serious case. Recovery above all available coverage requires pursuing the driver personally, which is rarely worthwhile. When the calculated value exceeds the policy limit, adjusters often tender the limit quickly; whether to accept it depends on whether additional layers exist.

Step 5: Settlement range

The calculator displays a range of roughly −40% to +30% around the calculated midpoint, then applies the policy-limit cap to both ends. The spread reflects real variability: local verdict patterns, evidence quality, the credibility of the injured person, treatment gaps that adjusters use to argue the injury was minor, and the skill of counsel. A clear-liability case with consistent treatment records and a solvent insurer settles near the high end; a disputed-liability case with a treatment gap settles near the low end regardless of theoretical value.

What the calculator does not model

Sources

Changelog

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