There are all kinds of personal injury cases. A person or entity can harm you in all types of different ways. In some cases, you might feel like you only have to ask for a little money in damages. In others, though, you may think you’re justified in asking for a lot more. 

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Determining your personal injury case’s value becomes important before you plunge into it. If you have a number in mind that you think will compensate you for what you experienced, that brings the lawsuit into focus. You’ll probably have to huddle with your lawyer before you officially begin the lawsuit to come up with an amount you’re seeking that makes sense.

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the most common types of personal injury lawsuits, and approximately how much money you can expect from each one.

Economic and Non-Economic Damages

First, before we start to get into some of the individual kinds of personal injury lawsuits that exist, we should talk about economic and non-economic damages. No matter what kind of personal injury lawsuit you try to pursue, the number that you ask for and that you might reasonably expect to get will change depending on whether you’re attempting to get just economic damages or also non-economic ones.

If you try to recoup money through a personal injury lawsuit strictly for economic damages that you lost, then you can determine that just by adding up those losses. For instance, in a car accident lawsuit, you might want to get back the money that you spent to repair your vehicle and additional funds for your lost wages if you had to miss work for a time. However, if you also feel that you want to collect some non-economic damages for the pain and suffering that you went through during and the after the accident, that might double the amount for which you ask. 

If you factor in both economic and non-economic damages, that will automatically change the number that you ask for in a personal injury lawsuit. That’s the case regardless of the particular type of lawsuit you’re electing to file. 

Now, let’s discuss what you might get from some specific kinds of personal injury lawsuits.

Car Accident Lawsuits

Let’s start with one we mentioned a moment ago, a car accident lawsuit. If you see a commercial for a personal injury lawyer on late-night TV, they will probably list the types of lawsuits in which they specialize. You might see car accident cases at the very top of that list.

That’s because these kinds of cases happen all the time. Car wrecks constantly occur, and many of them end up in lawsuits, particularly if neither driver wants to admit they caused the crash.

The range for the average payout from a car accident lawsuit usually lands somewhere in the $15K-$35K area. That’s significant money for many people, but not usually life-changing money.

You can always expect to get a lot more if the car accident injured you badly, though. If it did, then you can probably expect a six-figure settlement, if not more. To get to seven figures, you would likely have to lose a limb or suffer something equally devastating. 

Premises Liability Lawsuits

You might also file what this legal niche calls a premises liability lawsuit. If you look at the classic slip-and-fall in a store, that’s a perfect example. Any other situation where you injure yourself in a place of business will also fall into this category.

If you file one of these lawsuits, that is usually because you’re claiming negligence by one of the store’s employees, or possibly the management in a more general sense. You believe they caused a situation through neglect that caused your injury.

The normal range for settlements in this area goes from a few thousand to $50K or so. Again, most people would consider $50K a significant chunk of money, but probably not life-changing. 

It’s not likely that you will get more than $50K for a premises liability lawsuit unless you somehow managed to injure yourself very badly. If you sprained your ankle or something along those lines, then you might get just a few thousand for that. If it’s clear that you will recover eventually, don’t expect to walk away rich from your lawsuit. 

Dog Bite Lawsuits

You might also sue someone if their pet dog runs loose in the neighborhood and bites you when you’re walking down the street. That kind of thing happens pretty often, and it can certainly traumatize you.

The average settlement range for a dog bite lawsuit hovers around $35K to $75K. Much like any of the other kinds of lawsuits on this list, though, it depends how badly the dog injured you. 

If you have minor injuries from which you should recover quickly, you’ll probably collect compensation on the low end of this scale. If the dog injured you quite badly, though, you may get money in the higher end of this range. 

Product Liability Lawsuits

If a product hurts you or makes you ill, then you can probably sue the manufacturer. If you do, then you might collect in the range of a few thousand to as much as millions. That doesn’t narrow it down much, but these kinds of lawsuits frequently feature various elements that make the damages amount fluctuate wildly. 

For instance, if a product cut your hand, you might collect $5K. If the product cost you an eye, though, collecting at least six figures becomes likely. If the product blinded you entirely, and you will never recover your vision, that’s probably worth millions, either through a settlement from the manufacturer or through a jury’s verdict if you can’t land on an agreeable settlement amount without their help.   

As you can see, every kind of lawsuit has a range of damage amounts that you might reasonably expect to collect, but some kinds seem to inherently yield more.