How Motorcycle Accident Settlements Are Calculated
After your motorcycle accident, you might be hoping that your lawsuit will get you the compensation you need to pay bills that have been piling up. These might be medical bills directly related to the accident, or they might be general bills that you can’t pay now because you can’t work. Your future looks very uncertain under these conditions, and you aren’t even sure a motorcycle accident settlement will help.
Don’t worry: your motorcycle accident attorney will typically calculate a settlement demand to take care of all the expenses from your motorcycle accident as well as compensate you for noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering. The goal in every lawsuit is to make sure you are “made whole.” Ideally, the outcome would make it as if the accident never happened or provide suitable compensation in cases where outcomes can’t be reversed.
Here are some of the factors your motorcycle accident attorney will consider in deciding on the right amount for your settlement.
Settlements Are Agreements, Not Calculations
Before we get into the details, it’s important to clear up one point. Motorcycle accident settlements aren’t necessarily calculated. They are merely agreed upon by the parties. Your motorcycle accident lawyer will perform calculations to inform the amount he puts in your initial demand letter. Sometimes settlement offers can be much higher or lower than the pure calculations suggest.
Why do settlement offers vary so widely? There are many factors, often related to the people and entities participating in the negotiations. One of the biggest factors here is the possibility of a trial. Although very few motorcycle accident lawsuits actually go to trial, the possibility of a trial still casts a large shadow over the motorcycle accident settlement process. For example, if an insurance company feels that they have a large chance of winning at trial, they might make smaller offers. However, if they think they are more likely to lose, then they will make larger offers.
Other times, factors specific to the insurer can cause them to make larger or smaller offers. The company’s finances or the current philosophy of their leadership, for example, can impact its settlement offers. New AI tools for analyzing motorcycle accidents are changing the way companies make offers, and it’s not always clear what factors they use to calculate their recommendations.
Economic Damages
When it comes to calculating an amount for damages to put in your initial demand letter, your motorcycle accident lawyer will start by considering your economic damages. Economic damages are those that can be directly linked to a cost in dollars. This includes:
- Medical bills
- Property damage
- Lost income
- Modifications to your house necessitated by injuries
- Help hired to perform tasks you can’t do now
With economic damages, people often think they can get a handle on how much they should ask for. Assembling all your current receipts is a good start. However, once you try to estimate the compensation for expenses you haven’t incurred yet, such as future medical treatments that may be required, the experience of a motorcycle accident lawyer can make all the difference.
A motorcycle accident lawyer who has helped many previous clients can use their experience as a guide in helping you determine a reasonable request for compensation. They know how long injuries can take to heal and what that recovery looks like. Sometimes they even have a better idea of this than your doctor.
Noneconomic Damages
Noneconomic damages are damages for aspects of your motorcycle accident that can’t be directly translated into monetary amounts. These include:
- Pain and suffering
- Trauma
- Disfigurement
- Inconvenience
- Diminished quality of life, such as:
- Loss of enjoyable activities (like riding your motorcycle)
- Loss of companionship and consortium
- Low self esteem
Noneconomic damages are difficult to calculate. It’s hard to answer questions like: how much is your pain worth? This is another area where a motorcycle accident attorney becomes especially valuable. They can listen to your personal account of how your life has changed because of the accident and turn it into a number that is defensible both to an insurance company and a jury at a trial.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are intended to punish the other party because they acted maliciously or in bad faith. They are generally awarded at trial and are rare in motorcycle accidents, but in cases where they are possible, it might impact your settlement offers.
Damage Caps
In some situations, the amount of compensation you can receive at trial will be limited by damage caps. Although damage caps don’t directly affect your motorcycle accident settlement, because they limit the amount you could potentially win at trial, they will limit the amount that the other party is prepared to offer you in compensation.
In 2025, the limit for noneconomic damages in motorcycle accidents is $1.5 million, unless the motorcycle accident resulted in a wrongful death. In the case of wrongful death motorcycle accidents, the cap for noneconomic damages is now $2.125 million.
Comparative Negligence
Finally, under Colorado law, the concept of comparative negligence can impact the amount you might win at trial, and, therefore, the settlement offers you receive.
Under Colorado law, the concept of comparative negligence recognizes that an accident often occurs because multiple people make mistakes. The fact that you made a mistake does not necessarily prevent you from getting compensation for your injuries. If a motorcycle accident lawsuit goes to trial, the court will determine how much each person is responsible for the accident.
If you are not more than 50% responsible for the accident, you can still get compensation for your injuries. However, your compensation will be reduced by the amount that you are deemed responsible. So, if a court determines that the other driver is two-thirds responsible for the accident and you are one-third responsible, you can get compensation, but your compensation will only be 2/3 of your economic and noneconomic damages.
This is why it is so important that you refrain from making unnecessary statements after an accident. Anything that might imply that you are partly responsible for the accident can reduce your likely compensation. To protect your right to full compensation, it’s often best to wait until you have a motorcycle accident lawyer present before making any statements about the accident.
Get Help with Your Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit in Denver
If you were hurt in a motorcycle accident in the Denver area or anywhere across the Front Range, experienced motorcycle accident lawyer Brian Pushchak can help ensure your settlement amount fully covers your losses. Mr. Pushchak has made motorcycle accident cases a primary focus of his practice, and he has helped many clients navigate this difficult process. This extensive experience has helped Mr. Pushchak develop effective strategies to help improve motorcycle accident settlement offers.
In addition, when you work with Pushchak Law, you will benefit from our exclusive Informed Decisions™ Approach. This means that we will start by listening to you. This helps us understand not just how much noneconomic damages might be appropriate in your case, it helps us understand how best to proceed with your settlement process. We will take into account what matters most to you, and pursue the outcome suited to your personal needs. We’ll give you our personal contact information, so you can always keep in touch with us whenever you have a question, a concern, or a decision to make about your case. And the case is always yours. We provide our expert advice, but you make all the final decisions.
To learn how Pushchak Law can help after your motorcycle accident, please contact us today for a free initial consultation. We serve clients in Denver and the surrounding areas.
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