What is a car accident claim worth? What the numbers say

The NAIC, the association of state insurance regulators, collects loss data from insurers in every state. For accidents in 2022, here is what it shows for bodily injury liability coverage. The standalone coverage is only part of what insurers pay for injuries, so the real totals are higher.

Source: NAIC, 2022/2023 Auto Insurance Database Report, Table 8B (losses and claims, printed p. 42) and Table 8D (average per claim, printed p. 44). “Recorded” means incurred: money paid plus the insurers’ own estimates for claims still open, plus adjustment expenses, for private passenger auto. It covers bodily injury liability written with its own limit, so the real total is higher. It is what these claims cost insurers, not what any one person received.

Read it for scale, not for your case. South Carolina's total is the largest of the four and Tennessee's average per claim is the highest, and every state's average sits below the countrywide average of $28,918.86 in the same table [4]. These are insurers' losses, not what injured people received. No source we found reports what claims cost insurers inside Memphis, Birmingham, Tulsa or Columbia, so we do not state a city figure. The local pages show the state figures next to local medical-debt and uninsured-driver data: Memphis, Birmingham, Tulsa and Columbia.

This page does not turn the averages above into a number for your claim, because they cannot. Different studies measure different things (what claims cost insurers, what was paid, what trials awarded), in different years, for different kinds of claim, and an average of many claims says nothing about one. What can be said is what generally goes into a claim's value:

• Bills and costs from the crash. Medical bills so far, medical care still to come, and the pay lost while recovering. These are the parts that can be documented, so they are where most claims start.
• Pain and the way the injury changed daily life. Courts call these noneconomic damages. They are not a formula. They turn on the facts, the injury and the person deciding, and some states cap them.
• Fault. How much of the blame each side carries can reduce a claim or, in Alabama, bar it.
• Insurance limits. What the at-fault driver's policy covers is capped, and other coverage may sit behind it.
• Proof. Records, photos, the crash report and consistent accounts affect what can be shown.

Two claims with the same medical bills can end very differently. The facts, the proof, the insurance and the state's rules decide each one.

Headlines are about the biggest verdicts. The numbers say something quieter. In the 2005 study, 40% of the people who won car accident trials were awarded $10,000 or less [3]. Those are the people who won. Some claims pay nothing, and some outcomes are smaller than people expect. In a Memphis case, a woman whose car was hit by a backing minivan requested $250,000.00 in damages, and the jury awarded her $500.00 for past loss of enjoyment of life. The trial court had excluded two doctors' testimony before trial, and the Court of Appeals affirmed because she had not raised the issue in a motion for a new trial [7].

That is the low end, and it is not typical either. Here are real results from the Memphis area, picked to show a range:

• Low end, and why · 2024

  A Shelby County jury awarded $500 on a $250,000 request.

  In Galison v. Brownell, a woman whose vehicle was hit by a backing minivan in May 2017 requested $250,000.00 in damages. Before trial the court excluded the testimony of two doctors, one she had designated and one the defendants had disclosed. The jury awarded her $500.00 for past loss of enjoyment of life, and on Aug. 8, 2024 the Court of Appeals affirmed because she had not properly raised the exclusion issue after trial, so the issues were waived.

  Source: Galison v. Brownell, No. W2023-00526-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Aug. 8, 2024), official opinion (PDF), Tennessee Courts (p. 2 of the opinion: request, excluded testimony and award); Galison v. Brownell, official opinion page, Tennessee Courts

• Middle · 2025

  A Shelby County judge awarded $75,362 for neck and back injuries.

  In Payne v. Shelby County, a passenger on a medical transport shuttle bus was hurt in a June 2021 crash when a sheriff’s patrol car hit the stopped bus from behind. After a bench trial the court awarded her damages for neck and back pain totaling $75,362 but found a torn rotator cuff was not caused by the crash. On May 23, 2025 the Court of Appeals reversed that finding and sent the shoulder damages back to the trial court.

  Source: Payne v. Shelby County, No. W2024-00641-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 23, 2025), official opinion (PDF), Tennessee Courts (pp. 15 and 18 of the opinion: award of $75,362); Payne v. Shelby County, official opinion page, Tennessee Courts

• Middle · 2026

  A Shelby County jury awarded $148,148, less his 40% share of fault.

  In Conway v. Brown, a man swerved to avoid a car he said pulled into his path on Memphis-Arlington Road in Bartlett, then crashed into a tree with no contact between the cars. He had a compression fracture of the lower back that the reporter calls mild. A Shelby County jury awarded his medical bills as claimed ($78,148) plus $70,000 for noneconomic damages, with the verdict reduced by 40% comparative fault, on May 6, 2026.

  Source: Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter, April/May 2026 (23 TJVR 4/5): Conway v. Brown, No. CT-4216-22, Shelby County Circuit Court (p. 10: Verdict $148,148 for plaintiff less 40% comparative fault; Court: Shelby; Date: 5-6-26)

The other cities have their own: Birmingham, Tulsa and Columbia.