How to Calculate a Slip and Fall Settlement

December 12, 2024

To those unfamiliar with how personal injury settlements work, it might seem like slip and fall accident cases are just “cash grab” attempts. However, if you’ve been badly injured in a slip and fall incident, you already know that the point of a lawsuit isn’t to see how much money you can get — it’s to compensate you for medical bills, time off work, physical pain, and other specific losses. Here’s a look at how to calculate a slip and fall settlement.

If you have been hurt in a slip and fall incident, your personal injury attorney doesn’t arbitrarily select a dollar amount to see whether you can receive that much in compensation. Calculating a settlement is an in-depth process influenced by several different factors.

The Two Types of Compensation in a Slip and Fall Settlement

You Can Recover Compensation for Tangible and Intangible Losses

If you receive a settlement for a slip and fall injury, that settlement is a combination of two separate types of compensation:

Economic Damages: Compensation for medical expenses and other losses you can easily quantify
Non-Economic Damages: Compensation for pain and suffering and other non-quantifiable losses.

Calculating your economic losses is often simpler than calculating non-economic losses. However, to get an accurate valuation of your case, a personal injury lawyer must first take a close look at the circumstances around your injury and its aftermath.

Calculating Economic Damages

Even non-permanent injuries can result in significant economic damages. Your economic damages will likely include losses like these:

Income you could have earned had you not been injured
Medical bills
Transportation costs if your injuries left you unable to drive
Cost of childcare if needed
Cost to modify your home to accommodate a disability.

When calculating your economic damages, your attorney will add up the costs you’ve had as a result of your injuries. This is why it’s so critical to keep receipts and medical bills. However, for severe traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, and other injuries that likely will require ongoing care, your attorney may attempt to secure compensation for the reasonable cost of future care. To estimate these costs, they may consult with medical experts to ensure the estimate is as accurate as possible.

Calculating Non-Economic Damages

Once your attorney has calculated your economic damages, they can then use that number to calculate non-economic damages. Non-economic damages often include compensation for the following:

Physical pain
Emotional distress
Loss of consortium (impact on your relationship with a spouse)
Psychological impact of disfigurement
Loss of quality of life.

How do you compensate someone for losses that aren’t represented by invoices? While there is some variation when it comes to valuing a case, most insurance companies, attorneys, and civil courts use something called the “multiplier method” to determine what kind of compensation you should receive.

With the multiplier method, the person calculating your settlement first adds up your economic damages. They then assign a number (or multiplier) between 1.5 and 5 to your case. The more serious the impact of your injuries on your daily life and your future, the higher that multiplier is likely to be. For example, if your injuries are serious but expected to heal completely, your multiplier would likely be closer to 1.5. If those injuries are permanent and severe (like paralysis or amputation), your multiplier would probably be closer to 5.

The person calculating your settlement would then multiply your total economic damages by your multiplier. The resulting number is the total of your non-economic damages. The sum of your economic damages and non-economic damages would be your total settlement value.

The only way to get an accurate estimate of your case’s value is to consult an experienced personal injury lawyer. Contact Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 to schedule your free consultation today.

Here’s an example. Imagine you slip on an unmarked wet floor and suffer major injuries that are likely to cause partial disability for several months before healing almost completely. Your total economic damages are $20,000. Because of the nature of your injuries, your case is assigned a multiplier of two. That makes your total non-economic damages equal to $40,000. Adding that to your economic damages gives you $60,000 — the total value of your settlement.

What if You Were Partially Responsible for Your Injuries?

In some cases, the other party may be completely at fault for your injury. But what happens if you were partly responsible? Fortunately, both Pennsylvania and New Jersey are modified comparative negligence states. This means that in either state, you may seek compensation in civil court even if your actions contributed to the incident — as long as you weren’t more responsible than the other party.

However, in either state, any financial award you receive will be reduced by your percentage of responsibility. For instance, if you are awarded $100,000 in compensation but were 30% at fault, you would receive $70,000 instead.

Factors Influencing the Total Value of Your Case

Each slip and fall case has its own unique set of circumstances. However, generally speaking, there are several factors that may shape the value of your case:

The severity of your injuries
Whether your injuries lead to permanent disability
How willing both parties are to compromise during settlement negotiations
The responsible party’s insurance limits
Any pre-existing conditions that may have aggravated your injuries
The total dollar value of your lost wages
The overall impact of your injuries on quality of life
How negligent the responsible party was
Whether you contributed to the incident in any way
The amount of evidence your attorney is able to gather.

Your personal injury lawyer can give you an accurate estimate of your case value. However, you can help by keeping track of both your expenses and the impact your injuries have on your quality of life.

Have You Been Hurt in a Slip and Fall?

Let Wapner Newman Fight for You

If you suffered injuries because a business owner or individual didn’t care enough to maintain safe premises, that other party must be held accountable. Since 1978, Wapner Newman has been dedicated to fighting for the rights of injured New Jersey and Pennsylvania citizens. We take the time to get to know you, discuss your case, and deliver a valuation that is as precise as possible. To us, you’re not just another case. You’re a person who deserves justice, and our mission is to secure that justice for you.

You deserve an attorney who will fight tirelessly for you to recover the compensation you need. Call Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 to schedule your free consultation.