How much is my truck accident claim worth?

Benchmark table

The bands

• Soft tissue with PT, no surgery: $50,000–$150,000.
• Single fracture, surgical fixation: $150,000–$500,000.
• Multi-system injury, lost wages, future care: $500,000–$2.5M.
• TBI, moderate to severe: $2M–$10M.
• Spinal cord, amputation, wrongful death: $5M–$25M+, often constrained only by available coverage.

Coverage stacking

Identify every available coverage layer early. Order of recovery: motor carrier's primary liability ($1M is common, $750k minimum), motor carrier's excess and umbrella ($5M–$25M), broker liability if applicable, shipper liability for negligent selection or loading, maintenance vendor coverage. Multiple defendants frequently produce settlement totals well above what any single policy would have paid.

Punitive damage exposure

Truck cases more often support punitives than car cases. Hours-of-service violations, falsified logs, drug-test failures, hiring drivers with disqualifying records, and ignored maintenance defects are punitive triggers. State law on punitive caps varies, but the prospect of punitives drives compensatory settlements upward in negotiation.

What caps the number

Total available coverage, almost always. Even with strong liability, a $15M life-care plan against $5M in coverage typically resolves near the policy limits. The discovery of additional defendants and coverage layers is the work that moves the recovery up.