Property damage is the cost to repair or replace your damaged property, most often your vehicle, and it is generally handled on a separate track from the bodily injury claim the car accident settlement calculator estimates. If your car is repairable, the claim is the repair cost. If it is totaled, the insurer is responsible for its Actual Cash Value (ACV), which is the local market value of the totaled vehicle. There is a third, often-missed category: diminished value. Even after a proper repair, a car with an accident history is worth less on resale, and that lost value is a separate, recoverable category of damages. To claim it you generally must be not at fault, own or finance the vehicle, and have it repaired rather than totaled. Insurers commonly apply "Formula 17c," which came out of the Georgia case State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Mabry: take the post-collision market value, multiply by 0.10 for a base loss, apply a damage multiplier, then a mileage multiplier. Every state except Michigan allows some diminished value claims when another driver is at fault, and 15 states let you collect diminished value directly from the at-fault driver's insurer. One practical limit: you cannot bring separate lawsuits for injury, repair, and diminished value, so property damage is folded into one suit even though it is a distinct category.
The ring is the gross claim of $33,950. The two kept arcs sum to the net figure in the centre, and the red arc is what comparative fault and statutory caps take away.
| Component | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Medical expenses | $6,500 | 19.1% |
| Lost wages | $3,200 | 9.4% |
| Economic damages | $9,700 | 28.6% |
| Pain and suffering (2.5x economic) | $24,250 | 71.4% |
| Comparative-fault reduction (0%) | $0 | 0.0% |
| Likely settlement | $33,950 | 100.0% |
Share is measured against the gross claim of $33,950. Method: multiplier method, industry standard. Estimate for negotiation, not legal advice.
Estimate only, not legal advice. The legal rules this calculator applies, each state's statute of limitations, comparative-negligence rule, and damage caps, are taken from official state statutes and US government sources, and every figure is cited inline so you can check it against the original. The multiplier method itself is the industry-standard approach bodily-injury adjusters use internally to set claim reserves, so treat the result as a negotiating benchmark rather than a promise: a real settlement still moves with insurer behavior, the strength of your evidence, and the jurisdiction you file in. Your figures stay on your device. Nothing you type is sent to a server, logged, or shared, and it clears when you close the tab. Take these numbers to a personal-injury attorney licensed in your state before you accept or reject any offer, especially for catastrophic injury or amounts above $50,000.
Method note for diminished value: Formula 17c starts from post-collision market value times 0.10, then applies a damage multiplier and a mileage multiplier. As a rough self-estimate, the source suggests multiplying the pre-crash Kelley Blue Book value by 0.33. Vehicle damage sits outside the injury estimate, so run the bodily injury side through the personal injury calculator separately.
Formula 17c takes post-collision market value times 0.10 for a base loss, then applies a damage multiplier (1.0 for structural down to 0) and a mileage multiplier (1.0 under 20,000 miles down to 0 at 100,000-plus miles). It originated in the Georgia Mabry case.
Every state except Michigan allows some diminished value claim when another driver is at fault. In Michigan you cannot pursue this category at all.
15 states (Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Virginia) let a driver collect diminished value directly from the at-fault driver's insurer.
When a vehicle is totaled, the insurer is responsible for its Actual Cash Value, defined as the local market value of the totaled vehicle, not what you paid or what it costs to replace new.
You must be not at fault, own or finance the vehicle, and have it repaired rather than totaled. A totaled car already pays ACV, so diminished value applies to repaired vehicles.
Property damage is generally handled separately from the bodily injury claim, but you cannot bring separate lawsuits for injury, repair, and diminished value. It is a distinct category folded into a single suit, whose non-economic side is estimated with the pain and suffering calculator.
A not-at-fault driver has a repaired vehicle with structural damage and 18,000 miles. The insurer applies Formula 17c starting from the post-collision market value.
Base loss is market value times 0.10, then the damage multiplier (1.0 for structural) and mileage multiplier (1.0 under 20,000 miles) keep the full base, producing the diminished value figure.
A vehicle is declared a total loss after a crash. The insurer must pay its Actual Cash Value rather than repair it.
The payout is the local market value of the totaled vehicle (ACV). Diminished value does not apply because the car was totaled, not repaired.
Even after a proper repair, a car with an accident history is worth less on resale. That lost value is a separate, recoverable category of damages, distinct from the repair cost itself.
Insurers commonly use Formula 17c: post-collision market value times 0.10 for a base loss, then a damage multiplier and a mileage multiplier. As a rough self-estimate, multiply the pre-crash Kelley Blue Book value by 0.33.
Every state except Michigan allows some diminished value claim when another driver is at fault. 15 states let you collect it directly from the at-fault driver's insurer. Michigan bars these claims entirely.
The Actual Cash Value (ACV), defined as the local market value of the totaled vehicle. Diminished value does not apply to a totaled car, only to a repaired one.
It is generally handled on a separate track from the bodily injury claim, but you cannot file separate lawsuits for injury, repair, and diminished value. It is a distinct category folded into one suit.
The PersonalInjuryCalculator.us editorial team documents how US insurance carriers value personal-injury claims and turns that into plain-English calculators and explainers. Every dollar range, multiplier, filing deadline, and damages cap published here is traced back to a named source. The team is not a law firm and includes no attorneys, so nothing on this site is legal advice. Speak with a licensed attorney in your state for serious or contested cases.
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