What is the Average Personal Injury Settlement in St. Louis, Missouri?

By The Cagle Law Firm | September 5, 2025 | Car Accidents, Featured, News, Personal Injury

“What is my case worth?” is one of the most common questions we hear when talking with anyone suffering a personal injury.

While injury victims want to know what they can expect from an personal injury settlement, there a many factors involved. Because of these numerous factors including facts of the incident, medical treatment and physical recovery, there may not be such as thing as an “average”.  The severity of the injuries injuries, consequences, insurance coverage, and level of negligence impact a settlement.  Most people want a “ball park average”, but you should be wary of any attorney that gives you a figure before they have all of the information.  At the beginning of each case, we investigate the incident, injuries, treatment and coverage to determine how our attorneys can fight for the highest financial compensation for you. Our attorneys get results for our clients.  While you can get an “average” insurance quote for rates to buy insurance, they don’t publish any of their “average” settlement calculations.  There is a good reason they do not do that.  There are a lot of websites that will attempt to provide a calculation, or a “way to calculate your personal injury settlement”.

What Does a Personal Injury Settlement Actually Cover?

A personal injury settlement is a financial payment made on behalf of the of the at-fault party to the injured.  The payment is compensation for the injured party for losses due to the incident. Settlements are out-of-court case resolutions achieved through negotiation.  Settlements cover economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those damages such as medical costs, income loss and related expenses.  Non-economic damages address things that are not always so easy to measure including intangible losses like emotional trauma, pain and suffering and reduced enjoyment of life.

The standard of proof required by a plaintiff/injured party must have “clear and convincing evidence” that the party at-fault caused harm.  In some instances where a party acts with “deliberate and flagrant disregard” for safety, then a party may be entitled to punitive damages.

Factors Impacting Your Personal Injury Compensation Amount

No two scenarios are exactly the same.  There are a variety of factors that impact settlement amounts. They include:

• Severity of the injuries, the extent of the injuries and the medical costs associated.
• Strength of the evidence for proving the at-fault party’s negligence
• Insurance limits for the at-fault party’s policies
• How much fault do you bear?

Severe life-changing injuries or catastrophic injuries produce a great deal more pain, suffering, financial distress.  Milder injuries may still require surgery and have permanency but not be catastrophic.  Again, two people can be in a similar type of incident on a different day and may have different injuries.  It is impossible to base your estimate of damages based on a friend or family member’s experience.  It is critical to talk to an expert attorney to help you value your injuries.

What Happens If the Insurance Company Won’t Offer a Settlement?

Depending on the facts of the case, an insurance company may deny liability.  They may devalue your injuries no matter how severe your injuries.    In reality, the only thing an insurance company must do is investigate the claim.  (We will refrain from offering opinions based on our experience of the thoroughness of their “investigation”). Again, factors that influence that decisions include: facts of the crash, injuries and whether or not that person has an attorney.  All of our trial cases go to trial because either the insurance company refused to offer a settlement or the offer was simply unacceptable.  Your case is a process.  The process begins the date of the injury. At the time of the injury, even if you are in the hospital, it is unlikely you will know the full scope of your injuries. Injuries take time and medical treatment.  Insurance carriers engage in tactics that can cost you after the crash. Our attorneys work with our clients through their medical process and through investigation into available coverage.  Our attorneys make recommendations and set an action plan in place specific to your circumstance.  Again, the main driver of a damage case is the severity of the injury and coverage.

Hiring a Litigation Firm Increases the Likelihood of Higher Settlement Offers.

Why would hiring a litigation firm increase your chances of a better settlement?

Twenty years of litigation:  It’s not a secret that insurance companies know the law firms that are not just happy to go to trail but in fact, love to try cases. And, insurance companies know the law firms that get great results in trial.  Why is that important?  You want an attorney that is going to get the maximum compensation for your case and fight for you. We have not met a client yet that did not want us to fight on their behalf–it’s kind of the point.  Paying out maximum compensation for injured individuals is not how they have become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Preparedness: When a litigation firm take on your case, we work up every case as if it is going to go to trial.  That is essential because it means we immediately act to investigate your claim and secure evidence. The best evidence gathering happens in the beginning of the case when it comes to truck crashes and car crashes. Furthermore, other critical evidence can be gathered during the discovery process. If you hire a firm that counts on settling every case, your case may not be worked up with such detail and done in an aggressive way.  We get prepared and do not bluff.

Reputation: Lastly, when an insurance company defense attorney discovers our attorneys are bringing the claim, it makes a difference.  As in any industry, attorneys know the other attorneys.  You have to remember that the attorney for the insurance company’s goal is to reduce costs which means a lower pay out for you.  If they know your attorney will aggressively push for a great outcome and not just wait for whatever they offer, different numbers get offered in an effort to avoid trial.   Our attorneys do not just threaten to go to trial.  It’s not just a threat when the attorneys love to try cases.  However, with each case, our attorneys do what is in the best interest of their client.

Our clients who have serious injuries cannot afford to wait around to see if the insurance carrier will be reasonable without a plan.  Our attorneys have a plan tailored to your specific situation to maximize your recovery.   As well, our clients are hurt, have been seeking medical treatment and working at getting better when possible.  They tell us it is gratifying to find out that we care as much about their recovery as their friends and family.

Why The Cagle Law Firm May Be For You?

One, our clients are hurt.  There is nothing fun about qualifying to work with our firm.  It means you are hurt and seeking months of medical treatment is not a good time.  It is frustrating and discouraging to have to seek medical treatment and physically recover when you were not the cause of your injury.  None of our clients have ever hired us because they thought it would be fun. They were hurt and up against a wall.  We do find it fun when we prevail for our client–that is fun and rewarding.  Because we are representing people who are hurt, we build relationships. Usually, we are working together for a quite some time and through some difficult injuries. Trust through honesty is the first basic building block in all of our relationships even when the news is not ideal.  There are always some hills and challenges in a serious injury case.  Without an effective attorney, the entire battle can be fought and rigged against you.  Most of our seriously injured clients simply cannot afford to sit back and wait to see if an insurance adjuster will come to a reasonable figure. (Our experience is that they rarely come to a reasonable figure on their own)

If you are hurt and the crash was not your fault, then we can probably help.  Every incident that causes injury is a little bit different. Yes, we’ve done 100’s of car accidents, 100’s of commerical crashes and each person is still unique.

Back to the Initial Question–What is the Average Personal Injury Settlement?

Summary:  There is not “average settlement” especially if it is YOUR injury.  We are not excited about “average”.  When it comes to your body and your damages, you want to be treated as an individual and not as “average”. Unfortunately, you cannot get an “average” for your injury compensation online like you can the auto insurance premium rate.  Rates can be statistically averaged, but people and their worth cannot.  Can we promise multi-million settlements or verdicts for everyone?  Of course not.  We can promise that we will investigate your case and look for all applicable insurance coverage to best assist you in returning to normal life.   First, we focus on you having the best medical recovery possible. When focus is put on restoring your health, cases have a way of going better. Second, we are persistent as hell when it comes to representing our client in maximizing their compensation.  By the time you need us, you are hurt and have your hands full.  Let us do the legal lifting while you focus on getting better.

Call us toll free 1.800.685.3302 or locally 314.276.1681

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