By Katie Goldberg, founding attorney at Goldberg Injury Law, Las Vegas.
The most reliable figure is the insurance industry’s own: in 2024, US auto insurers paid an average of $28,278 per bodily injury claim. In Las Vegas that average sits right around the $25,000 minimum policy a Nevada driver is allowed to carry, so the insurance on both cars can cap a settlement before the injury does.
Table Of Contents
Table Of Contents
- The Short Answer
- The Average Claim Insurers Paid In 2024
- Why Nevada’s $25,000 Minimum Matters
- How A Settlement Is Built, Step By Step
- What Raises Or Lowers The Number
- What You Take Home From A Settlement
- What To Do This Week
- How Long A Settlement Takes
- Talk To Katie About Your Own Case
- Nevada Injury Claim Resources
The Short Answer
- The Benchmark: $28,278, the average bodily injury liability claim US auto insurers paid in 2024, from ISO data published by the Insurance Information Institute. It includes what insurers spent handling the claims.
- The Nevada Ceiling: a driver with Nevada’s minimum policy has $25,000 of coverage for one injured person, whatever the injury.
- Your Own Policy Can Add To It: underinsured motorist coverage pays the damages above the other driver’s limit, up to your own limit.
- Fault And Fees Come Out First: your share of fault reduces the award, and the attorney fee, case costs and medical liens come out before you’re paid.
The Average Claim Insurers Paid In 2024
ISO, the insurance industry’s data service, tracks what auto insurers pay on claims, and the Insurance Information Institute publishes the figures. In 2024 the average bodily injury liability claim US auto insurers paid was $28,278. That’s the average cost of a paid claim, including what insurers spent handling it, so the average payment itself was somewhat lower.
The figure has climbed every year since 2016, from $16,082 to $28,278, and it passed $25,000 in 2023. An average across every paid claim mixes a sore neck after a rear-end collision with a broken leg from a T-bone crash, so it tells you what a typical claim costs an insurer rather than what your claim is worth. Treat it as a benchmark.
The Average Injury Claim Now Tops $25,000
Average bodily injury liability claim paid by US auto insurers, 2015 to 2024. The dashed line is Nevada’s $25,000 minimum for one injured person.
Is $50,000 A Good Settlement For A Car Accident?
It’s about 1.8 times the $28,278 average claim insurers paid in 2024, so it’s well above the average. Whether it’s good for you depends on your medical bills, the care you still need and the income you lost. Against a driver carrying Nevada’s minimum policy, $50,000 for one person means the money came from more than that policy, such as your own underinsured motorist coverage.
Why Nevada’s $25,000 Minimum Matters
In Nevada, the minimum required auto liability coverage is 25/50/20: $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 per accident when two or more people are hurt, and $20,000 for property damage. The $50,000 is the total for everyone hurt in the crash, not a second $25,000 for each person.
Put that next to the national average. Even allowing for handling costs, a claim of average size sits close to the most a minimum policy can pay one person, and anything more serious runs past it. When the driver who hit you carries the minimum, $25,000 is the most that policy will pay you, however serious the injury.
Some drivers carry nothing at all. The Insurance Research Council estimates 11.1% of Nevada drivers were uninsured in 2023, about one in nine.
Your own policy is the answer to both problems. In Nevada, your insurer must offer you uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, which protects you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little, and the offer has to match the bodily injury limits you buy. Underinsured coverage pays the damages above the other driver’s limit, up to your own limit, under NRS 687B.145.
It shows up in what Katie’s clients write afterward. Eight of the 360 written Google reviews the firm had received by September 2026 describe what an insurance policy paid: six mention the full policy limit, and two describe a second policy that turned up.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case depends on its own facts.
What If The Driver Who Hit You Had No Insurance?
Your own uninsured motorist coverage is built for that. It works through your policy, so the claim goes to your insurer instead of the other driver’s, and Nevada insurers have to offer it. If you didn’t buy it, there may still be other coverage to find, and finding it is the first thing we look into on a case like that.
How A Settlement Is Built, Step By Step
There’s no official formula or settlement calculator, but the order below is how the money moves. The round numbers are an example of the mechanics, not a prediction for your case.
| Step | What Happens | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Add up the damages | Medical bills, future care and lost wages (economic damages), plus pain and suffering (non-economic damages) | $100,000 |
| 2. Subtract your share of fault | Found 30% at fault, you recover the other 70% under Nevada’s comparative negligence rule | $70,000 |
| 3. The other driver’s policy pays up to its limit | A minimum Nevada policy pays at most $25,000 to one person | $25,000 |
| 4. Your underinsured coverage pays the rest | With $50,000 of UIM, it covers the remaining $45,000 | $45,000 |
| 5. Fees, costs and liens come out | Set by your fee agreement and the liens on your medical bills | You receive the net |
Without step 4, the $45,000 above the other driver’s limit has no insurance behind it. That’s why the first item on the checklist below is your own declarations page.
What Raises Or Lowers The Number
| Raises It | Lowers It |
|---|---|
| Medical records that start soon after the crash and follow your doctor’s plan | Gaps in treatment an adjuster can point to |
| A doctor’s written opinion on the care you’ll still need | Settling before your doctor knows how far you’ll recover |
| Pay stubs, tax returns or an employer letter showing lost income | Missed work you can’t document |
| A police report, photos, video or witnesses showing who caused the crash | A larger share of the fault on you |
| Underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy | A minimum policy on the other car and none on yours |
Do Injections Increase Your Settlement?
Not by themselves. Treatment your doctor orders, and the records that prove it, support a claim because the medical record is the evidence. Care you didn’t need is care the adjuster will challenge, and a treatment plan built around a claim instead of your recovery is easy to spot. Follow your doctor’s plan and let the records show what the injury took.
What You Take Home From A Settlement
A settlement and the check you receive are not the same number. Out of the settlement come the attorney fee your written agreement sets, the case costs advanced along the way, and any medical liens. A contingency fee is a percentage of what’s recovered, agreed in writing when you hire a lawyer. It covers attorney fees only: case costs and expenses can apply and can differ from fees, so ask us to explain both.
In Nevada, a hospital can place a lien on your injury settlement or judgment, but it has to record the lien and serve it before payment for the lien to be valid. The lien can’t reach your attorney’s fees, and when you may qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or CHIP, the hospital can recover no more than 55% of its billed charges through it. Negotiating liens down is part of the work, because every dollar off a lien is a dollar that reaches you. Taxes are a separate question, covered in whether personal injury settlements are taxable in Nevada.
How Much Of A $25,000 Settlement Will You Get?
Less than $25,000, because the attorney fee, the case costs and any medical liens come out first. The fee depends on your written agreement and the liens depend on your treatment, so the real answer is a written breakdown before you sign anything. Ask for one, and ask what’s being done to reduce the liens.
What To Do This Week
- Find the declarations page of your own auto policy and check for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and for medical payments coverage, which Nevada insurers must also offer.
- Get the other driver’s insurance company and policy number from the police report or the information you exchanged at the scene.
- Keep every appointment your doctor sets, and keep the bills and records.
- Write down the work you miss and what the injury stops you doing, week by week.
- Talk to a lawyer before you give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement or sign a release.
- Mind the statute of limitations. In Nevada, you generally have 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit, and missing it can cost you the right to recover. Claims against a government body and medical malpractice claims run on their own deadlines.
How Long A Settlement Takes
A demand waits until your doctors know how far you’ll recover, the point called maximum medical improvement, so treatment usually sets the pace. How long a Nevada car accident settlement takes walks through each stage.
Do Insurance Companies Want To Settle Quickly?
Often, while the injury is still new. An early offer can arrive before your treatment is finished, and a settlement is meant to be the end of the claim, even if you need more care later. Know what the injury has cost you before you accept anything, and talk to us before you sign.
Talk To Katie About Your Own Case
If you want a number for your own case rather than an average, that starts with someone reading your records and both policies, and the first consultation is free. Call 702-529-2661, text Katie at 702-702-9585, or send us a message. You can also see how we handle Las Vegas car accident cases.
Reviewed by Katie Goldberg, founding attorney at Goldberg Injury Law.
This information is general and not legal advice. Every case is different. Talk to a licensed Nevada attorney about your situation. Contacting this firm or reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Insurance coverage and claim outcomes depend on your policy and your insurer’s decision. We do not control your claim result. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case depends on its own facts.
Nevada Injury Claim Resources
- Insurance Information Institute, Facts + Statistics: Auto insurance: the ISO claim averages behind the $28,278 figure, year by year from 2015.
- Insurance Information Institute, Facts + Statistics: Uninsured motorists: the Insurance Research Council’s estimate of uninsured drivers in each state, Nevada included.
- NRS 485.185: Nevada’s 25/50/20 minimum liability coverage, the ceiling on a minimum policy.
- NRS 687B.145: the rule that insurers offer UM/UIM coverage matching your liability limits, and that underinsured coverage pays above the other driver’s limit.
- NRS 108.655: the 55% limit on a hospital’s lien when you may qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or CHIP.
Goldberg Injury Law
Downtown Address:
6010 S Rainbow Blvd Suite A1,
Las Vegas, NV 89118
Phone: 702-382-9797
Fax: 702-920-8670
