How much could a motorcycle accident injury claim be worth if you have been involved in a motorcycle accident you may be wondering how much your future claim could be worth this article takes a look at some of the factors that could affect your claim damages and liability when it comes to valuing a motorcycle accident you will need to consider damage and liability damages are related to the injuries and any other losses that came about as a result of the accident the worse the injuries are the higher the damages are likely to be liability refers to the person who was found to be at fault if the individual who hit you had not acted negligently or you are unable to prove that they were at fault your case is likely to be worth very little this will be the case as it is always up to the plaintiffs to prove the defendant acted negligently let's imagine that a car hit the rear of your motorcycle while you were stationary and waiting for a red light to change you did not sustain any injuries in the accident and your motorcycle was not damaged the individual who hit you had acted negligently however if you did not hurt and there was no damage to your motorcycle there will be no case this is because you did not suffer any damages that were compensable now let's imagine that you suffered some bad injuries and your motorcycle was badly damaged however the driver of the other vehicle was not negligent and you could even be found at fault due to the circumstances surrounding the accident any settlement that you receive could be quite small as the defendants insurance company will have no obligation to pay you any money the settlement value vs the trial value when you're in the process of making an injury claim you should remember there are two different types of valuations and these are known as the settlement value in the trial value the settlement value is the amount that you would hope to settle the injury case for this value is likely to be a lot lower than the value of the trial the amount tends to be lower as it's likely you will settle the case so you avoid losing it if it goes to trial you think you will win at a trial based on the damages and liability it might be worth pursuing let's imagine that if you won the trial you would be awarded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars but you only have a twenty five percent chance of winning in this situation you should think about settling your case for less than thirty seven thousand five hundred dollars which is twenty five percent of the estimated trial value in general the settlement value tends to be less than the trials value when it is multiplied by your chances of winning the sum is always less as you are likely to settle the case so you can avoid losing at the trial calculating damages in a motorcycle case damages in any personal injury case tend to be divided into two different categories damages that are hard to calculate such as pain and suffering special damages that are easy to calculate pain and suffering are hard to calculate and unfortunately there are not any guideline that can help the court determine how much pain and suffering is worth due to the lack of guidelines a judge tends to ask juries to use their experience and background when they are looking to place a value on this please read our article what is pain and suffering for more information special damages refer to the loss of earnings and potential loss of earnings they also refer to medical bills in other forms of financial loss a judge can usually calculate the value of special damages as they have a clear monetary value loss of earnings it's very easy to calculate the loss of earnings as you can simply work out how much money has been lost as well as any employment benefits that were lost to future lost earnings when it comes to working out how much someone has lost in future earnings there is often a bit of difficulty surrounding this this is because a personal injury lawyer will have to work out how much the injured party has lost based on the current value of their earnings let's imagine you were involved in a motorcycle accident and at the time of the accident you were earning $50,000 per year you were injured as a result of the accident and could no longer work in the same job in fact you had to take on a part-time job and you were only earning $20,000 per year in a case such as this the lost earning capacity is $30,000 per year this means you could potentially be awarded $30,000 per year for every remaining year of your working life work life expectancy is measured using the number of years you are likely to work this will be based on your race sex and age although this is fairly easy it can be difficult to work out how much that missing $30,000 is going to be worth in the future