There is also the issue of insurance. Often times, insurance sets the value of the case as often the insurance is the only viable or practical means of getting money in a case. For example, if the case is “worth” $100,000 but the only available insurance is $50,000 and the person with the insurance is likely not worth suing for over and above their policy, then $50,000 may be a very good settlement of the case.
If we assume that everyone (cars, homeowners insurance, etc.) has $10,000.000 of insurance, then the issue of limited insurance would very rarely happen. However, with cars in Florida, many people drive WITHOUT ANY INSURANCE. Some people have $10,000 per person (and $20,000 per accident) of insurance. We see some with $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Then we see $50,000/$100,000, and $100,000/$300,000, $250,000/$500,000. And then usually above that we will see $500,000 and $1,000,000 of coverage per accident. And above that we will see umbrellas which can vary from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000. The main point here is that for every car insurance policy on the road that has $1,000,000 or more of insurance you likely have many, many more (i am guessing over 50 or 100 cars) that would have $50,000 or less.
Thus, the limited amount of insurance that we see in many cases drives the value or settlement of the case often in injury cases.
