I was in a car accident and in May 14, 2006 will be the limit to file. I've been working with the insurance company and they want to settle for 13,500. $6,762.75 in what they claim are medical cost and 6,500.00 for my pain and suffering. My medical cost comes out to 14,000, milage @1,095.26. I heard that the common rule is 3 times the medical cost, is this correct?

I'm skeptical of a "rule of thumb" for this situation.

I do, though, think that triple is not unreasonable. So if that amount is acceptable to you, demand 5x knowing they'll counter with less.

There is no real rule of thumb, an attorney frined of mine when he actually had to file a suit, asked for 10 times the actual ( shock value I guess)

On the larger claims it was often dollar for dollar actual settlement and on smaller ones many times twice. If you are going to file suit, always file high,

And normally to actually get a good settlement you have to first file, don't ask me why, but I guess they hope they will get you to miss your filing date, or perhaps get you to settle for less.

And often unless you have an attorney, they just won't offer you as good of settlement,? don't know why

File and ask for the sky,make sure your documentation is in order(paying an attorney a third is a wise move):cool: