Calculation Methodology & Authoritative Sources

Editorial Mission

SettlementCalculator exists to help U.S. consumers understand the basic inputs that commonly affect settlement estimates: medical costs, wage loss, property damage, injury severity, comparative fault, insurance limits, tax categories, and present value. The site does not evaluate any user's legal rights, does not predict a court result, does not recommend settlement strategy, and does not replace legal counsel.

The editorial mission is transparency over credential inflation. The operator is disclosed by name, location, email address, and non-attorney status. Authority is built through clear formulas, consistent warnings, and links to public government, bar association, and recognized legal-information sources.

Update Frequency

Calculator pages are reviewed at least quarterly for broken links, outdated source references, and inconsistent disclaimers. Pages that rely on IRS publications, Department of Labor data, Federal Reserve rates, BLS wage data, or state legal rules may be updated sooner when those sources materially change. Each calculator page displays a last-reviewed date.

Authoritative Sources

• IRS Publication 4345 and IRS settlement tax guidance: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4345.pdf
  Used for general tax categories including physical injury exclusion, punitive damages, interest, lost wages, and property-loss treatment.
• American Bar Association public legal resources: https://www.americanbar.org/about_the_aba/aba_public_resources/
  Used for the distinction between public legal information and individualized legal advice, and for routing users to lawyer referral resources.
• NOLO legal information cross-reference: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-pain-suffering-determined-car-accident-case.html
  Used only as a plain-language cross-reference for common public explanations of settlement concepts; government and bar sources remain primary.
• U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division data: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data
  Used for wage/hour enforcement context, back-wage concepts, and employment-related settlement categories.
• U.S. Department of Labor Office of Workers Compensation Programs: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/owcp
  Used for public workers compensation program background and federal compensation terminology.
• Federal Reserve H.15 Selected Interest Rates: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15
  Used as a public benchmark for discount-rate context in present value calculations; calculators use standard finance formulas and disclose assumptions.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data by area and occupation: https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm
  Used for wage, occupation, and regional pay references in lost-income and earning-capacity estimates.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/oes/
  Used as a public wage-data source for occupation-specific earning estimates and cross-checks.

Calculator Formula Documentation

Car accident, truck, motorcycle, rideshare, pedestrian, bicycle, and other injury calculators

Economic damages + estimated non-economic damages. Economic damages include medical expenses, lost wages, property loss, and documented out-of-pocket costs. Non-economic damages use a disclosed multiplier or per-diem approach as an educational estimate, then adjust for comparative fault, policy limits, injury severity, and evidence factors.

Pain and suffering calculator

Uses two public-facing valuation methods: medical-specials multiplier and per-diem days-of-recovery. The multiplier is not a legal rule; it is a negotiation model explained as a rough estimate only.

Settlement tax calculator

Separates physical injury compensation, punitive damages, interest, emotional-distress-only damages, wage replacement, and property-loss categories using IRS Publication 4345 and related IRS guidance.

Structured settlement calculator

Present value calculations follow standard finance formulas: PV = payment / (1 + discount rate)^period for each payment stream. Discount-rate context is derived from public Treasury-yield benchmarks such as Federal Reserve H.15; users can change assumptions.

Workers comp settlement calculator

Uses educational inputs such as average weekly wage, impairment rating, benefit weeks, wage replacement, and state-specific factors. It is not a substitute for a state workers compensation board, attorney, or claims professional.

Loan payoff, disability, totaled vehicle, and insurance calculators

Use standard finance, schedule, or public-rate formulas where available. These are included for settlement planning context and are not financial advice.

What the Calculators Do Not Do

The calculators do not identify the correct statute of limitations, determine liability, evaluate admissibility of evidence, interpret an insurance policy, negotiate liens, decide tax allocation, or tell a user whether to accept or reject an offer. Those are case-specific legal, tax, and financial questions. The site repeatedly directs users to consult a licensed attorney in their state.

Data Handling

Calculator inputs are processed in the browser by JavaScript. The site is designed so users can estimate scenarios without submitting medical facts, wage numbers, claim details, or contact information to the operator. See the Privacy Policy for current data handling details.