Soft Tissue Settlement Calculator: Inputs and Worked Example

Who this tool is for

This calculator is an educational companion for people exploring how documented accident expenses and a handful of adjustable assumptions interact in a simplified settlement model — typically someone with a whiplash, strain, sprain, or similar soft-tissue claim who wants to think through scenarios before speaking with a professional. It is a learning aid, not a valuation service. It does not evaluate evidence, predict awards, or reflect how any insurer or court will actually treat a claim.

When to use it

Use it early, while organizing a claim file: after you have gathered bills and wage records, and before you compare notes with a lawyer or respond to an offer. It is most useful for seeing how one input at a time changes the arithmetic, not for producing a number to negotiate around.

The inputs

• Medical treatment — documented costs such as ER visits, imaging, and physician care.
• Physical therapy and rehab — rehab costs not already counted under medical treatment; the tool cannot detect double-counting.
• Lost wages — documented missed work.
• Active treatment months — 1 to 24; the duration adjustment stops increasing at six months.
• Symptom severity — mild, moderate, or serious, each mapped to a fixed weight.
• Objective support — limited, some, or strong; this changes an assumed weight and does not assess your actual records.
• Shared fault — a 0–90% slider that applies a simple percentage reduction.

Each money field accepts $0 to $100 million. You can clear a field while typing; empty or invalid entries are treated as $0 (or one month for duration), out-of-range values are capped in the calculations, and when you leave a field it normalizes to the bounded value actually being used.

How the math works

The economic base is simply medical treatment + therapy + lost wages, before any multiplier or reduction. The model then builds a combined weight:

• Severity: 1.35 (mild), 1.90 (moderate), or 2.60 (serious)
• Duration: 0.12 per treatment month, capped at 0.72
• Documentation: −0.10 (limited), 0.18 (some), or 0.40 (strong)

The central scenario is: economic base × (1 + combined weight) × (1 - selected fault percentage / 100). The lower and upper scenarios are 80% and 120% of the unrounded central figure, each rounded separately to whole dollars. The three scenario totals and the economic base measure different quantities: the base is raw expenses only, while each scenario total includes those expenses plus an assumed non-economic amount, after the fault reduction.

Fixed assumptions and what is left out

Every weight above is a fixed model choice, not a statistic. The 80%/120% band is arbitrary spread, not a confidence interval. Omitted entirely: attorney fees, medical liens, policy limits, state recovery rules and fault cutoffs, venue, preexisting conditions, credibility, future care, and negotiation dynamics. The tool does not calculate these factors, so its outputs cannot resolve them.

A hypothetical worked example

Using the tool's default inputs — this is purely illustrative, not a typical or expected result:

Each scenario is rounded from its own unrounded value, so the displayed lower and upper figures can differ from 80% and 120% of the displayed central figure.

Interpreting the results

Treat the three totals as one model's arithmetic under your chosen assumptions. A gap between a scenario and an actual offer proves nothing by itself, because the model omits case-specific factors. Change one input at a time to see its effect, write down which assumptions you selected, and never use a displayed amount as the sole basis for accepting an offer or signing a release.

Common mistakes

1. Entering therapy costs under both medical treatment and rehab, inflating the base.
2. Comparing the economic base to the scenario totals as if they measured the same thing.
3. Reading the upper scenario as a realistic ceiling or the lower one as a floor.
4. Adjusting treatment months to raise the number — treatment decisions belong with a qualified clinician, and the duration weight caps at six months anyway.
5. Assuming the documentation menu graded your evidence; it only swaps a fixed weight.

Further reading

Use the pain-and-suffering guide to compare this fixed-weight model with the separate multiplier and per diem tool. The medical expense tracker helps organize costs, and the lost-wages calculator provides a separate income-loss exercise.

Try the calculator

Open the Soft Tissue Injury Settlement Calculator and change one input at a time. The Spanish calculator uses the same arithmetic with translated labels.

Methodology and scope

The weights, limits and example in this guide were checked against the current JusticeFinder calculator implementation on September 12, 2026. They document how this software works; they are not derived from settlement datasets, legal rules or clinical evidence. This article makes no medical diagnosis or assessment of a particular claim. Sophia Hayes is JusticeFinder's educational AI host, not a lawyer reviewing your records.