What is a car accident claim worth in Massachusetts?

Every rule below is quoted from Massachusetts law or a state agency, with a link. Checked September 17, 2026.

Massachusetts · No fault3 yearsto sue for injuries

The short answer

Nobody can price your claim from a web page, and any site that gives you one number is guessing. What we can show you is real: the amount insurers actually paid per claim in Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts rules that raise or lower what you collect. $18,592 was the average injury claim paid in Massachusetts in 2022.

Six questions, no sign up

Nothing you pick is sent anywhere or saved. The answer appears on this page.

Was anyone hurt?
Who caused the crash?
Does the other driver have insurance?
How bad is the car?
Did anyone miss work?
Did police write a report?

What claims paid in Massachusetts

Injury claims in Massachusetts averaged $18,592 each in 2022.

Car and property damage claims averaged $5,226.

Average amount paid per claim in Massachusetts, 2022. Source: NAIC 2022/2023 Auto Insurance Database Report.
Injury claim paid by the at fault driver's insurance$18,592
Car and property damage$5,226
Personal injury protection, paid by your own policy$4,539
Medical payments coverage, paid by your own policy$4,763
Collision coverage, paid by your own policy$5,361

These are averages of every claim insurers closed, from the largest to the smallest. A claim with a hospital stay sits far above the average, and a fender bender sits far below it.

What changes the number in Massachusetts

If you were partly at fault

Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence. You can recover damages as long as your share of fault is not greater than the combined fault of the people you are suing. If your fault is greater, you recover nothing.

“if such negligence was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought”

Mass. Gen. Laws c. 231, § 85

The other driver's policy limit is the ceiling

Massachusetts drivers must carry at least twenty five thousand dollars of bodily injury liability coverage per person and fifty thousand dollars per accident. The statute in this source does not state the required property damage liability minimum.

“to the amount or limit of not less than $25,000 on account of injury to or death of any one person”

Mass. Gen. Laws c. 90, § 34A (definition of "motor vehicle liability policy", as amended by St. 2024, c. 275, § 4)

If the other driver has no insurance

Massachusetts requires every auto policy to include uninsured motorist coverage so you can recover if the other driver has no insurance or fled the scene.

“No policy shall be issued or delivered in the commonwealth with respect to a motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer registered in this state unless such policy provides coverage”

Mass. Gen. Laws c. 175, § 113L

The deadline that ends the claim

You have three years from the crash to file a lawsuit for your injuries.

“actions of tort, actions of contract to recover for personal injuries, and actions of replevin, shall be commenced only within three years next after the cause of action accrues”

Mass. Gen. Laws c. 260, § 2A

What a lawyer takes if you hire one

Massachusetts caps contingency fees in medical malpractice cases on a sliding scale that shrinks as the recovery gets bigger: 40 percent of the first $150,000, dropping to 25 percent of anything over $500,000. For other personal injury cases there is no dollar cap, but the fee agreement must be in writing.

“Forty per cent of the first one hundred and fifty thousand dollars recovered ... Thirty-three and one-third per cent of the next one hundred and fifty thousand dollars recovered ... Thirty per cent of the next two hundred thousand dollars recovered ... Twenty-five per cent of any amount by which the recovery exceeds five hundred thousand dollars”

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 60I

Sources on this page

Each one was opened and checked on September 17, 2026.

  1. Mass. Gen. Laws c. 231, § 85
  2. Mass. Gen. Laws c. 90, § 34A (definition of "motor vehicle liability policy", as amended by St. 2024, c. 275, § 4)
  3. Mass. Gen. Laws c. 175, § 113L
  4. Mass. Gen. Laws c. 260, § 2A
  5. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 60I

Know My Claim is not a law firm or a government agency, and this page is not legal advice. Laws change, so check the linked source before you rely on a deadline.