Kentucky Car Accident Settlement Calculator
Estimate a car accident settlement under Kentucky law. The calculator applies this jurisdiction's own comparative fault rule and damages ceilings, and every figure below is the one our verified data holds, with the statute behind it and the date we checked it.
What Kentucky law does to your claim
Three things in state law open a gap between two identical injuries in two different states: how long you have to file, what happens if you were partly at fault, and whether the state puts a ceiling on what a jury can award. Here is what we hold for this one.
Kentucky's motor-vehicle filing deadline is set by KRS § 304.39-230(6), not by the one-year general personal-injury period in KRS § 413.140(1)(a). That provision gives two years after the injury or the death, or two years after the date of issuance of the last basic or added reparation payment made by any reparation obligor, whichever falls later. Two years from the crash is therefore the EARLIEST your deadline can fall and not the deadline itself: where no-fault payments were still being issued after that point, the clock runs from the last one, and only your own record of those payments fixes the later date. The provision governs tort liability not abolished by KRS § 304.39-060, Kentucky's no-fault threshold, so speak to a licensed Kentucky attorney before relying on either date.
Riding a motorcycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a rider's claim, so this site gives a rider's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The motorcycle accident calculator shows the period a rider's claim in Kentucky is given, and why.
Riding a bicycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a cyclist's claim, so this site gives a cyclist's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The bicycle accident calculator shows the period a cyclist's claim in Kentucky is given, and why.
KRS § 304.39-230(6)·Last reviewed 2026-09-20
Kentucky uses pure comparative fault.
KRS § 411.182; Hilen v. Hays, 673 S.W.2d 713 (Ky. 1984)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Ky. Const. §§ 54, 241·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
None on record means our verified data holds no figure of this kind for this state. It is not a finding that no limit could apply to your claim.
Kentucky car insurance law: minimums, PIP and uninsured motorist coverage
What Kentucky's provisions say about the insurance behind a car accident claim, in their own words, with the copy read named under each.
Kentucky: Minimum liability coverage
“The requirement of security for payment of tort liabilities is fulfilled by providing: (a) Either: 1. Split limits liability coverage of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for all damages arising out of bodily injury sustained by any one (1) person, and not less than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for all damages arising out of bodily injury sustained by all persons injured as a result of any one (1) accident, plus liability coverage of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for all damages arising out of damage to or destruction of property, including the loss of use thereof, as a result of any one (1) accident arising out of ownership, maintenance, use, loading, or unloading, of the secured vehicle; or 2. Single limits liability coverage of not less than sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) for all damages whether arising out of bodily injury or damage to property as a result of any one (1) accident arising out of ownership, maintenance, use, loading, or unloading, of the secured vehicle; […]”
The provision continues past the end of this quote, and the rest is not quoted here.
A minimum is a floor on what a policy must carry. It is not a limit on what a claim is worth, and it does not tell you what the at-fault driver carries.
Kentucky: No-fault, personal injury protection and the right to sue
“The maximum amount of basic reparation benefits payable for all economic loss resulting from injury to any one (1) person as the result of one (1) accident shall be ten thousand dollars ($10,000), regardless of the number of persons entitled to such benefits or the number of providers of security obligated to pay such benefits.”
The limit on a suit for pain and suffering:
“[…] a plaintiff may recover damages in tort for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience because of bodily injury, sickness or disease arising out of the ownership, maintenance, operation or use of such motor vehicle only in the event that the benefits which are payable for such injury as "medical expense" or which would be payable but for any exclusion or deductible authorized by this subtitle exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or the injury or disease consists in whole or in part of permanent disfigurement, a fracture to a bone, a compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture, loss of a body member, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of bodily function or death.”
The provision begins before this quote, and the part before it is not quoted here.
The right to reject that limitation:
“Any person may refuse to consent to the limitations of his or her tort rights and liabilities as contained in this section. Such rejection must be completed in writing or electronically in a form to be prescribed by the Department of Insurance and must have been executed and filed with the department at a time prior to any motor vehicle accident for which such rejection is to apply.”
Kentucky: Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
“No automobile liability or motor vehicle liability policy of insurance insuring against loss resulting from liability imposed by law for bodily injury or death suffered by any person arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto, in limits for bodily injury or death set forth in KRS 304.39-110 under provisions approved by the commissioner, for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting therefrom; provided that any named insured shall have the right to reject in writing such coverage; […]”
The provision continues past the end of this quote, and the rest is not quoted here.
“Every insurer shall make available, upon request, to its insureds underinsured motorist coverage, whereby, subject to the terms and conditions of the coverage not inconsistent with this section, the insurance company agrees to pay its own insured for such uncompensated damages as he or she may recover on account of injury due to a motor vehicle accident because the judgment recovered against the owner of the other vehicle exceeds the liability policy limits thereon, to the extent of the underinsurance policy limits on the vehicle of the party recovering.”
Kentucky: Medical payments coverage
No medical payments coverage requirement was found in the provisions read for this page (KRS 304.20-020, 304.39-020, 304.39-060, 304.39-110 and 304.39-320).
What partial fault costs you in Kentucky
The same claim, fracture with surgery, several months of recovery, run through the calculator above four times, with nothing changed but the share of fault assigned to the claimant. The numbers are the engine's output, not an editorial claim about what these cases are worth.
One case, run through the calculator above four times with only the claimant's share of fault changed, under Kentucky law. No coverage ceiling is applied, because we would be inventing the at-fault party's policy. These shares illustrate the rule; they are not an estimate of your own fault.
Every Kentucky deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Kentucky periods in our verified data, with the statute behind each one. A deadline is the outside limit, never a target, and other rules can shorten it.
KRS § 413.140(1)(a)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the personal injury calculatorKRS § 413.140(1)(e), (2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorFor a death caused by a motor-vehicle crash in Kentucky, the one year published here may not be the deadline that governs, and the question is not settled at the Kentucky Supreme Court. The one year is the general wrongful-death period under KRS §§ 413.140 and 413.180. KRS § 304.39-230(6), the provision that sets the filing deadline for a Kentucky car accident, allows an action "not later than two (2) years after the injury, or the death, or the date of issuance of the last basic or added reparation payment". In Hammers v. Plunk, a published 2011 decision, the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that an estate's wrongful-death claims arising out of an automobile accident "covered under the MVRA" are "covered under the two-year limitations period set forth in KRS 304.39-230(6)", running from the last reparation payment where that came later. The Kentucky Supreme Court has not decided the point. The same decision kept the children's loss-of-consortium claims in that case on one year, and the two years applies only where the crash falls within Kentucky's Motor Vehicle Reparations Act. This calculator serves deaths of every kind, so it keeps the one year, and a family inside it is inside both readings. Speak to a licensed Kentucky attorney well inside it.
KRS §§ 413.140, 413.180·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the wrongful death calculatorTwo years from the accident is the earliest a Kentucky workers' compensation filing deadline can fall, and not always the deadline itself. KRS 342.185(1) requires the application for adjustment of claim "within two (2) years after the date of the accident, or in case of death, within two (2) years after the death", and goes on: "If payments of income benefits have been made, the filing of an application for adjustment of claim with the department within the period shall not be required, but shall become requisite within two (2) years following the suspension of payments or within two (2) years of the date of the accident, whichever is later." So where income benefits were paid, the application is due within two years following the suspension of payments where that falls later than two years from the accident, and never earlier. Subsections (2) and (3) of the same section set other periods for work-related exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus and for a cumulative trauma injury. Ask a licensed Kentucky attorney which date applies to your claim.
KRS 342.185(1)·Last reviewed 2026-10-04
Open the workers compensation calculatorKentucky's motor-vehicle filing deadline is set by KRS § 304.39-230(6), not by the one-year general personal-injury period in KRS § 413.140(1)(a). That provision gives two years after the injury or the death, or two years after the date of issuance of the last basic or added reparation payment made by any reparation obligor, whichever falls later. Two years from the crash is therefore the EARLIEST your deadline can fall and not the deadline itself: where no-fault payments were still being issued after that point, the clock runs from the last one, and only your own record of those payments fixes the later date. The provision governs tort liability not abolished by KRS § 304.39-060, Kentucky's no-fault threshold, so speak to a licensed Kentucky attorney before relying on either date.
Riding a motorcycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a rider's claim, so this site gives a rider's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The motorcycle accident calculator shows the period a rider's claim in Kentucky is given, and why.
Riding a bicycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a cyclist's claim, so this site gives a cyclist's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The bicycle accident calculator shows the period a cyclist's claim in Kentucky is given, and why.
KRS § 304.39-230(6)·Last reviewed 2026-09-20
Open the motor vehicle claims calculatorKentucky against the rest of the country
Every count below is read from our state-law data across all 51 jurisdictions, so it moves when the data does. What you will not find here is an average settlement figure: the only one we could compute is a model, and a model presented as a measurement is not a fact.
- 11 of the 51 jurisdictions we track apply the pure comparative negligence rule, and Kentucky is one of them.
- Kentucky allows at least 2 years to file, and that is the earliest its deadline can fall rather than a fixed limit, because the governing provision also runs from a later event. This page does not set that against the 2 years that 25 jurisdictions publish, because for those we hold a period and no later event, which is a different claim. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 6 years. Riding a motorcycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a rider's claim, so this site gives a rider's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The motorcycle accident calculator shows the period a rider's claim in Kentucky is given, and why. Riding a bicycle? No Kentucky court decision read for this site says whether this provision reaches a cyclist's claim, so this site gives a cyclist's claim in Kentucky one year, the general personal-injury period, as the earliest its deadline can fall. The bicycle accident calculator shows the period a cyclist's claim in Kentucky is given, and why.
- 7 of the 51 jurisdictions limit non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in our data and Kentucky is not among them, so an estimate here is not held down by a ceiling we hold.
Comparisons are drawn from the legal levers that actually move a case value, not from closed-case data, which we do not hold. See the full methodology