Washington Car Accident Settlement Calculator
Estimate a car accident settlement under Washington 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 Washington 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.
Washington uses pure comparative fault.
RCW 4.22.005·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
RCW 4.56.250; Sofie·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.
Washington car insurance law: minimums, PIP and uninsured motorist coverage
What Washington's provisions say about the insurance behind a car accident claim, in their own words, with the copy read named under each.
Washington: Minimum liability coverage
“No person may operate a motor vehicle subject to registration under chapter 46.16A RCW in this state unless the person is insured under a motor vehicle liability policy with liability limits of at least the amounts provided in RCW 46.29.090, is self-insured as provided in RCW 46.29.630, is covered by a certificate of deposit in conformance with RCW 46.29.550, or is covered by a liability bond of at least the amounts provided in RCW 46.29.090.”
“[…] nor unless such policy or bond is subject, if the accident has resulted in bodily injury or death, to a limit, exclusive of interest and costs, of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, subject to said limit for one person, to a limit of not less than fifty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and if the accident has resulted in injury to, or destruction of, property to a limit of not less than ten thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident.”
The provision begins before this quote, and the part before it 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.
Washington: No-fault, personal injury protection and the right to sue
“(1) No new automobile liability insurance policy or renewal of such an existing policy may be issued unless personal injury protection coverage is offered as an optional coverage. (2) A named insured may reject, in writing, personal injury protection coverage and the requirements of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply.”
“Insurers providing automobile insurance policies must offer minimum personal injury protection coverage for each insured with benefit limits as follows: (a) Medical and hospital benefits of ten thousand dollars; (b) A funeral expense benefit of two thousand dollars; (c) Income continuation benefits of ten thousand dollars, subject to a limit of two hundred dollars per week; and (d) Loss of services benefits of five thousand dollars, subject to a limit of two hundred dollars per week.”
No limit on a suit for pain and suffering was found in the provisions read for this page (RCW 48.22.085 and 48.22.095).
Washington: Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
“(2) No new policy or renewal of an existing policy insuring against loss resulting from liability imposed by law for bodily injury, death, or property damage, suffered by any person arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle shall be issued with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of underinsured motor vehicles, hit-and-run motor vehicles, and phantom vehicles because of bodily injury, death, or property damage, resulting therefrom, […]”
The provision continues past the end of this quote, and the rest is not quoted here.
“(4) A named insured or spouse may reject, in writing, underinsured coverage for bodily injury or death, or property damage, and the requirements of subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall not apply.”
Washington: Medical payments coverage
No medical payments coverage requirement was found in the provisions read for this page (RCW 48.22.030, 48.22.085 and 48.22.095).
The personal injury protection benefits quoted above include medical expenses.
What partial fault costs you in Washington
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 Washington 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 Washington deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Washington 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.
RCW 4.16.080(2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the personal injury calculatorRCW 4.16.350·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorRCW 51.28.050 generally requires a claim within 1 year of the injury. Occupational-disease claims run on a separate 2-year period under RCW 51.28.055, which this single figure cannot hold.
RCW 51.28.050·Last reviewed 2026-07-28
Open the workers compensation calculatorWashington 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 Washington is one of them.
- Its 3 years to file is longer than the 2 years that 25 jurisdictions use. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 6 years.
- 7 of the 51 jurisdictions limit non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in our data and Washington 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