What's Your Missouri Car Accident Case Actually Worth?

Grab a notepad before you grab a number off some website. Building your own figure, line by line, beats trusting an average that was never about your crash to begin with.

Start with what you’ve already spent

List every bill tied to the crash: the ambulance, the ER, follow-up visits, physical therapy, medication. Add the small stuff too, like a brace or a cane, since it counts the same as a hospital charge.

Keep every receipt and every statement, even the ones your health insurance already covered. Each one belongs on the list.

Add what work actually cost you

Missed shifts add up fast, but so does reduced overtime, a canceled side job, or a promotion that got pushed back because of your recovery. Write down the hours, not just the days.

If you’re self-employed, missed contracts and canceled projects count too, even without a traditional paycheck behind them.

Count what you still can’t do

Some losses never show up on a bill. Maybe you can’t lift your own kid, or you gave up a weekend hobby you used to love. Write those down plainly, with dates if you can.

A doctor’s note describing a lasting limit carries real weight here. Ask for one if your recovery isn’t finished.

Don’t stop the list too early

Some costs keep growing after the crash fades from memory. Ongoing treatment, future procedures, and equipment you’ll need for years all belong on your running total, not just what’s already happened.

Add it up, then brace for a different number

Once your list is done, an insurer’s opening offer often lands lower. Their total tends to skip future costs and anything without a receipt, even when a doctor already flagged it as likely.

That gap isn’t proof your number is wrong. It’s usually proof theirs is incomplete.

The floor under every policy

Every Missouri policy has to start at $25,000 of injury coverage for one person, $50,000 for one crash, and $25,000 for property. Floors, not ceilings: your losses can run well past them.

When a bare-minimum policy meets a hospital-grade injury, the arithmetic stops working, and the shortfall becomes its own problem to solve.

Your own share still trims the total

Was some of the crash yours? Then the final figure drops by that portion and nothing further happens to the claim.

Where the list goes next

The statute of limitations guide whittles down how long Missouri gives you to turn this list into a filed claim. A crash involving a commercial vehicle changes the scale of this math entirely, and the 18-wheeler page debriefs you on why. And if part of your list is about ongoing pain rather than a bill, the pain and suffering guide peels back how that piece gets built out separately.

Your list, done honestly, is the real starting number. Everything after that is negotiation.