Bodily injury claims statistics (2026)

Auto bodily injury claim costs

The average U.S. auto bodily injury liability claim was $28,278 in 2024, according to ISO data published by the Insurance Information Institute. That is 66% more than the $17,014 average in 2015.¹

• The average private passenger auto bodily injury liability claim rose from $26,178 in 2023 to $28,278 in 2024.¹ISO data via Triple-I; paid claims, all limits; severity includes loss adjustment expenses.
• There were 0.80 bodily injury liability claims per 100 insured vehicle-years in 2024, up from 0.68 in 2021.¹
• The average paid bodily injury claim rose 10.3% in the year through Q3 2025 and 32% over four years, according to Fast Track data cited by CCC.²
• Across 7.4 million auto injury claims, average bodily injury payments rose 7.8% a year, from about $14,000 in 2017 to more than $20,000 in 2022, more than double the rate of medical care inflation.³Insurance Research Council, claims closed with payment mid-2017 to mid-2022, nine insurers with about 43% of the market.

Source: ISO, a Verisk business, via the Insurance Information Institute.¹ Excludes Massachusetts and most no-fault states.

Attorney involvement

57% of auto bodily injury claimants were represented by an attorney in 2022, and many claimants hire one within days of the accident.^4,5

• Across all auto injury coverages, attorney representation rose from 40% of claimants in 2017 to nearly 50% in 2022.³
• Nearly half of claimants who engaged an attorney did so within a few days of the accident, and 80% had contact within weeks.⁵IRC survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, July 2026.
• About 8 in 10 claimants who consulted or hired an attorney said they were referred to a medical provider for treatment.⁵
• In Sedgwick's auto liability data, 57.3% of non-litigated pending bodily injury claims had attorney representation in 2025, up from 49.8% in 2024.⁶Sedgwick's own book, mainly commercial and fleet clients.
• Bodily injury claimants received $2.00 in total settlement for every $1 of medical bills paid, excluding legal fees.³
• After medical costs and legal fees, represented claimants netted $1.40 per $1 of medical bills, against $1.80 for unrepresented claimants.³
• Represented bodily injury claimants waited a median of nearly 440 days for claim closure, more than double the time for unrepresented claimants.³

Litigation

The share of auto injury claimants who litigated nearly doubled, from 10% in 2017 to 18% in 2022.³

• In Sedgwick's 2025 auto liability data, litigated bodily injury claims cost 5.5 times more on average than non-litigated claims.⁶
• Triple-I and the Casualty Actuarial Society estimate the increase in motor vehicle tort litigation at $43.84 billion from 2015 to 2024, about 25.3% to 30.5% of the excess loss inflation in auto liability insurance.¹¹
• There were 6,809 federal motor vehicle tort filings in 2024, a 30-year high.¹¹

Social inflation and legal system abuse

Legal system abuse and inflation added an estimated $231.6 billion to $281.2 billion to U.S. liability insurance losses over the decade to 2024.⁹

• In personal auto liability, legal system abuse and inflation increased losses and defense costs by $91.6 billion to $102.3 billion, or 8.7% to 9.7% of booked losses.⁹
• In commercial auto liability, the increase was $52.0 billion to $70.8 billion, or 22.6% to 30.8% of booked losses.⁹CAS and Triple-I, NAIC Schedule P data, as of year-end 2024.
• Swiss Re Institute estimates that social inflation increased U.S. liability claims by 57% over the past decade, peaking at 7% in 2023.¹⁰
• U.S. liability lines exposed to bodily injury claims recorded USD 43 billion in cumulative underwriting losses over the five years before Swiss Re's September 2024 report.¹⁰
• 42 active U.S. commercial litigation funders held $16.1 billion in assets and committed $2.3 billion to new deals in 2024.¹⁴ New commitments rose about 23% in 2025.¹⁵Westfleet Advisors; commercial funding only, excluding consumer and mass-tort funding.

Nuclear verdicts

Juries returned 190 nuclear verdicts of $10 million or more against corporate defendants in 2025, 40.7% more than in 2024, totaling more than $25.6 billion.¹²

• For the second year in a row, juries returned more than 40 verdicts above $100 million, including four above $1 billion.¹³
• These figures count jury awards against companies in all case types, before any later reduction on appeal.¹² Check a file's risk with the nuclear verdict risk checklist.

Fraud and claim buildup

Fraud and buildup added $5.6 billion to $7.7 billion to U.S. auto injury claim payments in 2012, or 13% to 17% of total payments, in the Insurance Research Council's latest study on the topic.⁷

• 21% of bodily injury claims and 18% of personal injury protection claims showed apparent fraud or buildup.⁷
• Insurance fraud costs the U.S. an estimated $308.6 billion a year across all lines, including $45 billion in property and casualty fraud.⁸Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, 2022.

Crashes and injuries

An estimated 2.42 million people were injured and 39,254 were killed in U.S. motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024.¹⁶

• There were an estimated 6.18 million police-reported traffic crashes in 2024.¹⁶
• NHTSA's early estimate puts 2025 traffic deaths at 36,640, about 6.7% fewer than in 2024.¹⁷
• Using a broader definition, the National Safety Council counts 4.9 million medically consulted injuries from motor vehicle incidents in 2024, with injury costs of $559.3 billion.¹⁹
• U.S. crashes cost $340 billion in economic losses in 2019, NHTSA's latest cost study, and private insurers pay about 54% of all crash costs.¹⁸

Workers' compensation

Medical benefits made up 53% of workers' compensation losses in accident year 2025 (preliminary), down from a peak of 56.6% in 2016.²⁰

• The average lost-time workers' compensation claim cost $47,316 for accidents in 2022 and 2023.²¹
• Motor vehicle crashes cause the costliest lost-time claims, averaging $91,433 per claim.²¹

Medical costs

• U.S. consumer prices for medical care rose 1.6% in the 12 months to August 2026; medical care services rose 2.5%.²²
• U.S. health care spending grew 7.2% in 2024 to $5.3 trillion, or $15,474 per person.²³
• 56% of North American insurance leaders surveyed named medical inflation as the leading contributor to rising claims costs.²⁶

Commercial auto results

• U.S. commercial auto insurance posted an underwriting loss for the 14th consecutive year in 2024, losing $4.9 billion that year.²⁷
• Insurers added another $2.0 billion in commercial auto liability reserve deficiencies in 2025.²⁸
• The commercial auto liability pure loss ratio improved 3.0 points to 71% in 2025.²⁹

The claims workforce

The U.S. had 389,700 claims adjuster, appraiser, examiner and investigator jobs in 2025, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 6% decline by 2035.²⁴

• About 21,600 openings a year are still projected, to replace workers who move to other jobs or leave the labor force, for example to retire. Median pay was $78,020 in 2025.²⁴
• The median age of the 2.97 million people employed by U.S. insurance carriers and related activities was 44.0 in 2025, against 42.1 for all workers; 736,000 were 55 or older.²⁵
• 94% of insurance leaders surveyed cite workforce challenges as a major operational constraint, and 64% in North America saw claims complexity rise in the past year.²⁶Gallagher Bassett survey of 250 industry leaders, February 2026.

AI in claims

78% of property and casualty insurers use generative AI, but only 4% have scaled it, according to Bain's 2025 survey of 81 insurers.³⁰

• 32% of European insurers already use generative AI in claims management, and 59% plan to within three years.³¹EIOPA survey of 347 insurance undertakings.
• Among 59 North American P&C insurers, 33% use advanced analytics in claims for fraud detection and 29% for severity assessment.³²
• Fewer than 15% of those insurers model claims for the probability of litigation or attorney involvement.³³
• 86% of Swiss policyholders say important insurance decisions should be made by people, and 85% want to be told when AI is used.³⁴
• Vendors report large time savings from AI medical record review; Verisk, for example, says its tool cuts review time by up to 90%.³⁵ Compare the tools in our guide to AI tools for bodily injury claims.

United Kingdom and Switzerland

• 435,565 personal injury compensation cases were registered with the UK Compensation Recovery Unit in 2025-26, including 300,867 motor cases.³⁶
• 87.4% of small UK road traffic injury claims filed through the Official Injury Claim portal in April to June 2026 had professional representation.³⁷
• Those claims took an average of 367 days from submission to settlement.³⁷
• Swiss statutory accident insurers registered about 937,000 accidents and occupational diseases in 2025, up 2.4%; benefits paid in 2024 totaled about CHF 5.6 billion.³⁸
• In 2025, 214 people died and 3,935 were seriously injured in road traffic accidents in Switzerland.³⁹

What these numbers mean for claims teams

Bodily injury claims are getting more expensive, attorneys arrive earlier, and litigated files cost several times more. The window for a sound evaluation is the first weeks of a claim.

• Review the file early. With representation often starting within days, gaps in the medical record need to be found before the demand arrives. See what happens in the first 14 days.
• Set reserves on the evidence. Severity keeps rising faster than medical inflation, so reserves built on the full record hold up better. See reserve accuracy starts on day 1.
• Treat time-limited demands as deadlines. Read the 30-day playbook for adjusters.
• Size the review workload. The claims review ROI calculator estimates the hours and cost of document review on your book.

How we compiled these statistics

We used the most recent figure each source publishes, checked every number against the source page on October 10, 2026, and kept the source's own definitions and wording. Sources define injuries, deaths and claim costs differently, so compare figures only within the same source. Vendor and claims-administrator figures are labeled as such. We update this page when major sources publish new data.

Last updated October 10, 2026. Questions or corrections: hello@amaise.com.