Real cases, real settlements, real docket links.
The comparable-cases archive is built from CourtListener's PACER database. Every case has a public docket link, a verified settlement amount or verdict, and a factual summary that cites the underlying docket entries.
Recently verified cases
| Settlement | Case | Court | Injury | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,200,000 | Garcia v. Walmart | CA Sup. Ct. 2024 | Lumbar fusion + PTSD | Premises liability |
| $485,000 | Rivera v. GEICO | TX Dist. Ct. 2024 | TBI, polytrauma | Disputed liability |
| $248,000 | Patel v. Allstate | NJ Super. Ct. 2024 | Cervical fusion | Surgical case |
| $62,500 | Cortez v. Publix | FL Cir. Ct. 2023 | Wrist fracture, surgery | Slip and fall |
| $32,000 | Johnson v. Progressive | NY Sup. Ct. 2023 | Shoulder impingement | Soft tissue |
| $11,500 | Smith v. State Farm | CA Sup. Ct. 2024 | Whiplash, disc bulge | Clear liability |
How the archive is built
Cases are pulled from CourtListener's public PACER archive (operated by the non-profit Free Law Project). The archive is queried weekly for personal-injury matters with publicly filed settlement orders, judgments, or stipulated dismissals that disclose recovery amounts. Each candidate case is reviewed by hand before being added to the archive , pure-clerical dismissals, sealed records, and confidentiality-protected settlements are filtered out.
The result is a curated dataset of cases where the recovery is publicly verifiable on the docket itself. No "average settlement" estimates, no marketing inflation, no defense-side analytics products that exclude plaintiffs from access. Every case row has a clickable docket link so you can verify the data yourself.
Cases are categorized by jurisdiction (federal district or state court), injury type (TBI, fracture, soft-tissue, surgical, wrongful death, etc.), defendant type (private individual, commercial vehicle, retailer, government, medical provider), and fact pattern (rear-end MVA, slip-and-fall, dog bite, premises liability, products liability). Each dimension can be filtered to find the closest comparable to a specific case.
What the archive does not include
The archive intentionally excludes several categories of cases that personal-injury marketing sites typically include and inflate:
- Confidential settlements where the amount is not on the docket.
- "Reported" cases from law-firm marketing pages without primary-source verification.
- Defense-verdict cases (we publish those separately when relevant).
- Pre-suit settlements that never produced a public court filing.
- Cases more than 5 years old, which often reflect outdated jury behavior and economic conditions.
Confidential pre-suit settlements are the most common category of personal-injury recovery. The Settlement Tracker tool collects anonymous, opt-in submissions from those cases , and aggregates them separately from the verified PACER archive so users can see which data is primary-source and which is voluntarily submitted.
How to use comparable cases responsibly
Comparable cases are a useful framing device but not a substitute for a lawyer's case-specific judgment. Two cases with similar facts on paper can produce very different recoveries because of small evidentiary differences, the attorney handling the case, the venue, and the specific insurance carrier involved. Use the archive to understand the rough range; use a lawyer to predict your specific case.
Open the archive search
Use the Comparable Cases tool to search the archive by your specific injury, jurisdiction, and settlement range. The tool returns a list of cases with docket links, factual summaries, and the citation to the docket entries where the settlement amount appears.