Recovery for injury claims is outlined in state statutes. As you would expect, the elements of recovery vary by state. The vast majority of these claims are handled in state court versus federal court, and the overwhelming majority of claims are settled between the involved parties and no trial is ever held.

Typically, the non at fault party can recover for incurred expenses (meds, lost of wages, etc) past and future pain and suffering, future loss of income, and disability. There may be more or fewer elements of recovery depending on the statute. The injured party has the burden of proving what damages were sustained.

Wrongful death statues outline the elements of recovery in death cases. They would include loss of society and companionship to certain loved ones, as outlined in the state statute (usually spouse and children) pain and suffering if death is not immediate, future loss of income and other elements varying by state. If an immediate family happens to witness the event, they may be able to recover for wrongful infliction of emotional distress

If you break my arm on a non displaced fracture, not worth a lot of money. If you crush CC Sabathia's pitching arm, good luck with that one.

If a plumber screws up he doesn't get an "offset" due to the fact you had insurance. The plumber is liable for all damages as outlined in the applicable statute. Whatever the insurance company pays, they'll go after the plumber for and if they didn't cover everything, you can pursue him.

To many individual variables involved to try to determine what's "fair" for each party under every conceivable circumstance.

The press always reports the large verdicts because the plaintiff bar makes sure they get some kind of new release. You don't see many headlines stating "Seriously injured man loses case". So while we always hear about the extremes of the legal system, overall, it works OK, not great however.

Class action litigation is a mess and so is venu shopping, joint and several liability and the lack of financial penalties agains the non prevailing party. You can file a frivolous lawsuit and the defendant, without any fault, is faced with excesive defense costs to prove they are without fault. So they dump defense costs as an offer to eliminate the lawsuit. The loser, not the winner, needs to pay defense costs to the prevailing party in all litigation.

If you ever need a real laugh, do some research on the wonderful Florida No Fault statute and you will rapidly see why we are bombarded with never ending ads from the wonderful plaintiff bar.