Pedestrian accident settlement amounts in Maine

There is no reliable "average" pedestrian accident settlement in Maine. What a claim is worth turns on the facts of your crash and on a handful of Maine statutes that decide who pays, how much fault you carry, and how long you have to act. Our national hub covers the general damage categories: medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. This page sticks to what Maine law actually says.

Two things move the number more than any settlement calculator: the share of fault a Maine jury would put on you, and how much insurance is available. Everything else negotiates around those.

Fault in Maine can erase your recovery entirely

Maine follows modified comparative negligence under 14 M.R.S. § 156.¹ If you were partly to blame, your damages shrink. If you were as much at fault as the driver, meaning 50% or more, you recover nothing.¹ That 50% cliff is the biggest single lever on a pedestrian settlement, because fault in these cases is almost always contested. Insurers argue you stepped off the curb against the signal, wore dark clothing at night, or were looking at your phone.

Maine words its statute in an unusual way. Rather than tell the jury to cut your award by a percentage, § 156 directs it to "reduce the total damages by dollars and cents, and not by percentage, to the extent considered just and equitable, having regard to the claimant's share in the responsibility for the damages."¹ The reduction is a fairness judgment, not a fixed formula, which gives both sides room to argue and makes the fault fight the center of most negotiations.

Where you were walking changes that fight. Under 29-A M.R.S. § 2056, a driver must yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing within a marked crosswalk when no traffic signal is controlling the intersection.² A driver also may not overtake and pass a vehicle that has stopped at a crosswalk to let someone cross.² If you were in a marked crosswalk, the statute puts the burden on the driver and your share of fault drops. Cross somewhere other than a crosswalk and § 2056 requires the pedestrian to yield to traffic, which hands the insurer its comparative-fault argument.² The same statute makes it a traffic infraction for a driver to fail to yield to a visually impaired pedestrian using a white or metallic cane or a guide dog.²

Where the settlement money actually comes from

Maine handles crashes on a fault basis rather than through a no-fault system, so an injured pedestrian pursues the driver who hit them and that driver's insurer.³ The practical ceiling on most settlements is the coverage available.

Every Maine auto policy carries at least 50/100/25 in liability: $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage.⁴ Those are floors, and many drivers carry nothing more. A pedestrian hit by a minimum-limits driver is often looking at a $50,000 bodily-injury ceiling from that policy, however large the hospital bills.

Two other coverages help. Maine requires at least $2,000 in medical payments coverage on standard personal auto policies, payable for costs incurred within one year of the crash, and drivers cannot reject it.⁵ More important for serious injuries, Maine requires uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage that cannot be dropped below 50/100.⁶ UM/UIM protects "persons insured under the policy who are legally entitled to recover damages," which reaches a pedestrian struck by an uninsured driver or a hit-and-run.⁶ If you or a resident relative own a policy, that UM/UIM coverage may become your real source of recovery when the driver who hit you had no insurance or not enough. It is often the difference between a token payment and a meaningful one.

The deadlines, and a Maine trap for government cases

You generally have six years from the date of a Maine crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under the state's general civil limitations statute, 14 M.R.S. § 752.⁷ Maine does not shorten that window for injury claims, so its deadline runs longer than most states'.

There is a large exception. If a government vehicle hit you, or a public entity's negligence contributed (a dangerous crosswalk, a malfunctioning signal), the Maine Tort Claims Act controls. You must file a written notice of claim within 365 days after the claim accrues, under 14 M.R.S. § 8107.⁸ Miss that notice and the claim can be barred long before the six-year lawsuit deadline runs out. The Act also caps total damages against a governmental entity at $400,000, under 14 M.R.S. § 8105.⁹ A catastrophic injury caused by a municipal truck can be worth far more than $400,000 and still be held to that cap.

When a pedestrian is killed

Fatal pedestrian crashes are not rare here. Maine recorded 20 pedestrian deaths in 2023, close to the 21 the year before, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.¹⁰

A wrongful death claim runs on different rules than an injury claim. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 2-807, the lawsuit generally must be filed within three years of death, or six years if the death was a homicide.¹¹ Damages for the loss of the decedent's comfort, society, and companionship are capped at $1,000,000, adjusted for inflation for deaths after 2023, and punitive damages are capped separately at $500,000.¹¹ Funeral costs, medical bills, and lost financial support are recovered on top of that comfort-and-society figure.

What pushes a Maine settlement higher

Clear driver fault raises value, and Maine gives you specific statutes to point to. The state bans holding or manipulating a handheld phone while driving, even while stopped at a red light. A first offense brings a $50 fine and later offenses $250, under 29-A M.R.S. § 2121; hands-free use is allowed only for drivers 18 and older.¹² A citation or phone records showing the driver was on a device is strong evidence of negligence.

Drunk driving opens two more avenues. If a bar or restaurant over-served a visibly intoxicated driver who then hit you, the Maine Liquor Liability Act allows a claim against the server, though damages other than medical expenses are capped at $350,000 per occurrence and the claim must be brought within two years, under 28-A M.R.S. § 2509.¹³ Punitive damages against the drunk driver stay possible, but Maine sets a high bar. In Tuttle v. Raymond, the Law Court held that punitive damages require proof of malice by clear and convincing evidence, and that reckless conduct alone, including drunk driving, does not meet it.¹⁴ That keeps punitive awards rare, so most of a Maine settlement rests on compensatory damages.

Before you settle

Get the official crash report, which the Maine State Police sell through their online ordering system; our Maine crash report page covers it.¹⁵ Don't accept an insurer's first offer based on a comparative-fault theory you haven't tested, and watch the 365-day government notice deadline if any public entity was involved. When injuries are serious or fault is disputed, talk to a Maine attorney before you sign a release. You can find one through our legal directory.

This is general information about Maine law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Maine Legislature, 14 M.R.S. § 156, Comparative negligence. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec156.html

2. Maine Legislature, 29-A M.R.S. § 2056, Pedestrians. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-A/title29-Asec2056.html

3. Maine Bureau of Insurance, A Consumer's Guide to Personal Auto Insurance. https://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/sites/maine.gov.pfr.insurance/files/inline-files/12.6.24Consumers%20Guide%20to%20Personal%20Auto%20Insurance.pdf

4. Maine Legislature, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605, Required coverages. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605.html

5. Maine Legislature, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605-A, Medical payments coverage. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605-A.html

6. Maine Legislature, 24-A M.R.S. § 2902, Uninsured vehicle coverage. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/24-a/title24-Asec2902.html

7. Maine Legislature, 14 M.R.S. § 752, Limitation of actions, six years. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec752.html

8. Maine Legislature, 14 M.R.S. § 8107, Notice to governmental entity. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec8107.html

9. Maine Legislature, 14 M.R.S. § 8105, Limitation on damages. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec8105.html

10. Governors Highway Safety Association, 2023 Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State. https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/2023%20Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State.pdf

11. Maine Legislature, 18-C M.R.S. § 2-807, Actions for wrongful death. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/18-C/title18-Csec2-807.html

12. Maine Legislature, 29-A M.R.S. § 2121, Use of handheld electronic device or mobile telephone. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec2121.html

13. Maine Legislature, 28-A M.R.S. § 2509, Maine Liquor Liability Act. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/28-a/title28-Asec2509.html

14. Tuttle v. Raymond, 494 A.2d 1353 (Me. 1985), Maine Supreme Judicial Court. https://law.justia.com/cases/maine/supreme-court/1985/494-a-2d-1353-0.html

15. Maine State Police, Maine Crash Reporting Online Search and Ordering Service. https://apps1.web.maine.gov/online/mcrs/index.html