GEICO Settlement Offers and Maximizing Your Accident Payoff

This page aims to help you understand the settlement value of your case against GEICO and give you weapons to maximize the settlement value of your claim. Here is what our lawyers have learned about GEICO’s settlement offers from handling actual claims. This page is focused on claims against GEICO in Baltimore, Maryland, and the surrounding area. But most of what you will learn will apply in any state in the country.

About GEICO and Who Owns It

In 1936, GEICO was initially created to provide auto insurance to government employees and military personnel. Over the years, the company expanded its customer base and now offers insurance coverage to a broader audience.

GEICO is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, a corporate conglomerate that owns numerous subsidiary companies and brands, including Duracell, Dairy Queen, Long & Foster, and others. GEICO provides many insurance products, but auto insurance is this insurer’s primary focus and the most significant portion of its business.

GEICO is also Maryland’s largest private passenger auto insurer. According to the Maryland Insurance Administration’s 2025 report, GEICO held 21.8% of the state’s private passenger auto insurance market in 2024, ahead of State Farm and Progressive.

GEICO Claims

GEICO is a difficult insurance company to deal with. If you have not figured that out yet, you will. If you are trying to maximize the settlement value of your personal injury claim in Maryland, you want to have every weapon you can to understand the true value of your case. Will GEICO try to pay you less than the value of your car accident claim? They absolutely will. So you have to be prepared for battle in personal injury cases. This page can be a resource to help you better understand how GEICO values and defends accident claims.

What you need to know about GEICO is that this insurer softens up the deeper you get into the process. GEICO rarely offers a fair settlement amount before a lawsuit is filed.

If you have a claim against GEICO or a GEICO insured in Maryland or Washington, D.C., call us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or fill out this free case review form today.

Are you here with specific questions about your GEICO claim? Our lawyers have created shortcuts if you have a particular topic of interest:

Determining the Settlement Payout of Your GEICO Claim

GEICO does not have one standard formula that tells you what your case is worth. The starting point of understanding the value of your case against GEICO has nothing to do with GEICO. It starts with your injury. The nature and severity of your injury will dictate the potential value of your claim with GEICO. We provide statistics and sample cases based on your type of injury. Read what our personal injury lawyers have written about the value of auto accident cases here.

Insurance coverage is another important factor. Even if your case has a very high trial value, the available liability insurance and your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may limit the money you can collect. We have handled cases against GEICO where the available insurance was a major part of the settlement negotiation.

How Much Should You Expect for GEICO’s First Settlement Offer?

Elsewhere on this website, we offer information about the settlement value of car and truck accident claims. We also provide examples of settlements and verdicts that our firm and other lawyers have had in cases against GEICO. But those are “end of the day” answers. Many victims want to figure out something far more immediate: how much of a first settlement offer can I expect from GEICO?

GEICO tends to make extremely low first settlement offers. At Miller & Zois, we reviewed some old files to show victims how much money GEICO offered compared to the client’s medical expenses. We pulled some first settlement offers in car accident cases along with the amount of the client’s medical bills to give you some idea of what you might be able to expect. We do not think this kind of data is available anywhere else. We have looked everywhere ourselves to find something similar.

Remember, these are the first settlement offers and the amount of claimed medical bills.

*Indicates a policy-limits offer.

What Does This First Settlement Offer Data Tell Us?

First, let’s talk about what our attorneys have done here. We have pulled cases largely at random from auto accident claims that Miller & Zois has handled with GEICO. Our lawyers are not providing in this chart any relevant facts about the type of injury, the crash itself, lost wages, or other factors, almost every vital fact you would want to know about the case to value it properly and what a reasonable payout would be.

So why do these statistics have any meaning at all? Well, when you throw out the outliers, GEICO has a pretty predictable approach to its first settlement offers.

In these 27 cases, the median first settlement offer was about 120% of the claimed medical expenses. In 22 of the 27 cases, the first offer was no more than 150% of the medical bills. And in seven cases, GEICO’s first offer was actually less than the medical expenses.

Think about what that means. An insurance company offers you $6,000 when you have $5,000 in medical bills. What are you getting for your pain and suffering? What about your lost wages, future medical care, or the ways your injuries have changed your life? The insurance company wants to close the file for a number that barely gets past the medical expenses.

There are exceptions. Some of the offers are significantly higher than the medical bills, including two policy-limit tenders. We need to know the injuries and the available coverage before deciding whether those offers were fair. But the overall pattern is hard to miss.

The GEICO insurance adjuster’s first offer generally falls into one of three categories:

1. Low
2. Crazy low
3. So low that filing a lawsuit becomes the sensible next step

Considering this data on GEICO’s initial settlement offers in conjunction with sample verdicts and settlements in similar cases, you can pin down a possible value range for your case. But remember how impossible it is to conclude anything based on this evidence alone as to the actual value of your case. Too many variables are involved in placing a settlement value on a car accident claim in Maryland. But it tells you something about the value of your case in relative terms.

Filing a Lawsuit in GEICO Insurance Claims

You often need to file a lawsuit if you want a fair, reasonable settlement offer on a significant car accident claim involving GEICO. When GEICO insures the negligent driver, the lawsuit is ordinarily filed against that driver. If you are pursuing uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits under your own GEICO policy, the insurer may be a defendant in the lawsuit.

Every claims adjuster will blink a bit when a suit is filed. A GEICO adjuster blinks even more than most. GEICO usually changes insurance adjusters when a lawsuit is filed, and the new adjuster promptly throws the old one under the bus and says the claim was undervalued. Settlement offers from GEICO tend to increase dramatically after a lawsuit is filed. Our lawyers prefer to file suit in almost all of our GEICO accident cases involving significant injuries. We don’t file suit in every GEICO case because some of our clients want to avoid litigation.

Despite their tendency to undervalue claims, GEICO is not some evil empire. In fact, dealing with GEICO claims adjusters is a pleasant experience. They are particularly easy to work with in terms of their disposition and willingness to promptly return calls as far as insurance companies go. You do not have to wait long for a GEICO settlement check if you do agree on the payout. Really, we only disagree with the company on one issue: the settlement check our clients should receive in personal injury cases in the Baltimore/Washington area. But the amount of the payout is what every personal injury case is really about.

The settlement compensation for an injury case is what motor vehicle accident claims are all about. The civil justice system is about giving money to compensate victims for the harm that is done to them. Our job is to fight for our clients to get as much money in their pocket as humanly possible. More often than not, if the client’s goal is to get every last penny they are entitled to get, then a lawsuit is the most sensible option.

Our lawyers have won literally millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts against GEICO. If you need someone on your side who knows how to fight this insurance company and win, call 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.

GEICO Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims in Maryland

Some of the biggest cases our lawyers handle against GEICO involve uninsured motorist (UM) or underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. These cases can be frustrating because GEICO is often the injured person’s own insurance company. You paid premiums for coverage, and now you have to fight to collect the benefits when you need them.

In a standard underinsured motorist case, the negligent driver’s insurance may pay its policy limits, leaving the victim to seek additional compensation from GEICO under the available UIM coverage. Whether that additional payment is available, and how much can be collected, depends on the policy and the type of coverage.

Maryland has specific rules governing settlements with the negligent driver’s insurance company. Under Maryland Insurance § 19-511, an injured person who receives a qualifying policy-limit settlement offer generally must notify the UM insurer by certified mail. The insurer then has 60 days after receiving the required notice to consent or refuse consent. If it refuses, the statute requires payment of the amount of the settlement offer within 30 days.

Maryland’s enhanced underinsured motorist coverage is governed by Insurance § 19-509.1. The separate settlement procedure for enhanced coverage is found in Insurance § 19-511.1. The procedures are similar, but the coverage rules can be very different. For new Maryland private passenger auto policies issued on or after July 1, 2024, enhanced coverage is generally the default unless the insured waives it.

The mistake we do not want our clients to make is accepting a settlement from the negligent driver’s insurer without considering what that settlement may do to their rights under their own UM or UIM policy. These are important decisions in serious injury cases, particularly when the at-fault driver has relatively little insurance.

Settlements and Verdicts Against GEICO in Maryland

There is also value in looking at other cases against GEICO. Below is a sampling of Miller & Zois cases involving GEICO and other reported Maryland cases. These results do not necessarily reflect the value of your claim. Why? There are too many variables at play when looking at the value of a car accident case to fit in a summary of the case. Still, we think these verdict and settlement stories are informative to help you better understand settlement compensation payouts in car accident claims against GEICO.

• Maryland: $847,431 Verdict. The plaintiff was stopped at a traffic light when she was rear-ended by the defendant, who was intoxicated at the time of the accident. The plaintiff claimed she suffered injuries to her head and cervical and lumbar spine. She further alleged she suffered a concussion, post-concussion syndrome, a traumatic brain injury, convergence insufficiency, and post-traumatic narcolepsy. The defendant was underinsured, so she sought damages under her UIM coverage with GEICO. GEICO disputed the injuries and took the case to trial. A Montgomery County jury awarded $847,431.
• Maryland: $139,817 Verdict. The plaintiff asserted he was stopped at a red traffic light when he was rear-ended by a vehicle operated by the defendant, an underinsured motorist. The plaintiff suffered injuries to his cervical, lumbar, and thoracic spine; left arm and wrist; left trapezius muscle; face and jaw, including displacement of the right condylar head and right temporal tendonitis; and headaches. The defendant’s insurance company refused to offer policy limits and the plaintiff’s UIM carrier, GEICO, also denied the plaintiff’s claim. The case went to trial, and a jury returned a $139,817 verdict.
• Maryland: $7,500 Verdict. The plaintiff allegedly suffered a loss of consciousness and an altered mental status, post-concussive/post-traumatic head syndrome with cognitive impairment, tinnitus, exacerbation of migraines and irritability, and major neurocognitive disorder due to traumatic brain injury. She settled for policy limits with the at-fault driver and sought UIM damages from GEICO. The jury returned a verdict of only $7,500 despite the much more serious injuries alleged. The injuries described in a lawsuit do not necessarily tell you what a jury will award.
• Maryland: $30,000 Verdict. The plaintiff, an adult woman, said she was riding as a passenger in her mother’s vehicle when the vehicle stopped. While stopped, the plaintiff’s vehicle was rear-ended by another driver. At the time of the collision, the plaintiff was covered by an automobile insurance policy issued by GEICO, which included underinsured motorist benefits. The plaintiff filed a complaint alleging the other driver’s negligence caused the collision and that GEICO breached the terms of the insurance contract by failing to pay underinsured motorist benefits. The case resulted in a $30,000 jury verdict.
• Maryland: $180,000 Settlement. Our client was heading eastbound on Norbeck Road in Montgomery County. A Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling westbound erratically veered off on the shoulder and then crossed the center line. He hit our client head-on. The property damage was lighter than you would expect. But our client suffered a Lisfranc fracture, a foot injury our law firm has seen many times. The police report suggested the erratic behavior might result from drinking while driving. Our lawyers file suit in most claims against GEICO like this. But we were able to settle this case out of court without filing a lawsuit.
• Maryland: $300,000 Settlement. Our client was heading home and sitting on the ramp to merge onto University Boulevard from Route 495 in Montgomery County. She was hit in the rear while patiently waiting for a break in traffic. She did not seem very hurt at first, but she still drove herself to the emergency room. She was ultimately diagnosed with a disc injury in her back and had anterior lumbar fusion surgery. GEICO made a lousy settlement offer, which was partially understandable because the injury was preexisting. But we marshaled our medical experts and pain and suffering witnesses and convinced GEICO to settle the case for $300,000 at a mediation.
• Maryland: $200,000 Settlement. Our client was rear-ended in a Prince George’s County car accident. The property damage was not significant, and he did not have any injuries that he considered serious at the time. But the injuries did not resolve. We demanded $55,000. Our client was not looking for that much. Allstate offered $17,076.68, which really was not a good faith offer. Our firm filed suit in Circuit Court against Allstate and also against GEICO for underinsured motorist coverage. The at-fault driver only had a $100,000 policy. Allstate increased the offer to $37,200 just before trial. This is another case where Allstate and GEICO’s pain and suffering calculations did not translate to real human beings. The trial began and this became readily apparent. We destroyed their expert on the stand. While our client’s wife was offering pain and suffering testimony, GEICO and Allstate said they wanted to talk settlement. Our original offer to settle was now long off the table. The insurers offered $175,000. We said it was $200,000 or we continued the trial. So they agreed to $200,000 ($100,000 each). The case settled in the middle of the trial.
• Maryland: $300,000 Settlement. Our client was a passenger in a friend’s car in Baltimore County. The driver hit a light pole to avoid an animal on the road. He was diagnosed at Northwest Hospital with a neck strain and wrist sprain. He was discharged with pain medicine. He received a cervical steroid injection that provided only temporary relief. Ultimately, he had a discectomy and fusion and eventually made a remarkable recovery.

See More Maryland GEICO Settlements and Verdicts

• Maryland: $250,000 Settlement. Our client, a 45-year-old woman, was traveling on Route 97 in Anne Arundel County. She stopped in heavy traffic and was rear-ended. The police were not called to the scene because she did not initially believe she was seriously injured. She sustained $5,300 in property damage to her vehicle. Her medical records showed degeneration at C4-C5 that was injured in a prior accident (she had a prior neck fusion). These preexisting injury cases are always more challenging, but that does not mean the victim cannot prevail. Ultimately, she received nerve block injections. GEICO tendered its $100,000 insurance policy and she received $150,000 from her own insurance carrier on her underinsured motorist claim. Miller & Zois handled this claim.
• Maryland (Baltimore): $100,000 Settlement. A 13-year-old boy was walking down the sidewalk when a motorcycle took a left turn in front of a car at Kenwood Avenue and Dale Avenue in Baltimore City. The bike flew over the hood and landed on the boy, breaking his leg. GEICO tendered its $100,000 policy before a lawsuit was filed. Miller & Zois handled this claim.
• Maryland: $200,000 Settlement. An elderly man exited his car to cross the street in Baltimore. He was struck and killed by the defendant. There was no good evidence as to where the man was hit and killed, although he clearly was not in a crosswalk. This was our problem: there was no proof either way, and the plaintiff bore the burden of proof. Defendant filed a motion challenging the case but agreed to settle for $200,000 before the motion was heard. Would we have lost the motion? Probably. But this underscores the value of having a good personal injury lawyer that the insurance company fears.
• Maryland: $290,000 Settlement. A 40-year-old woman suffered an L5 disc injury after a double-impact, chain-reaction, rear-end accident. She had a negative MRI but underwent a discectomy that revealed nerve damage. The presuit offer was $70,000. Miller & Zois handled this case.
• Maryland: $340,000 Verdict. Plaintiff suffered head (mild TBI) and disc injuries in a left-turn accident case that was tried in Prince George’s County. The offer at the pretrial conference was zero. GEICO’s policy was $250,000, but the uninsured motorist carrier agreed before the trial not to seek subrogation from GEICO’s insured if the verdict exceeded the policy limits, which thankfully is exactly what happened. Miller & Zois handled this case.
• Maryland: $170,000 Settlement. Plaintiff was driving on Route 97 in Carroll County when he approached a nonfunctional traffic light. Defendant did not realize the light was not working and ran through it. Defendants contended that Plaintiff was contributorily negligent for failing to proceed with care through a broken traffic light. The plaintiff had a broken left femur, ribs, various cuts and abrasions, and severely bruised feet. GEICO was the driver’s insurance company, and it tendered its policy limits. The rest we recovered from the uninsured motorist carrier (Cincinnati Insurance). Our law firm handled this claim.
• Maryland: $175,000 Settlement. Our client was rear-ended on Route 4 in Calvert County. She went to urgent care that evening, complaining of pain in her jaw, left shoulder, left neck, and lower back. She ultimately had a cervical discectomy and fusion in her neck at C5-C6. We had no choice but to file suit because GEICO just would not make an offer.
• Maryland: $300,000 Settlement. A man was stopped at a red light in Montgomery County and was rear-ended at a high rate of speed. He was flown to Prince George’s Hospital Center but did not survive. This wrongful death settlement was for the policy limits. An exhaustive search for assets of the defendant driver revealed that he had no significant assets and only a $15,000 Pennsylvania insurance policy. GEICO paid the remaining $285,000 in uninsured motorist benefits. Our law firm handled this case.

GEICO Settlements and Verdicts Outside of Maryland

These are additional reported GEICO settlements and jury verdicts from other states. The rules governing insurance coverage, fault, and damages vary by jurisdiction, so the outcomes are useful examples rather than a formula for calculating a Maryland case.

See National GEICO Settlements and Verdicts

• Washington: $93,000 Verdict. The plaintiff was riding his motorcycle when the defendant attempted to pass him on a double-yellow line, into oncoming traffic. The defendant allegedly sideswiped the plaintiff’s motorcycle when crossing back into the lane after passing, causing the plaintiff to crash and suffer significant injuries, including a fractured arm and fractured scapula. After settling with the defendant’s insurance company for policy limits ($30,000), the plaintiff’s UIM carrier, GEICO, denied his claim for additional damages and took the case to court. The jury returned a $93,000 verdict.
• Virginia: $20,000 Settlement. The plaintiff, a minor, was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a collision and suffered injuries. GEICO was the insurer and initially denied liability, but eventually agreed to settle the claims and sought court approval of the settlement because it involved a minor.
• New Jersey: $30,000 Settlement. The plaintiff, a minor, was reportedly crossing the street when she was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. The plaintiff suffered a left knee injury. GEICO was involved in the related insurance claim, which resulted in a reported $30,000 settlement.
• Washington: $44,460 Verdict. The plaintiff was operating a vehicle southbound in the leftmost lane, approaching a traffic light. The defendant was also traveling southbound and in the lane to the right of the plaintiff’s vehicle. The defendant allegedly made an illegal left turn from the second lane of traffic and turned into the front passenger quarter panel of her vehicle. The plaintiff suffered bilateral hip, shoulder, neck, and upper back injuries. She had no permanent injury finding and received treatment for approximately 21 months. GEICO refused to make a reasonable settlement offer and the case went to trial in Spokane County.
• New York: $150,000 Settlement. The plaintiff, a 10-year-old boy, was a passenger in a vehicle operated by the defendant that came to a complete stop at an intersection and then proceeded to enter the intersection. The plaintiff said the vehicle he occupied was struck in the intersection on the driver’s side by another vehicle. The plaintiff allegedly suffered facial lacerations with facial scarring, TMJ injuries, and disc herniations at L4-S1. GEICO made a policy-limit settlement for $150,000.
• Alabama: $75,000 Verdict. The plaintiff alleged that he was on a motorized scooter in a crosswalk in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Hazel Green, Alabama, when he was struck by a motor vehicle operated by the defendant. Plaintiff claimed that he suffered severe injuries, including an injury to his ribs on the right side, a collapsed right lung, and pain in his right arm. He brought a UIM claim against GEICO. The case resulted in a $75,000 jury verdict.

Who Are GEICO’s Lawyers and Experts in Maryland?

If you do file a lawsuit, GEICO has used staff counsel offices such as Besok & Mullen and John Dahut & Associates to defend claims in Maryland. These personal injury defense firms have “law firm names.” But GEICO staff counsel offices are different from traditional independent law firms because the lawyers work for the insurer. This reduces the company’s legal fees. On balance, we have found these lawyers far more reasonable than the claims adjusters when placing a fair settlement value on accident claims.

GEICO also refers out some cases when it is concerned that there is a real chance the verdict could exceed the defendant’s insurance policy limits. The Law Offices of Frank Daily, a good group of car accident lawyers, has been one of the firms this insurer relies upon in Baltimore. It has also used Mulhern & Patterson in cases in the Maryland and D.C. suburbs.

This insurance company has many “usual suspect” experts in defending its positions that the plaintiff is either not hurt or not hurt as badly as the plaintiff suggests. In cases our lawyers have handled, GEICO has designated or relied on experts including:

• Dr. Joel Falik
• Dr. Louis S. Halikman
• Dr. J. Richard Wells, Jr.
• Dr. Eddie Cohen
• Dr. Gary London (neurologist)
• Dr. Clifford Hinkes
• Dr. Charles M. Citrin (diagnostic radiologist)
• Dr. James Gasho

Our lawyers have seen some of the same defense experts named in an incredible number of motor vehicle accident cases in Maryland and the District of Columbia. What is incredible is that GEICO lawyers sometimes name these experts long before the doctors have heard the patient’s name or seen a single medical record. What does this mean? They seem confident that these experts will say what they want them to say.

That is one reason we pay close attention to the defense’s expert disclosures. We want to know how often these witnesses testify for insurance companies, the opinions they have given in other cases, and whether their conclusions hold up when you compare them with the actual medical records.

GEICO Claim FAQ

Our experienced car accident lawyers have been dealing with GEICO for years. Below are questions our clients have had about their claims that you may also have.

Getting a Weapon to Fight GEICO

Our accident lawyers at Miller & Zois have handled hundreds of personal injury claims against GEICO and have helped many people get the money they deserve for their injuries. If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident in Maryland and GEICO insures the at-fault driver, or if you are filing an uninsured motorist claim against GEICO, and you have a question about your personal injury claim, call us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or fill out this brief online claim evaluation form.

To contact GEICO directly about an existing claim, use GEICO’s claims center or call 800-841-3000. The insurer’s mailing address may depend on the claim and the office handling it, so use the address supplied in your claim correspondence.

Keep in mind the risks associated with talking to the insurance company without counsel.

More Information You Can Use

• Get the inside scoop on more insurance companies
• How to value injury claims
• Sample demand letters
• Video on claims with GEICO
• Free Case Evaluation