In deciding to try and help auto accident victims I seem to have created some enemies, hehe. Oh well. I will continue to give honest and straightforward answers to the questions that accident victims have. Recently I have had quite a few questions that relate to how to calculate how much a minor injury claim is worth. In response to the numerous questions, I wrote an e-book which is available for purchase by clicking on the title of this posting. I will also answer questions for free if you e-mail me or call me, but if you want it in writing to refer to when I am not personally available, you’ll have to make a very small investment. Although I won’t give away all of my secrets here on the blog, I will offer some free tidbits and general information that will compliment the e-book.
One of the things that I did not address in my e-book is the use of the Colossus system. It has been said that out of the top 20 auto insurers, 12 or 13 of them have licensed Colossus. In fact, there are a couple of articles on E-zines that list out the companies which have licensed Colossus. For those of you that don’t have a clue what Colossus is, let me explain. . . .
Colossus is an injury claim evaluation software program. In the most simple terms, insurance adjusters that evaluate injury claims plug in various different terms and factors from your medical reports, occupation, doctor’s office, lawyer’s office, and a lot of other “proprietary” information and then Colossus compares the information with its “database” of similar injury claims. Once it has analyzed the information, it generates a “suggested settlement range”. Although insurance companies won’t admit that their adjusters are required to stay within the program’s suggested range, I am here to tell you that for those companies that use it, it is “heavily relied upon”, hehe. The insurance company will insist that the adjuster retains the ultimate authority on determining the settlement range, but they fail to tell you that when that same adjuster gets his/her “review”, then they will be evaluated on how well they settled claims within the “suggested range” from Colossus. Additionally, although I can’t prove it, there has been testimony that some companies “filter” out the “unusual” high settlements that would make up the database of “similar” claims.
Ultimately, my e-book explains the philosophy and the methods used to evaluate the value of an injury claim, and even Colossus has to use some of the same standards like determining the tendency of the venue and such. I would suggest that if you have an injury claim and you are dealing with it on your own, that you do a little research to try and determine if the company you are dealing with uses Colossus or any other software to evaluate your injury claim. If you determine that they do use a computer to “assist” with the evaluation, be frank and up front with the adjuster. It is likely that the adjuster will help you to provide the “correct” information that they can input into the software to get your claim settled. The software gives you back what you put in, and you just have to know what to put in, you know?
Injury claims are each different. Getting a list of the most used and “universal” factors used in evaluating an injury claim is how you can get a rough idea of what your claim is worth. Utilizing things like the “Stowers Doctrine” and being well advised on the methods used for evaluation will add up quickly when it comes to getting the right settlement for your injury.
I hope you never have to file an injury claim, but if you do, I hope you find me so I can add to my list of people I have helped. It just makes me feel good, you know?