COLOSSUS COMPUTER PROGRAM USED BY INSURANCE COMPANIES TO ASCERTAIN PERSONAL INJURY CASE VALUE
 
Colossus is a complex computer software program that values personal injury claims for at least half of the insurance claims in the United States today; and there are over 300 insurance companies in the United States that evaluate injury claims.  Colossus was used by the Government Insurance Office of Australia in the 1980's, and was licensed and popularized by Allstate in the 1990's. Farmers insurance began using Colossus after Allstate, and this trend slowly caught on in the early 1990's until the present day.  Allstate turned to Colossus, developed by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), located in Southern California, because they wanted to standarize, simplify, and control what their adjusters evaluated. Allstate also turned to Colossus because it was billed as a means to save money on  injury claim payouts on a global scale.  Colossus is used in other countries outside the United States as well.

Colossus considers a number of preliminary matters before looking at your individual case and injuries. Not every injury case is given a Colossus evaluation; for example, low property damage cases from car accidents, or scarring injuries from burns or the like.  Evidence suggest that the adjuster's experience on those types of cases are still left to human evaluation.  Colossus considers whether your attorneys have a record of taking their cases to court if they get an inferior offer or whether they always just take the best offer given by the insurance company. It considers the jurisdiction in which the claim arises by evaluating the zip code of where the injury happened; the zip code will dictate which Court House a law suit would be filed, and this is important because different jurisdictions tend to have different jury trends.  This is all calculated in a Colossus evaluation.
 
Colossus ostensibly provides consistent and uniform estimates of injury costs. Insurance company claims adjusters have varying degrees of knowledge and experience, which can lead to varying judgments in the value of claims. Colossus performs a "calculation" to attribute "severity points," or what I call "value drivers," to injury claims. Injuries have an injury profile that assigns a base severity rating, which is the starting point in the personal injury claim evaluation. After consideration to the personal injury attorneys involved and the venue, the system counts up the points and converts them to a dollar value so the adjuster can  obtain a settlement range for negotiation.  Colossus ultimately evaluates frequency, duration, and intensity of medical care, and whether or not there is an AMA Impairment to a particular body part.  ICD-9 Codes are codes that document each injury to a person, and the CPT Code is the modality of medical care that should correspond to the ICD-9 Code.  Colossus looks at all of these codes for its evaluation.

Essentially, the problem with Colossus is the that a claims adjuster could miss a crucial piece of medical evidence, or ignore an important document that explains pain and suffering; thus, this evidence is not put into the computer evaluation.  This action can skew to the detriment of an injured claimant the claim value the computer would assign for settlement value.  It is crucial your injury attonrey be familiar with Colossus and have a plan as to how he or she combats this reality.  At the San Diego Injury Law Offices of Mark C. Blane, we have the skills necessary to make a Colossus evaluation your benefit.  You can find more information on how we do this through our legal videos, blogs, articles, and library.