Question 1

What Is a Colossus Personal Injury Calculator?

Accepted Answer

Allstate relies heavily on Colossus software to determine the value of car accident claims.

A Colossus personal injury calculator is a software program that calculates settlement values for car accident claims for many insurance companies. Insurance companies use the Colossus personal injury calculator to standardize claims, and it saves them money on payouts.

Unfortunately, for the sake of speed, the calculator leaves out vital information that may fail to provide a complete picture of one’s injuries. In other words, the purpose of the Colossus personal injury calculator is not to obtain a fair settlement value but, instead, to drive down settlement values to save insurance companies money.

Question 2

How Does the Colossus Insurance Settlement Calculator Work?

Accepted Answer

The Colossus insurance settlement calculator gathers preliminary information before entering the injury data. For example, the software program analyzes whether your attorney has a record of taking cases to trial or prefers to settle for the best offer.

The program also considers the jurisdiction where your case occurs. Most importantly, the program provides “points” for the severity of injuries suffered by each victim, and acquiring more points provides a more favorable settlement value.

However, it’s important to note that the Colossus personal injury calculator fails to account for a large portion of the tens of thousands of ICD-9 codes used by doctors.

The ICD-9 provides codes for diagnoses and procedures related to the hospitalization of victims. Without including all ICD-9 codes, the Colossus software cannot provide a complete and accurate record of a victim’s injuries and medical needs.

Question 3

How Could a Colossus Insurance Settlement Calculator Affect My Claim?

Accepted Answer

The way that a Colossus insurance settlement calculator gathers data often leads to shortcomings in getting a complete picture of your claim.

It operates on a points system, and fewer points provide a less favorable result for your claim. This means that a lot can ride on how detailed your doctor’s reports are. For example, if your doctor does not list every injury in your medical chart, the Colossus personal injury calculator may label you as “less injured.”

The Allstate Colossus calculator can also classify diagnoses and injuries incorrectly. For example, leg fractures are all organized together. However, a broken femur may create more complications or long-term issues than a broken ankle.

A severe break of the most prominent bone in your body, the femur, often requires months of rehabilitation and the possibility of more permanent injury. Yet it is grouped with less serious injuries.

Additionally, since a computer operates the Allstate settlement calculator, there is no way to include such crucial subjective and non-economic damages as the following:

Pain and suffering, 
Emotional distress, 
Disfigurement, and
Permanent disability.

These damages affect each injured victim differently. Based on this, they are excluded from the Allstate Colossus calculator. However, the importance of non-economic damages such as these cannot be overlooked or excluded from a compensatory award.

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