Personal Injury and Family Law - Hull & Zimmerman

Did you know that most insurance companies use the same computer program to determine much your injury is worth? This program is known as Colossus.

The vast majority of insurance companies now us this program, sold by a company in Australia, to figure out what your case is allegedly worth. Understanding this computer program has been the focus of Plaintiffs’ attorneys efforts for years and has been the subject of a great of amount of litigation. This program is a closely guarded secret by the insurance industry. The insurance industry simply does not want injured parties or their attorneys to understand what factors are considered in adjusting a claim.

Fortunately, some of these secrets have been revealed through the powers of the Court system. Insight into the computer program Colossus is knowledge that any attorney must now have in order to maximize the amount of settlement that you will receive in a case.

More importantly, the Colossus insurance program is counter-intuitive: it doesn’t make sense. If you take two identical people who have both received a broken arm in an auto accident, but one is required by their doctor to have follow up visits every two weeks while the other only sees the doctor twice, the first will receive more money under Colossus. Somehow the computer program believes that if you see a physician more often that the injury must be more serious. As such, responsible injured parties who seek to minimize costs to their insurance company will ultimately receive less money.
Similarly, if a party is required to go to physical therapy thirty times but does it in one month that is worth less money to Colossus than a party who goes to physical therapy thirty times but spreads it out over six months.

Colossus also gives great weight to any impairment rating assigned by a physician. This is not something a doctor will just automatically perform in the course of normal treatment of his patients. The physician must also be sure to use the Fifth Edition American Orthopedic Guidelines in assigning the impairment rating. This can be problematic in that most Colorado doctors are familiar only with the Third Edition, the version utilized by the Colorado Workman’s Compensation system. As such, it is important to find a doctor who is familiar with the Fifth Edition and is willing to provide the rating.

At Hull & Zimmerman, we have gone through great efforts to learn and understand the Colossus program. We understand the importance of documenting each and every aspect of your medical care, obtaining each piece of the medical evidence, no matter how simple. Only in this way can we assure that Colossus adequately accounts for your injury.
As part of interviewing any attorney who represents you in relationship to an injury you have received, you should ask whether or not the attorney is familiar with the Colossus system and the elements considered by Colossus. If they are not, it is time to move on to a more knowledgeable attorney who understands how the insurance company and its “big brother” computer program works.