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.

Welcome to the Hull and Zimmerman blog. It is an interesting experience to have an audience for the concerns that effect our clients. While many topics come to mind, I think the most pressing is to discuss the changes resulting from the demise of the Colorado No-fault Act. As many of you may be aware, the Colorado Legislature allowed the Colorado No-fault Act to sunset in July of 2003. Under the old law, each of us was required to maintain $100,000 of medical insurance which paid for medical bills arising from an automobile accident. Your insurance would pay for medical bills, regardless of which person was at fault. Neither the injured party, nor the insurance company paying the medical bills could seek recovery for the medical expense as part of any lawsuit against the responsible party.
The same law also required that everyone maintain $25,000 of liability insurance (minimum) to pay the injured party for their trauma.
Under the new law, there is no mandatory medical insurance. As a result, most people use their Health Insurance to pay any medical bills caused by another's negligence. So, what is the problem? By contract your health insurance carrier must be repaid. As a result, an all to common scenerio is occurring. The victim of the accident has $20,000 in medical bills which must be paid from the money obtained from the responsible party. The responsible party only has the required minimum of $25,000 in insurance. Only $5000 is left for the victim!!!! Under the old law the entire $25,000 would have been available.
So how do you avoid this situation. First, you need more insurance (kills me to recomend that you give the insurance industry more money). You need more liability insurance in case you cause the accident and the injured party comes after your personal assetts. You also need as much Uninsured/Underinsured insurance that you can purchase. This insurance will step in and pay if the responsible party has no insurance or TOO LITTLE INSURANCE. This type of coverage is also very inexpensive.
Second, you call your legislature and ask them why they allowed a law to be passed that provides so little protection to you, the consumer, and instead allows the insurance companies to benefit. You might also ask why, if this law allows insurance companies to get the cost of medical bills back, did your cost for liability insurance go up, not down.
BEWARE
If you are hurt in a car accident, the responsible party's insurance company may offer to pay you a settlement. They won't tell and wont necessarily give you enough to pay back your insurance company ( which includes medicare and medicaid). They will hope to get a bargain at your ignorance. Unfortunetly, your health insurance carrier wont be as sympathetic. They will expect their money from you and if you dint get enough from the responsible party, you will pay it out of your own pocket!