Can A Computer Tell Me How Much I Should Recover Or How Much My Case Is Worth?
Insurance companies believe they can. Maryland car accident lawyers believe that something in the neighborhood of 7 out of 10 property insurance companies use “settlement software”. Foremost is the ‘colossus’ program- but don’t think it’s going to spit out colossal settlement numbers. Maryland car accident lawyers have a general idea of how these program function, but the specifics are considered proprietary trade secrets, jealously guarded by the creators of these programs. As Attorney Eric T. Kirk will tell you, What we do see is that the output can vary depending on the way information about the claim is inserted into the programs and that they fail to account for subjective, intangible variables such as pain and suffering. In fact, Allstate agreed to modify its claims handling practices in a lawsuit filed against it by four states. In this settlement, Allstate agreed to:
- “Enhancing its management oversight of Colossus to ensure that it adheres to established criteria and a uniform methodology in selecting claims to be used to “tune” or modify the software to reflect recently settled claims;
- Not establishing a policy or rule requiring claims adjusters to settle bodily injury claims solely on the value recommended by Colossus and not providing incentives for claims adjusters to settle claims at or near the value recommended by Colossus.”
Source: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2010/10/19/114146.htm
If Allstate agreed to not, prospectively, offer incentives to secure settlement at the “colossus number”, somebody obviously contended they had previously done so.
