Everyone wants to know exactly how much their personal injury insurance claim is worth. Guessing the exact amount that your injury claim is worth is like predicting the winning numbers to the lottery. However, you can see trends with insurance companies and begin to get a good range that your claim might be worth.
The first thing to understanding how much your claim is worth is to break your claim down into two categories. The first category is your property damage. The more damage to your vehicle, the more likely you are seriously hurt. This isn’t always the case because cars are safer than they have ever been, but it is a good indication to the insurance company that you are more likely to be hurt in a serious accident versus a minor accident.
The second category is your actual medical treatment and therapy. This is the bulk of your evidence and where you really start to determine how much your accident claim is worth. If you have $500 in medical bills and you make a good recovery, your claim probably isn’t worth much more than just your medical bills. However, if you spent 3 days in the ICU and 6 months in recovery with 2 major surgeries and $60,000 in medical bills, your claim is obviously worth a lot more. The next step in determining the value of your injury claim is figuring out how the insurance company values your evidence and offers you pain and suffering for your injuries.
Most insurance companies have some form of a computer system to help them determine how much your auto injury claim is worth. Allstate and some of the other larger insurance companies use the most famous one named Collosus. The way this computer program works is you input all the CPT codes from the medical providers contained in their bills. The computer then determines what kind of injury you have based on these codes. From there, it compares your claim to every claim similar to yours that is contained in the database. It then gives the adjuster a range they can offer you to try and settle your claim.
But don’t be fooled by this system of determining the value of your claim. Every adjuster out their will low ball you in an effort to get you to sign off on a value less than what Collosus may tell them your claim is worth. There are many reasons for this. Some adjusters just like to win bragging rights with their co-workers. They can brag that they were able to get someone with a $50,000 claim to settle for $15,000. Some adjusters may low ball you to look good for management to try and get a promotion. Others may low ball you because they are jaded. Whatever the reason, you will likely get low balled by the adjuster when it comes time to negotiate.
To really determine the value of your specific claim, you need to build your case right from the very moment the accident happens. You can imagine that this can be a lengthy and complicated process and you would be right. Being that it is a complicated process, it would be impossible to really help you determine the value of your claim in a single blog post. Luckily for you, we created an easy to follow Settlement Booklet that will guide you from start to finish how how to settle your injury claim with the insurance company. Using this tool and the other resources on our site, you should have a good idea of how much your accident claim is worth and how to successfully negotiate your claim with the adjuster.
