How Insurer Software Scores Your Injury Claim
Before a human being reads your injury claim, software usually reads it first. The large carriers use claims-evaluation programs — Colossus is the best-known name — that assign severity based on diagnosis codes, treatment patterns, and documented impairment. This page explains that plainly, then lets you check which documentation factors already exist in your own file — and which gaps commonly draw scrutiny.
What this is: an educational explainer and a documentation self-check. It does not score your claim, estimate any settlement, or predict any outcome. No software score determines what a claim is worth, and results are never guaranteed. Nothing you check here is sent or stored — it never leaves your browser. This is general information, not legal advice.
What reads your claim first
Claim-Scoring Software, Explained
Colossus is the dominant severity-scoring engine used by the large auto carriers to evaluate bodily-injury claims. It assigns severity points based on what is documented: diagnosis codes, treatment patterns, and impairment a provider has put in writing. A demand package that doesn’t speak that language pulls a low severity score — not because the injury is minor, but because the file reads thin. How we answer that at the case level is part of the evidence-based methodology behind our personal injury practice.
One honest limit up front: the exact weighting inside these systems is proprietary, and different carriers run different software with different settings. That is exactly why this page does not pretend to compute a score. What can be said reliably is which categories of documentation the software and its human reviewers read — and that is something you can check against your own file today.
Why documentation decides
The Software Reads Records, Not Pain
Software cannot see what you live with. It sees what made it into the record: the test result, the diagnosis code, the completed referral, the work restriction a provider wrote down. Two people with the same injury can produce very different files — and file quality also matters when injuries are serious enough to step outside Minnesota’s no-fault system into a claim against the at-fault driver. Undocumented symptoms are invisible at every stage that follows.
Self-Check
Which Documentation Factors Are Already in Your File?
Check what you know exists in your medical and claim file. This is a guided look at documentation completeness — not a score, not an evaluation of your claim.
Nothing you check here is sent or stored. The self-check runs entirely in your browser, and no data leaves the page.
This is a documentation self-check, not a claim evaluation. No software score — the insurer’s or anyone else’s — determines what a claim is worth, and results are never guaranteed. General information only, not legal or medical advice.
What your answers describe
What this does and doesn’t do
Honest Limitations
- This page does not compute a severity score, estimate a settlement, or predict any outcome. No software score determines what a claim is worth, and results are never guaranteed.
- Checking or not checking a box is not a legal conclusion about your claim. It is a picture of what your file documents today.
- Different carriers run different scoring systems with different settings. The documentation categories here are the reliable common ground, not a formula.
- Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you check is sent, stored, or shared — there is no way for us to see your answers.
- This is general education, not legal or medical advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Educational purpose: this tool exists to teach how claim-scoring software treats documentation — nothing more. If your injury claim is active, documentation strategy belongs in a conversation with a lawyer, not a checkbox form. Call Andrade Law at (651) 800-1313 and I’ll look at the file itself.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Colossus? +
Colossus is claims-evaluation software licensed to many of the large auto carriers. It scores bodily-injury claims on a severity-point scale derived from diagnosis codes, treatment patterns, and documented impairment. Other carriers run comparable systems under other names — the documentation logic is what they share.
Will this page tell me what my claim is worth? +
No — deliberately. No software score determines what a claim is worth, and any tool that converts checkboxes into a number would be repeating the insurer’s mistake. This page shows you what a file review reads, so you understand why documentation matters. Valuing a claim requires the actual file, the actual facts, and a lawyer.
What if my file is missing several of these factors? +
Gaps are common, especially early in treatment, and a gap doesn’t mean your injury isn’t real — it means the record doesn’t yet show it. Some gaps can be addressed while care is ongoing; which ones, and how, depends on your situation and belongs in a free case review. Related self-checks: spotting errors on your ER bill and organizing your own evidence.
Talk to us
Want the File Read by a Person Instead? Request a Free Case Review
If an insurer’s software is going to read your claim, the file it reads should be complete. Tell me briefly what happened and where your treatment stands, and I’ll tell you what the record shows — and what’s missing. You can also start with the Ramsey County liability decision tree to see every party worth checking, or call me directly at (651) 800-1313.
Submitting a case review request does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send highly sensitive or confidential details through this website. We may need to check conflicts and agree in writing before we can represent you or take action on your behalf.