Todd Travis is a well known trial lawyer from Colorado, who has handled insurance bad faith claims for over 20 years and knows the methods used by insurance companies to underpay claims. Despite his extensive knowledge of insurance claim software he licensed Settlement Intelligence for his personal injury practice. Since starting his use of our platform a few months ago, the firm has experienced notable improvements in their settlement offers, sufficient to double the number of cases that settle before litigation. Travis doesn't settle cases simply to settle them - the increased settlement offers obtained through the use of Settlement Intelligence allows him to settle cases for an amount that is acceptable to his client. He recently posted the following about how Settlement Intelligence impacts his firm's personal injury settlement offers [re-posted here with his permission]:
"If you really want to tailor your settlement packages with the data that each of the insurance companies are using, you’ll need something like Settlement Intelligence Demand letters, https://settlementintelligence.com a program designed by Aaron Deshaw, who literally wrote the book “From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves-How Allstate Changed Casualty Insurance In America” as well as several other books on the metrics that Colossus, Claims Outcome Advisor and a host of other insurance company software programs use to evaluate cases. It’s a constantly evolving area that no one person can keep up on.
Settlement Intelligence is a program that puts your demand package in a format specific to each insurance company (i.e. A State Farm settlement demand will have different data points than an Allstate or American Family). Settlement Intelligence makes you put the data in a format that fits with the specific insurance company’s profile so that it can fully evaluate all your client’s damages.
The days of the attorney writing a long demand letter are over. The carrier’s barely even look at what you put in them, and just take the data from the records and input it into their own evaluation program. If you rely upon an overworked adjuster to put your client’s information in a format that will maximize the values for your client, you are leaving serious money on the table. Put it into the format for them, so that the adjuster can just cut and paste it in. You’ve just made the adjuster’s job easier (which they like). They don’t care what value the program spits out, since now they have the justification to follow their directive to make an offer within the range of their software’s program and they can get the case settled easier, making them look good to management.
At Allstate for example, typically the adjuster offers 85% of what the Colossus evaluation is and the adjuster is authorized to go to 100% of that Colossus figure. Anything over that Colossus figure, they have to go to management for additional authorization. If the adjuster requests to exceed the authorization more than 3-4 times during their review period, they get dinged on their annual review/bonuses, or worse yet, have their jobs in jeopardy. If you’re an adjuster, you quickly realize that if you want to continue to feed your family and pay your mortgage, you are not going to go to management often to exceed the computer program’s evaluation, so giving the adjuster the tools/data/information to get the case settled, is a win/win for everyone. This concept applies in some form or another at most insurance carriers now-a-days.
For our firm, and the size of our practice, Settlement Intelligence is $6,000/year for the program, but it has increased the initial offers by 10-15% from what I have seen and seems to increase the settlement range from the insurance company internally. Previously, I would send out 10 settlement packages and maybe settle 2-3 out of 10. Now, its 6 or 7 as we are able to negotiate into a reasonable range to get the case resolved. It’s a game changer."
Travis' endorsement of Settlement Intelligence is not surprising given that he knows how auto insurers evaluate claims. Several lawyers licensing Settlement Intelligence are former insurance adjusters and defense lawyers who know how insurers actually evaluate claims. They know that Settlement Intelligence's method of writing demand letters triggers the software used by insurers to determine settlement offers. Our method is unique, and based upon over two decades of research into the way insurers actually evaluate calculate settlement offers, and has been tested on thousands of claims.
To leverage our knowledge to improve claim outcomes in your case, find the right license for your law firm.