Do Client Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life Forms Increase Claim Value?

Settlement Intelligence now offers Aaron DeShaw's Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life forms for personal injury claims to all Settlement Intelligence customers as part of their subscription fee.  Some lawyers have questioned whether these continue to provide value in cases, so Settlement Intelligence President Aaron DeShaw addresses that issue in this blog post:

"I created the Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life forms after three years of research into the Colossus program, including original internal programming notes. I believe these factors also apply to Liability Navigator (formerly called Claim Outcome Advisor or COA) because that program was designed by the same team as Colossus.  

Both through my own research as well as in a discussion with Allstate's former head of Colossus, Mark Romano, Duties Under Duress is considered the fourth most important category of factors in determining claim value in these personal injury cases.  Loss of Enjoyment of Life factors are considered the fifth most important category of factors in determining claim value.

The Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life forms include all factors and sub factors known to provide value within these programs, both of which are used in a high percentage of auto cases in the United States.  As such, those forms provide over 200 factors and sub factors that are provided monetary value for settlement offers, and which are normally not considered or discussed in medical records.

All evidence points to the fact that Colossus is very difficult to reprogram because of the language used to create the program.  Even once my Colossus books uncovered notable problems with the program, I understand CSC struggled with making changes.  

There is no evidence I am aware of that the factors for Duties Under Duress or Loss of Enjoyment of Life have changed since these forms were created.  The Colossus program was created in the late 1980s and continues to be used by many major auto insurers in the US. The Liability Navigator program was created in the mid-1990s and continues to be used by many major auto insurers in the US.  I continue to believe these forms represent most, if not all, of the factors and sub factors used by auto insurers in evaluating Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life claims. 

Doctors do not consider the same specific facts as insurers in evaluating a personal injury claim.  The value of these forms is the questions, the client’s answers, and forms that can be taken to a doctor and discussed in terms of the impact of the injuries on the client so that the insurer has proof of the losses, and the lawyer has the ability to use the form and those resulting chart notes to make a Duties Under Duress or Loss of Enjoyment of Life claim.

If consistently used in cases, I would find it very hard to believe that a lawyer purchasing this product would not receive multiple times the cost in the first three cases.  If used on hundreds or thousands of cases over the course of a lawyer’s career, it would be a very poor financial choice to practice without these forms. The other forms in this product are a bonus.

Trial Guides initially obtained all intellectual property protection available on the Colossus forms to prevent them being used by unauthorized parties.  To the extent you have seen the questions or format elsewhere in relation to Duties Under Duress or Loss of Enjoyment of Life, they would be infringing upon my original work in these forms, my Colossus books, and Trial Guides’ intellectual property in these forms. The only other company using this content with permission is my AI demand letter company Settlement Intelligence."

As noted by Dr. DeShaw, Settlement Intelligence is the only demand letter platform authorized to use all of the Duties Under Duress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life factors in creating demand letters. While our competitors mention these terms in their marketing it appears that they do not even understand what the claims mean.  If you are looking for a demand letter platform and consultant who understands claims, the choice is clear; Settlement Intelligence.

Author

This blog was written by lawyer Aaron DeShaw, author of the only legal treatise on insurance claim software, nationally renowned expert on personal injury demand letters, and founder of Trial Guides.