After a Crash, It’s Not Your Insurance Agent Deciding What You’re Paid — It’s a Computer

If you’ve been hurt in a car crash, it’s natural to think your insurance agent — the nice person you’ve known for years — will help make sure you’re treated fairly. And to be clear: Most insurance agents are good people who genuinely want to help. But here’s the truth no one tells you:

It’s not your agent who decides how much to pay you. It’s a computer.

1. Insurance Companies Use Computerized Algorithms to Value Your Claim

After you report a crash, your claim isn’t handled by your local agent.It’s processed by large insurance companies using computerized claim evaluation programs like:

• Colossus

• ClaimIQ

• Xactimate

• and others.

These programs take your injuries, treatment dates, billing codes, and medical reports — and assign a dollar value to your case based on preset formulas.

A computer — not a person who knows you — is calculating how much your pain, your lost time, and your suffering are “worth.”

2. Computers Aren’t Built to Be Fair

These claim evaluation systems are designed to protect the insurance company’s bottom line, not to compensate you fairly.They automatically:

• Value injuries lower if you delay treatment (even if you had a good reason).

• Penalize you if you didn’t take an ambulance or go straight to the ER.

• Assume full recovery unless certain words or “magic phrases” appear in your medical records.

• Give more weight to minor injuries that are easily documented, even if your more serious injuries are harder to "code."

The result?

Claims are undervalued — often by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

3. Your Agent Can’t Override the System

Your local insurance agent may care about you and your family.But once your injury claim is filed, they have no control over the evaluation.They can’t manually increase your payout. They can’t tell the computer to “be more fair.”

Your claim is in the hands of corporate claims adjusters who answer to company policies — and ultimately, to shareholders.

4. You Can Fight Back — With the Right Help

The good news is you don’t have to accept what the computer says your case is worth.

An experienced injury attorney knows how to:

• Challenge low settlement offers.

• Highlight medical evidence that computerized systems undervalue.

• Push claims out of the automated system and into serious human review.

• Take the insurance company to court if needed — where real people (a jury) decide the value of your injuries, not a computer program.

The Bottom Line

Your insurance agent is probably a good person who wants the best for you. But when it comes to your injury settlement, they aren’t the one making the decisions. A computer is — and it’s programmed to protect the insurance company, not you.

At Guenin Law Office, we know how the system works, and we know how to push back against unfair settlements.

If you’ve been injured, contact us today. Don’t let a computer decide your future.