Insurance companies have been using computer programs to evaluate injury claims for years.
Now artificial intelligence is becoming another part of that process.
AI and claims software can process enormous amounts of information, compare injuries and treatment patterns, and help estimate settlement values. The technology is getting faster and more sophisticated.
But there's a problem Tom Pope sees from the other side of the table.
Your injury isn't someone else's case.
And when an injured person is still treating, putting a number on that person's future too early can miss the most important part of the story:
Nobody knows the future yet.
Insurance Companies Have Been Using Data to Value Injuries for Years
AI is new. Computerized claim valuation isn't.
Programs such as Colossus have been used for decades to help evaluate bodily injury claims. These systems can consider information about injuries, treatment, disability and outcomes from other claims to generate valuation ranges. Newer AI models can supplement this type of claim evaluation.
There's nothing inherently wrong with using technology to organize information.
We use technology in our own work.
The concern comes when a human being with an uncertain medical future gets reduced too quickly to a category, a score or a settlement range.
Because we've handled enough serious injury cases to know that two people with the same diagnosis on paper can have completely different futures.
A Gainesville GA Personal Injury Lawyer Should Be Asking a Different Question
An insurance company's system may be trying to answer:
What have claims like this been worth before?
We think an experienced Gainesville GA Personal Injury Lawyer needs to ask something different:
What is happening to this particular person?
Can they work?
Can they sleep?
Can they take care of their children?
Is treatment working?
Will they need surgery?
Will they ever return to the career they had before the accident?
Is this injury temporary, or are we looking at something they may live with for the rest of their life?
Those questions require more than a database.
Sometimes they require time.
We've Seen What Happens When a Case Is Evaluated Too Early
This is one of the reasons Tom is so adamant about slowing down when a client has suffered a serious injury.
Early in a case, nobody may know where the medical story ends.
A doctor may recommend physical therapy.
Maybe it works.
Maybe it doesn't.
An injection may provide relief.
Or the relief may last three weeks.
Someone may try returning to work only to discover that the physical demands of the job are no longer possible.
Another MRI may reveal something that wasn't understood during the first weeks after the collision.
Eventually, what initially looked like a temporary injury can become a chronic one.
If we're still learning those things, why would we want to rush to put a final number on the case?
We've Had to Tell Clients to Wait
This isn't theoretical for us.
Some of the hardest conversations we've had at Hasty Pope involve clients who are ready for their case to be over.
We understand why.
They're tired of treatment. They're missing work. Bills are arriving. An insurance company has made an offer, and having money now can feel much better than continuing an uncertain legal process.
There have been times when our advice has been:
Wait.
Let's see what the doctor says.
Let's understand whether this treatment works.
Let's find out whether you're actually going to recover.
Because once a personal injury case is finally settled, you generally don't get another opportunity to ask for more compensation because your medical condition became worse than expected.
That's why one of the phrases we've repeated for years is:
You only get one chance to settle your case.
One of Our Cases Took Six Years
Hasty Pope represented a nurse who was T-boned on her way to a birthday party.
The initial offer was approximately $22,000.
That would have ended the case.
Instead, the case continued.
The defense argued that her problems weren't caused by the collision. They pointed to her weight, her work as a nurse and other possible explanations for what she was experiencing.
Tom and the Hasty Pope team kept building the case.
Six years after the collision, a jury returned a multimillion-dollar verdict.
The point isn't that every case should take six years.
They shouldn't.
And a past result never guarantees what will happen in another case.
The lesson is simpler.
An early number doesn't necessarily tell you what someone's future is worth.
An Algorithm Can't Live With Your Injury
This is the part of Tom's video that matters most to us.
A computer can recognize patterns.
It can compare diagnoses.
It can process treatment histories faster than any human being.
It can analyze previous claims and outcomes.
What it can't do is live Tuesday morning in your body.
It doesn't know what it feels like when you wake up and can't get comfortable enough to put your shoes on.
It doesn't know what happens when the job you've done for 15 years suddenly requires movements you can no longer make.
It doesn't experience the conversation at the kitchen table when a family realizes one income may be permanently reduced.
Those details can matter enormously in a serious injury case.
The Recent Cases That Reminded Us Why the Future Matters
Over a recent 30-to-45-day period, Hasty Pope resolved four cases totaling more than $10 million.
Tom recently talked about those cases too.
What stood out wasn't the number.
It was what the money needed to accomplish.
These were families dealing with permanent injuries, lost earning ability and ongoing medical needs.
The recoveries gave those families greater financial security and resources for treatment moving forward.
That's what substantial compensation in a catastrophic injury case can actually represent.
Not a windfall.
A plan for what comes next.
Why Trial Experience Matters in an Increasingly Automated Claims System
Technology isn't going away.
Insurance companies will continue developing better systems for analyzing claims. AI will almost certainly become more sophisticated.
That makes human judgment more important, not less.
An experienced Gainesville GA Personal Injury Lawyer needs to know when the number being offered doesn't match the person sitting across the table.
That requires understanding medical treatment.
It requires investigation.
It requires knowing what evidence still needs to be developed.
And sometimes it requires being willing to tell an insurance company no.
That's where trial experience matters.
If an insurer's evaluation doesn't reflect what happened to our client, the question eventually becomes whether we're prepared to prove something different.
Jon and Tom Pope have spent decades preparing cases with that possibility in mind.
Fast Isn't Always Better
There is enormous pressure everywhere today to make things faster.
Faster answers.
Faster decisions.
Faster settlements.
In many parts of life, that's a good thing.
A permanent injury isn't one of them.
If someone heals completely, we want to know that.
If they don't, we need to know that too.
We want to understand the treatment, the prognosis and what this injury is actually going to mean before making a decision that could affect the rest of someone's life.
That's why Tom says a good trial lawyer sometimes needs to slow the case down rather than speed it up.
Not to make litigation longer.
To make the decision better.
Your Case Should Be About You
AI can analyze thousands of previous cases.
Those cases aren't yours.
Your career isn't a data point.
Your family isn't an average.
Your pain isn't someone else's diagnosis.
And your future shouldn't automatically be determined by what happened to a group of people whose cases happened to look similar in a database.
That's what we want people searching for a Gainesville GA Personal Injury Lawyer to understand.
At Hasty Pope, we use evidence, medical records and experience to understand the person behind the claim.
Then we build the case around that person.
Understand the injury. Understand the future. Then understand what the case is really worth.