Last month your resident image-smasher took a look at the bane of all auto claim adjusters, the low impact soft tissue (LIST) claim, where claimants or insureds who could not conceivably have been injured in a minor collision are suddenly seriously hurt and represented by counsel, treating with expensive physicians. Is it real, or is it borderline fraud? This month we explore these claims a bit further, seeking insight into causation and how to deal with them.

We hear a lot about pain these days. There is the daily dose of television ads for one or another pain reliever. One says that “nothing is better” — one person who tried it agreed. Taking “nothing” was just as good, maybe better! (I'd fire the advertising executive who dreamt that one up.) Arthritis sufferers experienced even pain when Vioxx was taken off the market; it had brought relief to millions of arthritis suffers, better than other similar medications in many cases. Hopefully our medical system will find a safe substitute.

Like it or not, pain is real. For young men and women handling auto injury claims, pain may be difficult to imagine. Imagination is necessary for empathy with the injured claimant or insured. Not sympathy — that's something else, and probably has no place in our business. But if we cannot empathize with the people we must deal with, and view the world from their perspective as well as our own, we may be in for a difficult career.