Progressive moves fast — contact often comes within a day of the crash, sometimes with a settlement figure attached. Speed is a strategy: an early number anchors the negotiation before you know what your claim is worth. This page exists to reverse that order.
Two honest methods, shown side by side. Educational estimate, not legal advice.
An offer that arrives before your second doctor's appointment prices a claim whose size nobody knows yet — including them. The counter isn't hostility; it's sequencing. Decline politely, finish treatment, compute the range, then negotiate. The claim doesn't expire because you took the time to know its value (though your state's filing deadline does run — check it).
Adjusters reduce what they must pay by the percentage they can assign to you, and early recorded statements are where those percentages get built. Answer factual questions to your own insurer as your policy requires; for the other side, provide the basics and save the narrative until liability is documented by the police report and evidence.
Run your numbers above, put the printed arithmetic in your demand, and grade every offer by its implied multiplier. A negotiation about which multiplier fits your documented injury is one you can win; a negotiation about whether you sound hurt enough on the phone is not.
Against documented economic damages with software-assisted consistency, like all major carriers — and the multiplier method (1.5–5× by severity) is the framework those outputs get measured against in negotiation. The calculator on this page runs it with every line shown.
Not before treatment is complete. Early offers price an unknown claim, and releases are permanent — the surgery discovered next month isn't covered by the check you cashed this week. Compute your range first; the offer will still be there.
The valuation math is identical, but you gain good-faith duties and cooperation obligations in both directions. See our uninsured-motorist page for the mechanics — including the consent-to-settle trap.