Should I Give a Recorded Statement to an Insurance Company?

After a car accident or another accident injures you, file an insurance claim in Texas to recoup the costs of your damages. One of the steps of the average insurance claim is a conversation with a claims adjuster. An insurance claims adjuster is a professional assigned to evaluate your case. A tactic most insurance adjusters use to save the company money is asking you to give a recorded statement. If you wish to preserve your rights, the best thing to do is politely decline to make this statement.

While the insurance claims adjuster on the phone may be friendly and act like he or she is on your side, the reality is that the adjuster’s goal is to minimize your payout to save the insurance company money. Asking you to give a recorded statement is not a means of learning more about your accident or processing your claim. It is a method insurance companies use to trick clients into putting information on the record before they are ready.

Insurance adjusters often ask for recorded statements shortly after your accident – sometimes, as soon as the day of or day after your accident. Asking for a statement this early is meant to gather information from you before you know what happened. If you change your story later, after an investigation gives you more facts, the insurer may use this as proof of your unreliability as a witness. The insurance company wishes to trap you into a contradiction to hurt your ability to recover compensation.

Another reason for requesting the recorded statement is to get you to admit fault or partial fault for the accident. The adjuster wishes to capture a statement while you are still stressed or flustered from the accident. If you say something incriminating against yourself, such as admitting to driving distracted or not wearing your seat belt, the insurance company can use this against you.

The short answer is no, you should not give an insurance company a recorded statement about your accident. No law in Texas obligates you to do so, and its main purpose from the insurance company’s perspective is to hurt your claim. Even if the claims adjuster says it is a required part of the insurance process, reply that the law in Texas protects your right to refuse to give one. Remember, the motivation behind obtaining a statement from you is to negatively impact your claim. The adjuster wants to use the statement against you to avoid or minimize your payout.

If you do wish to give a statement, do so a few days or weeks after the adjuster initially asks. Waiting until the adrenaline from the crash has gone away and you learn more about the accident can allow you to give a clearer, more accurate statement to the adjuster. If you give a statement, keep your answers to the adjuster’s questions short and succinct. Be honest with your answers, but do not admit any fault for the collision.

When asked about your injuries or medical history, be especially careful. Injuries and symptoms often take days to fully manifest after an accident. Politely decline to talk about your injuries with a claims adjuster until you have seen a doctor and have an official injury diagnosis. In general, the less you say about your injuries to an adjuster, the better.

Do not give the insurance company a statement if you wish to fully protect your rights. It is understandable not to know what to say during conversations with an insurance claims adjuster as a claimant. If you do not feel comfortable discussing your accident with an adjuster, hire a Houston personal injury attorney to do so for you. An attorney can screen an adjuster’s questions, give a statement for you and keep the insurance company from infringing upon your rights.

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