When you try to handle your car accident case on your own, one of the things that the adjuster from the insurance company will press you for is to give them a recorded interview.
You are not required to give one. There is not legal requirement that you do so in order for the insurance company to make you a settlement offer, despite anything that the adjuster says to the contrary.
We almost never permit our clients to give a recorded statement before suit is filed, and on those very rare occasions that we do, we make sure that the client is extensively prepared for the interview both in terms of what kinds of questions they can expect will be asked and how they should go about responding.
There are a number of ways that clients can end up damaging their case:
- They can give inaccurate descriptions of how the accident occurred;
- They can say things that a defense lawyer will later be able to use to undermine their credibility;
- They can be imprecise about verifiable facts such as time, distance, or speed;
- They can fail to recall important parts of their medical history;
- They can minimize the extent of their injuries (make things sound better than they are);
- They can exaggerate the extent of their injuries; and
- Any number of other ways where the things that they say can come back to bite them later.
Too often, we are contacted by the client only after they have given a recorded statement to the insurance company and the insurance company is refusing to make a reasonable settlement offer. Here is a hard fact: the insurance company is not required to provide you with a copy of your statement until after a lawsuit has been filed. That means that when we get hired after a recorded statement has already been given, we are working at a disadvantage: the insurance company knows what is in the statement and we don’t.
Our recommendation: if asked to give a recorded statement, refuse to do so.
We hope that you have found this information helpful for your car accident case. If you have any additional questions regarding your case, please do not hesitate to call us at (312) 263-1080. The call is free, and there is no obligation to hire us if you do call. We do not require any upfront fees or costs, and we only get paid if we get a verdict or settlement in your favor.
