Filing a big insurance claim after a car crash often means jumping through numerous hoops. The other driver’s insurance company may demand a lot of paperwork and documentation from you.
You may need to submit photographs, invoices and a police report to the insurance company. You might have to maintain records of all of your medical bills and car repair expenses as well. You could have to frequently communicate with an insurance adjuster about your claim while trying to negotiate a lump-sum settlement or secure payment for yet another crash-related bill.
Especially if a wreck leaves you with thousands of dollars worth of damages, the insurance company may ask you, as the claimant, to make a recorded statement. Do you have to agree to give a recorded statement?
The insurance company cannot compel you to give a recorded statement
The insurance company has the right to thoroughly investigate a big claim to make sure that they properly apply their policy rules and determine who is truly at fault for the crash. Unfortunately, sometimes insurance companies will use their right to investigate as a way to limit the compensation they pay out on valid claims.
An insurance adjuster recording a conversation with a claimant will likely ask them leading questions that might get them to overshare or even implicate themselves as being partially at fault for the crash. Giving too much detail to an insurance adjuster could give them a reason to limit how much they pay you.
Especially when there are tens of thousands of dollars on the table for a major claim, there is plenty of financial incentive for the insurance company to try to limit how much it pays you.
Negotiating a big claim on your own can be a mistake
The insurance company responsible for paying your claim wants to limit its own liability and losses more than it wants to do right by you. Understanding that profit is the biggest incentive for everything an insurance company does can help you be more realistic about how you approach your interactions with the company.
Limiting how much you say and learning about your rights can help you get what you deserve from an insurance company after you get hurt in a car crash.