An adjuster from the insurance company will contact you to ask you questions about your car crash claim. They’ll ask about your past injuries, car accidents, work-related injuries, and health conditions. They’ll try to use your answers to argue that your injuries did not occur in the car accident.
Before answering questions from an insurance adjuster, you should speak with a car accident lawyer who can prepare you for the questions and tactics that adjusters use to obtain potentially damaging information to use against you.
Are There Questions the Adjuster May Ask That I Should Answer?
During a phone conversation, the adjuster will ask questions about the car accident itself. You can answer basic questions, including:
- When and where did the accident happen?
- What is the year, make, and model of your car that was in the accident?
- Were other vehicles involved?
- What sort of damage was done to your car?
- Does your car need repairing?
- Was a police report filed for the accident?
Are There Questions the Adjuster May Ask That I Should NOT Answer?
You should refrain from discussing what happened in the accident or the events leading up to the accident. Going into too much detail about the sequence of events in the accident may give the adjuster information that leads them to conclude that you caused the crash. You should also decline to answer any questions about your health or injuries you may have suffered in the crash.
Questions that an insurance adjuster may ask that you should decline to answer, especially without having first consulted a car accident attorney, include:
- How did the accident happen?
- What direction were you traveling?
- Were you wearing your seatbelt at the time of the accident? By not wearing a seatbelt, the insurance company may argue that you bear partial responsibility for injuries you suffered in the crash.
- Do you think the weather played a part in the accident? If the accident occurred in adverse weather conditions, the insurance company might find you at fault for the crash by arguing that you drove too fast for the conditions, even if you followed the posted speed limit.
- Were you hurt? Telling the insurance adjuster about injuries you currently know you’ve suffered may restrict your ability to claim other injuries from the car accident that your treating physician later diagnoses. You should refrain from discussing injuries altogether.
- How are you feeling? Although this seems like an innocuous question that people commonly ask when greeting one another, responding with “I’m fine” or something similar may convince the adjuster that you haven’t suffered any severe or disabling injuries.
Should I Give the Adjuster a Recorded Statement?
Insurance adjusters often ask car accident victims to provide a recorded or written statement to answer questions. You should always decline to provide a recorded or written statement to the insurance company. Once you put a statement on the record, you may jeopardize your credibility and insurance claim if you later make a contradictory or inconsistent statement to the insurance company or in a legal case.
Should I Allow the Adjuster Access to My Medical Records?
Adjusters also frequently ask claimants to sign a medical release that gives the insurance company access to the claimant’s medical records. You should never agree to give an insurer full access to your medical records. The adjuster will use that access to go on a “fishing expedition.” They’ll look for anything in your medical history the insurance company can cite as a plausibly alternative cause of your claimed injuries, including past injuries or accidents you’ve suffered, prior surgeries or invasive procedures you’ve undergone, or degenerative conditions you may suffer from, such as arthritis or bulging spinal discs. If you suffer from medical conditions such as narcolepsy or take medications with side effects like drowsiness, the insurance company may use those as evidence that you caused the accident.
What If the Insurance Company Denies My Claim?
Just because the insurance company denied your car accident claim, that doesn’t mean you will never obtain compensation. You should review the insurer’s denial letter to understand why the insurance company denied your claim so you can gather additional information and evidence to support your claim during an internal appeal. If the insurance company continues to deny your claim after the internal appeals process, you can file a lawsuit against your insurer or the at-fault driver.
How Can a Car Accident Lawyer Help with My Accident Claim?
A car accident lawyer will have experience dealing with insurance adjusters and avoiding the tactics that insurers use to delay, minimize, or deny car accident claims. When you hire a car accident lawyer to help with your case, you can expect your lawyer to handle all communication and details of your claim, including:
- Thoroughly investigating the accident to recover all available evidence, including accident scene photos, police accident reports, surveillance/traffic camera footage, and eyewitness statements
- Reviewing the evidence, including working with accident reconstruction experts as necessary, to build a persuasive case to prove the fault of the other driver or party
- Documenting your injuries and losses to calculate what compensation you deserve to recover from the insurance company
- Preparing and filing your insurance claims or an appeal of an initial denial of your claim
- Communicating with the insurance adjusters on your behalf
- Aggressively negotiating for a fair settlement and taking your claims to court, if necessary, when the insurance company unreasonably or wrongfully denies your claim or refuses to pay reasonable compensation
Contact a Texas Car Accident Lawyer
Insurance companies have many tactics to trick car accident victims into saying something the insurer can later turn into evidence to use to deny a crash victim’s car accident claim. Before speaking with an insurance adjuster, contact a Texas car accident lawyer from The Wilhite Law Firm for a free, no-obligation consultation. Let us be your legal representation and deal with the insurance company on your behalf. Our firm will handle all the claims details so you can focus on your physical and emotional recovery.
