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Should I Give The Insurance Adjuster A Statement?

As any experienced Florida personal injury attorney can tell you, an insurance company will always put its interests before yours. This is something that you must keep in mind whenever the insurance company makes any request of you, regardless of how straightforward the request might initially seem. One strong example of this is the statement the insurance adjuster will likely ask you for right after you claim is submitted. Such a request is ostensible reasonable, as it is the insurance adjuster’s job to investigate your claim.

However, there are problems with giving such a statement that could put your attorney at a disadvantage when he attempts to negotiate your settlement. For instance, your statement will probably be taken orally, with the adjuster interviewing you and your answers being transcribed. At the conclusion of the interview, you will be asked for a signature verifying the truthfulness of the statement. However, this process is problematic. The adjuster will probably not willfully misrepresent your responses, but details can be lost or distorted as the adjuster paraphrases you. These distortions could serious errors that compromise your case and make the insured seem less liable for your injury than he actually is. Often, the claimant will not read the transcription very carefully, out of tiredness or naiveté. However, if you sign the statement when it contains distorted facts, your signature can be taken as proof that you read it carefully and found no mistakes.

These problems continue to exist even when an audio recording is taken. At first such a method seems objective and fair. However, the insurance company legally unable to use the audio itself as evidence, and will rarely spare the expense of having the audio transcribed. More likely, the adjuster will provide a written summary instead, and the same problems of distortion due to paraphrasing occur again.

This is part of why it is very important for personal injury claimants to seek the expertise of an experienced personal injury attorney who can shield them from such pitfalls. Call today for a free initial consultation with experienced Florida personal injury lawyer John Fagan.

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