Should I Give a Recorded Statement to an Insurance Company?
The aftermath of a car accident can be confusing for a crash victim. First and foremost, crash victims need to be concerned about their health and well-being. However, when the initial emergency is over, car accident victims need to know how to secure compensation for their injury and property damage expenses. You can be sure that the insurance carrier of the at-fault party will try to contact you as soon as possible in an attempt to get you to give a recorded statement. Here, we want to discuss why you should not give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurance carrier.
Are you required to give a recorded statement by law?
First, we want to point out that you are under no obligation to give a recorded statement to an insurance carrier as far as Georgia law is concerned. While you can guarantee that the insurance carrier of the at-fault party will do their best to make it sound like this is mandatory, it is not.
How will the insurance carrier use this information against me?
Insurance carriers can use the information given to them in a recorded statement against you in a variety of ways. Many people think that they should give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurance carrier because they have nothing to hide. While it may be true that you have nothing to hide, insurance adjusters are trained in methods to get admissions out of you without you even realizing you are giving them information they can use against you.
Insurance claims adjusters may try to get you to admit that you did nothing to avoid the collision, even though their policyholder may have caused the crash. Adjusters may trick you into admitting something that is not true, including information about how fast you were going at the time of the crash, how far away from the other driver you were before the collision, or what you did or did not see at the time of the collision.
Regardless of how friendly insurance adjusters may seem, they are trained to conduct these interviews and to secure testimony that takes as much blame away from their policyholder as possible. Insurance companies are typically “for-profit” entities that do not want to pay out large settlements on your behalf.
Do not sign over your medical records
At the same time that the other party’s insurance carrier asks you to give a recorded statement, they will also likely try to get you to sign medical release authorization forms. Again, they may make this seemed like a mandatory part of the settlement process. That is not true. You should never sign an authorization form giving the insurance carrier permission to access your medical records. They can use your complete medical history against you. Insurance claims adjusters will take evidence of past injuries you have incurred or pre-existing conditions and try to say that is what is causing your pain, not injuries from the car accident.
Whether you have been asked to give a recorded statement or sign over your medical records, you need to speak to a skilled car accident attorney first. An Atlanta car accident lawyer will be your advocate and will help you make the best decisions moving forward to secure full compensation for your claim.