Should I give the trucking company’s insurer a recorded statement?
Not before you have spoken to your own lawyer. You are generally not required to give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer, and there is rarely anything in it for you. Your own insurer is a different matter, because your policy usually requires your cooperation.
That distinction, your insurer versus theirs, is the one that gets missed.
Why do they want it so early?
Because early is when your account is least complete. In the first days after a crash you may not know the full extent of your injuries, you may be on medication, and you have not seen the police report or the truck’s data.
A recorded statement taken then produces quotable answers about speed, distance, pain and fault, given before you had the information to answer accurately. Those answers do not expire. They come back months later, read aloud, when the number is being argued about.
What kinds of questions cause the damage?
The ones that sound like small talk. “How are you feeling today?” invites “fine”, which becomes evidence you were not badly hurt. “How fast would you say you were going?” invites a guess, which becomes a number you are held to. “Had you been looking at your phone at all?” invites a qualified answer that becomes an admission of partial fault.
None of it requires bad faith by the adjuster. It is a structured interview, and you are the only person in it who has not done this before. For how insurers build a file from the inside, see how insurance companies decide what your injury claim is worth.
What should you do instead?
Give the other side’s insurer your name, your contact details, and the fact that you are represented or intend to be. That is all that is generally required of you. Then let your Lafayette truck accident lawyer handle the rest of the communication.
If you have already given a statement, say so early rather than hoping it does not come up. It is a problem that can usually be worked with, and it is much worse when it surfaces later.
Be aware that in an 18-wheeler case there may be more than one insurer calling, because the tractor, the trailer and the cargo can be insured separately.
Talk to us before you give a statement
The call is free. No fee unless we win.
Call (337) 347-7177 or send us a message.
