Auto insurance companies make incredible amounts of money. They do that by accepting premium payments from their insured policyholders and investing that money to make even more money. Then, when their policyholders cause accidents, the insurers pay out as little as possible in order to minimize their losses. They will do whatever they can to devalue or deny a claim, including obtaining recorded statements from injured victims.
Getting the Statement
Many auto insurance companies work quickly as soon as they learn of a possible claim against them. They want to get to a victim before that victim can get to a personal injury lawyer, and the best way to do that is to phone the victim “just to see how you’re feeling now.” That’s a pretext. The insurer adjuster doesn’t care how you’re feeling. He or she wants a recorded statement from you “just for purposes of nailing down our insured person’s liability.” Don’t believe a word of that. The adjuster wants a statement from you so that he or she might use it against you sometime in the future in an attempt to devalue your claim.
The Strategy
Regardless of the fact that the adjuster already has his or her insured person’s version of events plus a police accident report, he or she is going to play stupid. You’ll hear “I don’t understand” and questions about timing and distances over and over again. These are efforts to get an inconsistent story or even an admission from you that can be used to raise the issue of your own percentage of fault for the accident. Your statement can be used in front of a jury, and if those 12 people decide that you were 30 percent at fault for the accident, the opposing insurer saves a large sum of money.
There is no law in Arizona that requires you to give an opposing insurance company a statement of any kind. Simply refuse to give one. If that adjuster says that your file will be closed without a statement, let him or her close it. We can have it opened again in one stern phone call. Anything that you to us about your Maricopa County accident is confidential. You’re going to need us on your side.
If you have been in an auto accident call our car accident attorneys in Mesa and Phoenix, AZ to help you navigate your personal injury case in Arizona the correct way.
