subject: How Talking To The Insurance Adjuster Can Hurt You [print this page] Car accident attorneys will tell you that you shouldn't speak with an insurance adjuster. Although this is good advice, it won't stop the adjuster from calling. You may be wondering, can I really shut them out forever? Accurately reporting your accident to the insurance adjuster is okay. Giving a recorded statement is unwise, and something you should not do.
The adjuster will try and be friendly with you by asking questions that may not relate to the accident. They do this to make you comfortable so that you might say something self deprecating to make the accident seem like your fault or to get you to say your injuries aren't so bad. Later this can be used against you.
So if some things are okay to say to an insurance adjuster, and some things aren't, where's the line? Where can you say "stop!", and how can you justify it? First you need to be aware about how insurance adjusters think and work.
The insurance adjusters are not your friends. When you bought your policy you probably dealt with a nice, caring, intelligent agent, you will probably not be dealing with them now. You won't be dealing with them. The adjuster's job, believe it or not, is to "adjust" your claim. What does this really mean: in a perfect world, the insurance you have is your safety net, it covers all life's emergencies. If the adjuster can construe that you're at fault or diminish your injuries, then they can "adjust" your claimpaying you less!
There are several tactics insurance adjusters will use to accomplish their goals. The first is getting you to give a recorded statement, which can be used against you later. They also may use a tactic called "juggling.". What this means is that they will have several different adjusters talk to you so that they can avoid giving you straight answers. They divide up areas of the claim and when you have a questiona bout one area they refer you to another agent, who is often conveniently unavailable at the time.
How do you properly handle behavior like this? Your case will never be settled if you avoid each other forever. The smartest thing for you to do is to tell them to talk to your attorney. When you tell them you've hired legal counsel they know you mean business. Having an experienced accident attorney on your side makes their job a whole lot harder.
by: Jim Brown
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
