Giving a Statement to an Insurance Claims Adjuster
Regardless of whether or not you have already decided to take advantage of the services provided by a top-tier Orange County personal injury lawyer, it’s important that you understand at least a little bit about how insurance companies are going to investigate claims and how adjusters are going to approach this situation.
You’re going to want to know what your insurance agency’s expectations are, what the goals of the adjuster are, and how to best protect yourself moving forward.
Here is some inside information you’ll want to be aware of!
The signed statement
You are going to find that when the insurance adjuster comes out to interview you in person they are going to ask you a tremendous amount of questions about the accident and the aftermath, and are going to write down your answers as though you were actually writing down the statement yourself.
At the conclusion of this conversation, the adjuster is going to ask that you read the statement that they have prepared and make any alterations necessary, and that you can sign on the dotted line at the bottom of each page to verify that the information is accurate.
It’s important that you request a copy of this statement before they leave, as it is going to be almost impossible for you to get a copy of the statement afterwards.
The recorded statement
Though the overwhelming majority of insurance adjusters used to go with a signed statement as described above, a lot of insurance adjusters are now shifting to a recorded statement – essentially recording the entire conversation that they have with you and then asking you to verify the information is accurate before moving forward.
They will have to ask your permission to do so (and you’ll have the opportunity to deny that permission if you wish), so this is certainly something you’ll want to go over with your Orange County personal injury lawyer.
Understanding the goals of your insurance adjuster
Most people believe that the insurance adjuster is “on their side”, but that isn’t exactly the case.
Insurance adjusters are employed by insurance agencies to do one thing and one thing only – to gather as much information during the investigation of a claim and then provide that information to the insurance company directly.
It’s important to remember that they are working for the insurance agency every single step of the way, regardless of what they may tell you or infer. This will definitely help you better understand exactly what you’re getting into.
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