RECORDED STATEMENTS

Many insurance company agents know that people often don't
hurt as much in the first couple of days after a wreck that they
do say, a week later. It is not unusual in the least for the insurance
company covering the person who hit you, to call you and ask to take a recorded statement from you.

Now, we are talking about the adverse party's insurance company
here, not your own. In most contractual agreements you make with
the insurance company that covers you, there may be language to
the effect that in the event you are involved in an accident, you have
a duty to assist your own insurance company in their investigation
and processing of any claim you make. What that usually means is
that, if you file a claim under your insurance, you have an agreed
upon duty to give your insurance company a recorded statement
and to truthfully answer those questions put to you, and in other
ways to cooperate with their processing and investigation of your
claim.

You have not signed a contractual agreement with the insurance
company of the party who hit you, and the person who hit you,
his or her insurance may not have your best interest at heart.
I'm not an attorney, but I know quite a few and most will tell
an injured person that it is best NOT to give the other side a
recorded statement unless and until you have talked to an
attorney of your choosing about your legal rights.

If you DO retain an attorney, they most often will want to
be with you either in person or on the phone when the insurance
adjuster for the company covering the person who hit you, takes
the recorded statement, such that, if there are questions you should
not be answering at this time, your attorney will intervene and
advise you that you should not answer the question posed, or
they may ask the person asking the question to re-phrase it or to
modify it so that it CAN be answered by their client.

Most of the time, no matter how hard the adjuster for the other
side is trying to make you give a recorded statement, it does not HAVE
to be done a day or two after the accident.