If you’ve contacted your insurance company about a car accident or property damage following a natural disaster, you may find yourself quickly overwhelmed with calls from an insurance adjuster. These calls are quite important — saying the wrong thing can hurt your claim, which means the insurance company could settle with you for far less money than you expected.
Why Does the Insurance Adjuster Keep Calling Me?
It’s the insurance adjuster’s full-time job to convince you to settle your claim for less than it’s worth. To accomplish this, they may call you repeatedly to ask for any information they can use against you.
Even if the insurance adjuster seems nice, it’s important to know that they aren’t on your side. The adjuster may act friendly or sympathetic to entice you to let your guard down but don’t be fooled. Divulging too much information could lower your settlement or leave you to pay medical bills and repair costs on your own.
What To Say When the Insurance Adjuster Calls
If your phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from the insurance adjuster, you might feel tempted to just answer all of the questions right away. Legally, though, you don’t have to give them anything but the bare minimum of information. When the insurance adjuster calls you, here’s what you can do.
Tell Them You Must Speak with Your Lawyer First
The smartest thing you can do when the insurance adjuster calls and asks for a tape-recorded statement is to tell them you need to contact your lawyer first. You have a right to talk to your attorney so you have a better idea of what questions you should and shouldn’t answer.
The insurance adjuster may demand that you answer their questions immediately. If this happens, politely tell them that you’ll call back later after you’ve spoken to your lawyer. They cannot force you to answer anything right away, no matter how demanding or threatening the conversation seems, over the phone.
Ideally, you’ll have your attorney present the next time you talk to the insurance adjuster. They’re less likely to try to bully you if you have an experienced lawyer by your side.
Provide Essential Information Only
The insurance adjuster wants to close all types of claims soon as they can. Delaying the call doesn’t benefit the insurance company, so it’s likely that the adjuster will say they only need some basic information for you to start the claims process.
If this happens, you’ll need to tread carefully. What starts off as a few simple questions can easily segue into more invasive ones.
Only provide basic information, like your name, phone number, and address. If you’ve filed a claim for an accident, you can tell the adjuster when and where the accident happened. Provide the make, model, and year of your vehicle if you were involved in a car accident.
Never apologize for the incident, and don’t admit blame in any way, even if you were at fault. The adjuster might try to ask you for more details, such as whether you were speeding or ignoring road signage when the accident happened. If the adjuster tries such a trick, tell them you will call them back after speaking with your lawyer.
Contact an Attorney Before You Talk to the Insurance Adjuster
Constant calls from the insurance adjuster can be stressful and irritating, but you don’t need to battle the insurance company alone after you file a claim. Call Geoff McDonald & Associates at (804) 888-8888 to learn more about what you should — and shouldn’t — say to the insurance adjuster.
