Dealing with Insurance Companies

Answer:

People often come to me for the first time after they’ve been contacted by an insurance company following a Virginia car crash. In those cases they ask, is it really important that I speak to this insurance company, and provide the details they’re asking me about, following my car crash in Virginia? The simple answer to that is, there’s no need to contact the insurance company or respond to their questions at that stage in your case.Usually right after the car crash is when they’re calling and trying to take what they call a recorded statement to verify what happened in the crash. Sounds reasonable enough to most people, but unfortunately, insurance companies have learned a variety of techniques to try to sneak in questions that are designed to find ways to defeat your claim without you even knowing they’re trying to contest the claim, by asking you certain questions in a certain way. For that reason, you need legal advice before you take any kind of recorded statement, in front of an insurance adjuster or by phone, following your Virginia car wreck case.

I might add, also, that in Virginia, we have a protective statute of prohibition against introducing recorded statements at trial of a personal injury case if they’re intended to contradict the statement of the injured victim. However, in many cases, those statements can be introduced when they’re intended to show the nature and extent of your injuries. It’s always best you simply decline the invitation to give a recorded statement after your car crash and allow your attorney to make the evidence available as it’s fully developed, whether it be waiting until your doctors have made a thorough analysis of your injuries, or until your treatments are completed and you know what the final outcome of your case might be.