DON'T GIVE A RECORDED STATEMENT

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            Insurance companies have a tremendous advantage when investigating claims of people who are not represented by attorneys.    You may need a rental vehicle, you may need to replace a totaled vehicle.  You may be incurring medical bills.  You may even be confined to a hospital bed.   So, insurance adjusters are pretty clever about talking the unrepresented into giving recorded statements over the telephone.   CAUTION:   DO NOT GIVE A RECORDED STATEMENT TO AN INSURANCE COMPANY WITHOUT FIRST SPEAKING WITH A LAWYER AND LEARNING YOUR RIGHTS.

            Do I have your attention yet?   I hope so because there are many possible bad consequences from giving a highly trained insurance adjuster a recorded statement.   Did you ever stop to think why the adjuster needs or wants to record your statement as opposed to simply interviewing you, asking you key questions about what happened, writing some notes and confirming what you said?  That is because an insurance adjuster is interested in pinning you down to a version of a story that they can use later to reduce the amount paid to you or to challenge making any payment whatsoever.  

            Insurance adjusters get to ask the questions in the form they chose.  Have you ever heard of a one-sided or leading question?   That's right, when you're giving a recorded statement, you are at the mercy of the adjuster when you have not been informed of your rights by an experienced attorney.   You may make seemingly harmless statements that can severely damage your ability to recover regarding both how the collision occurred as well as the injuries and damages you are suffering.  

            In Nebraska, there is a law that states that when insurance companies take a recorded statement from someone within thirty days following a collision and do not also inform the individual of their right to a lawyer, the statement is presumed to have been taken under duress.   However, even though the statement may have been presumed to have been taken under duress, if you have not spoken to attorney, you just may have said enough damaging and harmful statements that your case may be severely damaged.

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