Very rarely will personal injury attorneys in Phoenix advise their clients or potential clients to give a recorded statement to the insurance company. In cases where a recorded statement may be appropriate, you should have your personal injury lawyer next to you in almost every situation.
Often, insurance companies will argue that a recorded statement is required. Yet there is no Arizona law that says an injury victim must make a recorded statement to the insurance company that caused the accident. This is more often a tactic that insurance companies use in an attempt to twist an injured person’s words, which they can later use against him or her.
I have often told people not to give a recorded statement. Some object, saying they are just going to tell the truth. We know that our clients will tell the truth, as they are required to by law. No good personal injury or other lawyer will be willing to work with you if you do not tell the truth. Yet those who have been in a serious accident that was not their fault should ask whether the insurance company will deal with them honestly, or whether they will find a way to use their words against them. One must ask oneself why, if all they want to do is know what happened in the accident, does the insurance company want a recorded statement. The insurance company could rather ask you to put it in writing. Finding out this way about an accident will not enable the insurance company to easily twist your words later, and will make it much less likely for an injured person to say something flippantly without thinking, something that can easily happen if under the influence of heavy painkillers. Those are just some of the disadvantages to giving recorded statements.
It is for these reasons that we strongly encourage anyone considering a personal injury claim not to make any sort of recorded statement or to have any direct communication with the insurance company without talking first with an experienced personal injury lawyer. You can consult an Arizona injury attorney, who will advise about your rights and guide you in the best way to pursue your personal injury claim. At Breyer Law Offices, P.C. we will readily take phone calls or answer e-mails for people with questions about a potential accident injury claim, and will offer an honest evaluation on the best way to move your personal injury claim forward so that you achieve the fairest result possible.
