An insurance adjuster is the claims professional an insurance company assigns to investigate your accident and decide what the company pays. Every statement you give an adjuster becomes part of the evidence in your claim.
You are required to cooperate with your own insurer, but you are not required to speak with the other party’s insurer at all. That single distinction changes what you should say on nearly every call.
What Does An Insurance Adjuster Do After An Accident?
An insurance adjuster investigates the accident, reviews your medical records, assigns a value to your injuries, and recommends how much the company pays. Their evaluation drives the settlement figure you are eventually offered.
Adjusters gather that information through recorded statements, medical authorizations, property damage inspections, and follow-up phone calls. Each request is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken your claim.
Who Does The Insurance Adjuster Work For?
The adjuster works for the insurance company, not for you, even when that company is your own insurer. Their employer pays claims out of its own reserves, so limiting payouts is part of the job.
Politeness is not the same as advocacy. An adjuster can be entirely courteous and still be building a file that reduces your compensation.
What Should You Say To An Insurance Adjuster?
Give the adjuster the basic facts only: the date, time, and location of the accident, the parties or vehicles involved, and whether you sought medical treatment. These facts are verifiable and already appear in the police report.
Confirm your name and contact information, then stop. Anything beyond the who, what, when, and where is interpretation that the adjuster can use later.
What Should You Avoid Saying To An Insurance Adjuster?
Avoid guessing about fault, speed, distance, or how badly you are hurt. Estimates you offer in the first days become the benchmark your later claim gets measured against.
“I’m fine” and “I’m feeling better” are the two costliest sentences in a claim file. Soft tissue injuries, concussions, and disc herniations often surface days or weeks after a crash, long after that statement was recorded.
Do You Have To Give A Recorded Statement?
You do not have to give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurance company. New York law imposes no obligation to speak with an insurer you hold no contract with.
Your own policy works differently, because its cooperation clause requires reasonable assistance with your insurer’s investigation. Even then, you can schedule the statement for a later date or have your attorney present for it.
Why Is The First Settlement Offer Usually Low?
The first offer arrives early precisely because your injuries are not yet fully documented, which makes the claim cheapest to close at that moment. Insurers know medical bills and lost wages have not finished accumulating.
Accepting that offer means signing a release that ends the claim permanently. If your condition worsens or surgery becomes necessary afterward, the release bars you from recovering anything further.
What Does A Full Personal Injury Claim Include?
A full claim accounts for past and future medical treatment, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering. New York’s serious injury threshold under Insurance Law § 5102(d) governs whether pain and suffering damages are available in a motor vehicle case.
Documentation converts those categories into numbers. Medical reports, imaging results, prescription receipts, treatment notes, wage records, and employer statements each carry a share of the claim’s value, which is why maximizing your personal injury claim compensation depends on collecting them early.
What Are New York’s Deadlines For Injury Claims?
You must file a no-fault application with your own insurer within 30 days of a motor vehicle accident in New York. Missing that window can forfeit coverage for your medical bills and lost earnings, a risk our Westchester County car accident lawyer sees claimants run into repeatedly.
The statute of limitations for most personal injury lawsuits in New York is three years from the date of injury under CPLR 214. Claims against a municipality run on far shorter timelines and often require a notice of claim within 90 days.
What Happens When An Adjuster Delays Or Denies Your Claim?
Delays and denials are negotiating positions, not final answers. Repeated document requests, unreturned calls, and denials issued without explanation are designed to make settling for less feel easier than continuing.
A denial can be challenged with additional medical proof, an internal appeal, or a lawsuit filed before the limitations period expires. That pressure only works when a claimant has no plan for the next step.
When Should You Let An Attorney Handle The Adjuster?
Involve an attorney as soon as an adjuster requests a recorded statement, asks you to sign a blanket medical authorization, or presents a settlement offer. Once counsel appears, the insurer must direct communications to your lawyer rather than to you, which is a central part of the role of our personal injury attorneys.
Attorney Jeffrey Weiskopf has spent nearly two decades handling insurers for injured people in Westchester County and has recovered more than $20 million for clients across New York. Speak with our Ossining, NY personal injury lawyer before your next call with an adjuster.
