June 15, 2016

This video is about understanding your responsibilities under an insurance policy after you’ve made a claim.

Understanding your Insurance Responsibilities After Claim

If you’ve filed an insurance claim, you have a responsibility under the terms of that insurance policy. If you look through that insurance policy, and it’s buried in there with a lot of other things, but there’s a statement in there talking about your duties after a loss. Find that provision in your insurance policy. Now as you look through there, one of the things that is included is referred to as a recorded statement. Now what this involves is either a representative of the insurance company, or oftentimes a lawyer, sitting down with you unsworn, Meaning it’s not a deposition or anything like that, but simply a recording device of some kind of recording device. It can sometimes be a phone that they’re using to record a video, or it can simply be a recording device that allows you to ask specific questions, and you have a responsibility under the insurance claim that you’ve filed to participate in that process. But here’s the thing: there are some boundaries regarding what it is they can ask you. Certainly, during a recorded statement, an insurance company can ask you questions about the claim itself. Sometimes, they can ask you basic biographical information, but there are boundaries on that. And understand something, a recorded statement is almost never for the purpose of an insurance company figuring out the best way to pay your claim. Many times, the recorded statement is designed for the insurance company to participate in an exercise of interrogation that seems pretty innocuous, but many times becomes the very basis as to why an insurance company will deny your claim. So here’s what I’m really trying to tell you: if you’ve been asked to participate in a recorded statement, it is imperative that you have legal counsel present so that you don’t inadvertently say something or take something out of context that would be the basis for the insurance company later to deny your claim. If you have questions about your responsibilities after you’ve made an insurance claim, be it a recorded statement, an examination under oath, or any unusual request being made by your insurance company, go to our website at www.CorlessBarfield.com or give us a call. You take care of your family, we’ll take care of the insurance company.