Three Easiest Ways to Mess Up Your Personal Injury Claim

We’ve handled thousands of personal injury claims for injured people in north Alabama.  Because of this, we have seen clients do common things that can negatively affect the value of their personal injury claim.  So if you’re wondering what the easiest ways are to mess up your personal injury claim, we have the answers.

In this blog post, we will go over the three most common ways that we have seen people screw up their chances at a favorable settlement.

Giving a Recorded Statement During Your Personal Injury Claim

By far the most common way to mess up your personal injury claim is to give a recorded statement to the at-fault party’s insurance company.  But what is a “recorded statement?”

Most insurance adjustors are trained to request that the injured person provide a statement over the telephone that is recorded.  The insurance adjustor will usually start the recording device and confirm you agree to be recorded.  The adjustor will then ask a sequence of questions about how the incident occurred and about your injuries.

There is no legal requirement that you provide a recorded statement.  In fact, we strongly recommend not doing a recorded statement.

Why?

A recorded statement is a tactic that insurance adjustors use to deny or diminish your claim.  For example, in Alabama, the contributory negligence doctrine prevents someone from winning a personal injury claim if they contributed to the incident.  If you admit on a recorded statement that you were driving 50 mph at the time of an accident, you can expect your personal injury claim to be denied if the speed limit was 40 mph.

A recorded statement is an attempt by the insurance company to create evidence that favors the insurance company.  They will try to twist your words at a later time to their benefit.  Importantly, recorded statements are admissible evidence in court because they are considered an exception to the hearsay rule.

Therefore, we caution against recorded statements.  If you do agree to give a recorded statement, make sure to be very careful with your words!

Signing a HIPAA Authorization for the Insurance Company

This is another common way people mess up their personal injury claim. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires a patient to provide written consent to allow anyone to obtain their medical records.  While medical records are very important in proving a personal injury claim, you should not sign a HIPAA authorization allowing an insurance company to obtain all of your medical records.

Why?

Signing a HIPAA authorization for the insurance company allows them to obtain all of your records, even medical records from medical treatment provided before you were injured.  If the insurance company finds some record that was years before your incident but shows you had pain in the same area of your body, the insurance company will use this to discount your personal injury claim.

Posting on Social Media About Your Personal Injury Claim

In many instances, people post about their unfortunate accidents, whether it be a car accident or slip and fall incident. In many cases, people will say that they were not hurt, even though they really were.  In other cases, the hurt person will post inflammatory remarks about the at-fault party.

Insurance adjustors are trained to look at injured persons’ social media pages to see if relevant information is posted.  Be very careful about this.  Social media posts can be used against you in court!

If you need advice on other tips to successfully pursue your personal injury claim, reach out to us today.