By Joshua A. Estes. Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law — Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Here is the short version: you are not required to give the other driver’s insurance company a statement, recorded or otherwise. Texas law does not obligate you to talk to them at all. Your own insurance company is a different story — your policy is a contract, and it requires you to report the crash and cooperate. Most of the damage people do to their own claims happens in one phone call, usually within 48 hours of the crash, usually while they’re sore, medicated, or just being polite. This article is about that one phone call.
Why they call so fast
The other driver’s insurer opens a file the day the crash is reported, and the adjuster’s first job is to get your version of events on record before you’ve seen a doctor twice, before an MRI, before you know what your injuries actually are. The call is friendly. It is also work product: a recorded statement taken on day two gets quoted back on day two hundred — “you said you felt fine.”
Adjusters are trained professionals doing their job. Their job is closing your claim for as little as the file allows. Those two sentences are both true, and neither one requires you to be rude on the phone.
The script — what to actually say
You can be polite, brief, and done in under a minute:
- “I can confirm the crash happened and give you my contact information.”
- “I’m not giving a recorded statement.”
- “Please send everything else to me in writing.”
That’s the whole conversation. You don’t need to explain, argue, or answer “just a few quick questions.” If they press — and a good adjuster will, pleasantly — “please send it in writing” is a complete sentence the second time too.
Your insurer is different — but only somewhat
Your own policy requires prompt notice of the crash and reasonable cooperation. Report it. Stick to the facts a police report would contain: time, place, vehicles involved. You are dealing with your own carrier under a contract, not volunteering evidence to an adversary.
Two cautions even with your own company. First, if the other driver was uninsured or underinsured, your own insurer may end up on the other side of the table for a UM/UIM claim — cooperative doesn’t mean expansive. Second, “How are you feeling?” deserves the same answer everywhere: you’re being evaluated by a doctor, and you don’t know yet. That’s not evasive. It’s accurate — soft-tissue injuries and concussions routinely take days to announce themselves.
“I already gave them a statement. Did I ruin my claim?”
Probably not. People give statements every day and still have claims. What matters now is that a car accident lawyer knows exactly what was said and when — early, not late. What you shouldn’t do is give a second one to “clear up” the first. Additions and clarifications are how a claim file grows quotes.
The one document to be careful with
Somewhere in the early paperwork there may be a medical authorization asking you to sign a release for your records. A narrow release tied to this crash is one thing. The broad version — all providers, all history, no date limits — invites a search of your medical past for anything to blame your injuries on. Don’t sign a records release from the other side’s insurer without having someone read it first.
Common questions
Do I have to give the other driver’s insurance company a recorded statement? No. Texas law does not require you to give the other driver’s insurer any statement.
Will refusing to talk to them hurt my claim? Declining a recorded statement is routine and adjusters see it every day. Your claim is built on the crash report, medical records, photographs, and documents — not on whether you chatted.
Do I have to talk to my own insurance company? Your policy requires you to report the crash promptly and cooperate. Keep it factual and brief.
They offered to settle fast. Should I take it? A fast offer is priced on one assumption: that you don’t yet know what your injuries are. Once you sign a release, the claim is closed no matter what a doctor finds later.
What if the adjuster keeps calling? You can direct all further contact to writing, and once you have a lawyer, the calls to you stop — the insurer talks to your lawyer instead.
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines in injury cases are strict and fact-specific. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation.
The Estes Law Firm, P.C. · 716 S. Union St, Richmond, Texas 77469 · (281) 238-5400 · Responsible attorney: William F. Estes.