Insurance Companies After a Car Accident in Houston

When you are injured in a vehicle crash and are planning on filing a lawsuit, the defendant’s insurance company might contact you looking to quickly settle. You should not talk to them until you speak with a knowledgeable car accident lawyer. This can be a tricky part of the process and you need someone to counsel you on how to talk to insurance companies after a car accident in Houston.

Admitting Fault for a Crash

Texas is a contributory negligence state, so both drivers could be partially at fault for causing the accident. Whether the accident was the plaintiff’s fault or the other driver’s fault should only be determined after all the factors that cause of the accident are taken into consideration. Forming a conclusion and admitting to something before all the facts are analyzed is a bad idea from a legal standpoint.

As nice as it is to say they are sorry, it can also be deemed an admission of fault. Until all the factors are considered to determine the cause of an accident, injured parties should not apologize or admit to fault.

The Danger of Giving Recorded Statements

A Houston attorney will tell their client not to give a recorded statement, because that is just an opportunity for the insurance company to pin them down on what their injuries are or how the car accident happened. They may accidentally leave out important facts or a part of their body that is injured, which could harm their case for damages.

When they do give a statement, they should be prepared to do so and have consulted with their attorney to make the statement is full and accurate. We do not recommend our clients give a recorded statement because eventually they will have to testify and nobody ever tells the same story the same way twice. We prefer to just tell it once.

It is standard protocol for insurance companies to try and take a statement from everyone involved in a car accident, as early as possible. Injured parties should not allow the statement to be recorded. If the insurance company is asking to know what happened, the potential plaintiff can tell them that the only purpose of recording their statement is to use it against the plaintiff later, and that they need to speak to their attorney first.

People often make this mistake and give statements because they are not represented by counsel and not getting good advice on how that statement is going to be used in their claim.

Do Not Cash an Insurance Company’s Check

There is a situation called “swoop and settle” where an insurance company comes in at the very beginning of a claim, maybe even the day the car accident happened, and they offer a nominal amount of money before they know the extent of their injuries, in exchange for a full and final settlement. It is a huge mistake to accept that. The check is usually paid out at the close the case and it will take some time to learn if the injuries will get progressively worse, which means the injured driver might miss out on important compensation.

Call a Houston Attorney Before You Deal With Insurance Companies After a Car Accident

There are studies that show people who have professional representation for their injuries get three times more money than people who are not. For that reason alone, it makes sense to get a personal injury lawyer. Yet even setting aside the larger settlement, a lawyer gives lots of good advice about how to handle the claim, such as when to see a doctor, how to preserve evidence, and when not to talk to insurance companies, among many other things.

The sooner someone contacts an attorney, the sooner they can begin preparing their case and take necessary steps to protect their rights. Call us so we can deal with the insurance companies after a car accident in Houston.