Should I give a recorded statement?
Portland Personal Injury Lawyers
Insurance adjusters will often tell people who have been injured in a car crash, "We need to take a recorded statement so that we can process your claim."
So, should you give a recorded statement?
Short answer: NO!
Long answer: Let me tell you a true story.
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Mary (names have been changed to protect the innocent). One day, Mary took the elevator up to the third floor, where she worked. She came out of the elevator, turned right, walked down the hall, tripped on a hose that the cleaning company was using to clean out overhead ducts, and broke her shoulder. The duct-cleaning company refused to pay for her shoulder surgery, because they said it was her own fault she tripped. Mary thought they should pay for at least half of it, because they should have put up a sign or had someone warning employees that the hallway they walk down 30 times per day was not safe on this particular day.
During the trial, the insurance company lawyer asked Mary, "which way did you turn when you came out of the elevator?"
"I turned right," answered Mary.
"Are you sure?" asked the lawyer.
"Yes."
"Are you absolutely, 100% sure that you turned right direcetly out of the elevator?"
"Yes," said Mary, wondering why he was asking the same question over and over.
"Well, then, if you're so sure that you turned right, let's just go ahead and listen to a statement that you recorded a week after the accident, shall we?"
Then he played a tape in which she said she turned left out of the elevator, then later headed down the right-hand hallway.
Doesn't matter, right? Which way she turned makes no difference at all to whose fault it was.
But when the lawyer played that tape, directly contradicting what she'd said earlier, the jury felt they couldn't believe anything she said.
Mary lost that case. She is still in debt from her medical bills.
A recorded statement quite literally cannot help you. The Oregon Rules of Evidence generally allow it to be played only to contradict what you say at trial. If your statement is 100% true, it doesn't matter, because then the jury will never get to hear it. They'll only hear it if it contradicts you. In can not help you. Don't do it.
By the way, if the insurance adjuster insists, try this: ask him, "can I take the recorded statement of your client, the person who hit me?" If they say yes, I'll buy you dinner at one of the best restaurants in Portland.
Read More:
- Visit our car accident resource library.
- Get a free 70+ page book Seven Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case.
- Contact Shulman DuBois LLC about a free consultation.
- Visit us on YouTube.