Under most Florida automobile insurance policies, if you are seeking first party benefits, like personal injury protection, you are required to cooperate with the insurance company and part of that requirement includes giving recorded statements to them. In a third party setting – like where you are making a claim for injuries against someone ELSE’s insurance – a statement is generally not required by insurance policy or by law, at least BEFORE A LAWSUIT IS FILED. If you do not cooperate with the insurance company that you are seeking first party benefits (usually YOUR OWN insurance company), then your insurance company MAY have a basis to deny first party insurance benefits or coverage. Thus, it is important to cooperate with your insurance company. You are entitled to have a lawyer prepare you for your statement and be there on the phone or be there with you during your statement. They key point is that you are in fact required to give YOUR insurance company a statement and if you don’t do that, there may be negative ramifications as described above.
Every case is different and unique and should be judged based on its specific facts. The laws as to giving statement could vary from state to state and from policy to policy. The legal discussion in this blog is intended to be general and should not to be construed as specific advice for a case or more importantly for your case. The goal of the blog is to give some information about a topic and to have you call the law firm for specific advise, if I were to take your case. A minor difference in the facts of the case in a fact pattern such as above could completely change the result. Also, this blog is, as the web site suggests, based on the laws of Florida and the laws of any other states or country could vary drastically from Florida.
