Your employer and their Workers’ Compensation insurance carrier will often make your claim difficult in an attempt to shut down the claim and save themselves some money. Many workers might not even be aware of when they can file or what is normal for a claim, which can lead to difficult situations and traps, like recorded statements.
A Workers’ Compensation carrier might ask you for a recorded statement, but you should never give them one or supply them with any additional statements or information without checking with your lawyer first. Part of the insurance carrier’s job is to “beat” the claims and save themselves and their insurance customer (i.e., your employer) money. A recorded statement is often a trap that the insurance company can use to get the claim thrown out.
For help with a work injury claim, call our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law today at (267) 651-7945.
Can Workers’ Comp Carriers Ask for a Recorded Statement?
Insurance carriers often deny claims on the basis that they do not have enough information or evidence to support the claim. This usually gives them the leverage to get more information by asking you to provide additional records, evidence, and statements about what happened under the threat that they will have to deny your claim if they do not get the information they asked for. This ultimately means that insurance carriers can ask you for more information – even going so far as to ask for a recorded statement – but you do not have to give it to them.
Insurance carriers want to get you to talk in an unrestricted way so that they can get as much extra evidence and information as possible. The more you talk, the more ammunition you give them.
Often, insurance carriers take recorded statements under the guise that they need more information. However, giving them what they want will often come back to bite you for various reasons discussed below. Instead, it is better to review everything with your lawyer first and to have all communications go through your legal team before going on record.
Literal recorded statements are often requested early on in your case, but there will be other points during the Workers’ Comp process where you may be asked to talk to doctors who might write down what you say and enter it into your records, too. Moreover, any phone calls with the insurance carrier or your employer might come with the warning that they are recorded, and it is important to be careful about what you say on the phone as well.
How Recorded Statements Can Hurt Your Workers’ Comp Claim
The insurance carrier wants recorded statements because any misstatement or error in what you tell them can be used as strong evidence that you were lying or mistaken, potentially helping them shut down your case. When injured workers give recorded statements, insurance carriers often want to look for the following tools that they can use to help shut down your case. This is why it is so important to only talk to the insurance carrier through your Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation lawyers and to only give statements through official channels with the help of your lawyer.
Evidence Your Injury Was Not Work-Related
An injury has to be work-related for an insurance carrier to grant a Workers’ Comp claim. If your recorded statement includes information about the injury hurting you before the work accident or an accident happening outside of work, they will instantly latch on to that as evidence that the accident was not actually work-related. Many times, insurance carriers exaggerate or make technical arguments about the specific wording the injured worker used to make the statement work in their favor. As such, it is always better to say no to a recorded statement and to give a prepared statement through your attorney rather than hoping you used the right language or arguing later about what you really meant.
Evidence of Disqualification for Intoxication, Etc.
There are a few grounds on which an insurance carrier can deny your claim, including when they believe that you intentionally caused the injury or that you caused it through drug use, intoxication, or illegal activity. The questions asked in a recorded statement will often be phrased to try to elicit an answer that disqualifies you on these grounds, even if you were perfectly sober and the accident was indeed an accident. Questions meant to deceive or trick you can be hard to counter without a lawyer’s assistance, and we have the legal training and experience to help you spot these traps before you walk into them.
Inconsistencies
Perhaps the most common way that an insurance carrier will try to use a recorded statement is to show that you are being inconsistent. If your initial claim says one thing, then your recorded statement says another thing, then we go to court and modify the language to a third phrasing, the insurance carrier might try to claim that you were lying or that you are untrustworthy in telling the story of what happened. Judges often latch on to these technicalities and inconsistencies, and it can hurt your case. Our lawyers can help you keep your story straight and present your narrative of what happened to you in a clear, concise, and consistent manner.
Locked-In Claims
Insurance carriers will try to get to you early on in your case, potentially before you have even hired a lawyer. By getting a statement recorded early on, the insurance company makes it harder for you to re-review the facts and potentially add details that you forgot or to rephrase things to be more effective. There is also a common tendency for injury victims to downplay or to exaggerate their injuries at first, and either one can look like an inconsistency later if you “change” your story after already giving a recorded statement.
Contact Our Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Today
Call (267) 651-7945 for a free case review with Cardamone Law’s Bucks County, PA Workers’ Comp attorneys.
