The insurance adjuster called. What you say next matters

After a motor vehicle collision in New York, two different insurance processes usually start at once. One is the no-fault system under article 51 of the Insurance Law, which pays medical expenses and certain lost earnings through a person's own insurer regardless of who caused the crash. The other is the liability claim against whoever was responsible. They have different rules, different forms and different deadlines, and the person who calls may be working on either one.

Knowing which conversation you are in is most of what makes these calls manageable.

Why is the adjuster calling so quickly?

Because early is when the account is least settled.

An adjuster's job includes establishing the facts of the loss and evaluating exposure. A call placed a day or two after a collision reaches someone who may be medicated, in pain, missing work, and who has not yet had every injury diagnosed. None of that is sinister, but it does mean the conversation happens at the point when a person knows the least about their own situation that they ever will.

Do I have to give a recorded statement?

It depends on whose insurer is asking, and the distinction matters.

Most policies contain a cooperation clause obliging the policyholder to cooperate with their own insurer's investigation. That is a contractual duty, and refusing outright can create real problems with a person's own coverage.

The other driver's insurer is a different matter. There is generally no obligation to give a recorded statement to an insurer you have no contract with. People frequently assume the request is mandatory because of the way it is phrased. It usually is not.

If a statement is going to be given, it is reasonable to ask what it is for, to ask for the request in writing, and to schedule it rather than give it on the spot.

What are the parts of these calls that cause trouble?

Four things account for most of it, and none of them involve anyone lying.

Saying you are fine. This is a greeting in ordinary English, not a medical opinion. It is also recorded as a statement about the person's condition. Soft tissue injuries, concussions and disc injuries routinely take days or longer to become apparent, and a person genuinely does not know their condition in the first week.

Guessing. Speeds, distances, timings and light sequences invite estimates. An estimate offered in good faith and later contradicted by a camera or a download becomes an inconsistency, and inconsistencies get treated as credibility problems rather than as what they were, which is someone trying to be helpful about something they could not have measured.

Apologizing. An apology is a social reflex in most of the country. In a claim file it can read as an admission.

Filling silence. Volunteering context that was not asked for, particularly about prior injuries, prior treatment or unrelated conditions, tends to expand the investigation rather than resolve it.

The through-line is that the useful discipline is not evasiveness. It is answering the question that was asked, saying you do not know when that is the honest answer, and declining to guess.

Should I sign the medical authorization they sent?

Read what it actually covers before signing.

There is a difference between an authorization limited to records of treatment for this incident and a broad, open-ended release of an entire medical history. A person may have a good reason to provide the former. The latter is a much wider grant, and it is worth understanding its scope before agreeing to it.

What about an early settlement offer?

An early offer arrives before the picture is complete, which is the difficulty with it rather than a criticism of it.

Settlements are ordinarily final. Once a release is signed, later-discovered injuries, complications and further treatment are generally the claimant's own problem. Because the full extent of an injury may not be known for weeks or months, an offer made before treatment has run its course is being made on incomplete information, and the person accepting it is the one who carries that risk.

What is actually worth doing?

• Report the collision to your own insurer promptly. No-fault benefits carry their own filing deadlines, and they are short.
• Get evaluated even if you feel able to walk away. A gap between the collision and the first medical visit is one of the most common things later disputed.
• Keep the paperwork. Claim numbers, the names of everyone who calls, forms, and treatment records.
• Write down what you remember early, while it is fresh, for your own reference.

Deadlines are shorter than people expect

The limitations period for a personal injury action is not the only clock. No-fault benefits have their own filing deadlines measured in days rather than years, and if a public entity is involved in any way a much shorter notice requirement applies before a lawsuit can be brought at all.

The practical rule is that the shortest applicable deadline is the one that governs, and it is rarely the one people have heard about.

This article is general information about New York law and insurance practice. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. How these rules apply depends on the specific facts and on the policies involved. Speak with a lawyer about your own situation.

Current as of August 2026.