Talking to Insurance Adjusters: Recorded Statements, Medical Authorizations and First Offers

You were just hurt, and an insurance adjuster is already calling. It may be your own insurer, or the one covering the driver, store or property owner you blame. The adjuster wants a recorded statement, your signature on a medical form, or an answer to an offer.

Here is the plain answer. You don’t have to give the other side’s insurer a recorded statement, and it’s safer not to before you’ve had advice. You do have to notify your own insurer promptly and cooperate as your policy requires. Read any medical authorization before you sign it, and narrow it to what the claim needs. Don’t sign a release or accept a first offer until you know how badly you’re hurt. Your deadlines generally keep running while you talk.

Michigan rules are in the highlighted boxes. The law here is current as of September 2026.

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Whose adjuster is calling, and what do you owe each one?

An adjuster investigates a claim to decide how much the insurance company should pay (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). What you owe one depends on who they work for.

Your own insurer. Michigan’s insurance regulator, the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS), sums up your duties: notify your insurer right away, give it the reasonable information it asks for as proof of your claim, and cooperate as your policy requires. It may take a written or recorded statement, and sometimes asks for an examination under oath: answering its questions under oath (California Department of Insurance). Claims under your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage go to your insurer too, so the same duties apply.

The other side’s insurer. Declining a recorded statement isn’t refusing to back up your claim. New Jersey’s regulator, for example, notes in its guide to vehicle damage claims that no law there lists what you must give the other insurer, but a claim you don’t help it investigate can be denied. You or your lawyer will still need to send it the crash report, bills and records for the injuries you claim.

What does an adjuster do with what you say?

Adjusters interview claimants and witnesses, check records such as police reports, and gather photos and written or recorded statements into a report used to decide the claim (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). That doesn’t make the adjuster your enemy, but every answer goes into the file.

• You may not know yet how badly you’re hurt. An offhand “I’m fine” on day two can be used later to question an injury.
• Your words can follow you to court. In a lawsuit, your own earlier statements generally aren’t treated as hearsay when the other side offers them against you (Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(A); Michigan Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(A)).

Should you give a recorded statement?

To the other side’s insurer

You can be polite and still say no. Give basic facts only: your name and contact details, the date and place, and your own insurer’s name. Then say something like, “I’m not ready to give a recorded statement. Please send your questions in writing.” Note the adjuster’s name, company, phone number and claim number. If asked about your injuries, say you’re still being treated. Don’t guess about fault or apologize. See also our checklist of 10 things to do after a car accident.

To your own insurer

Your policy requires your cooperation, so give the statement it asks for, but prepare. Ask what it’s for, and have your notes, the police or incident report and your claim number at hand. Stick to what you know: “I don’t know” is an honest answer. Describe your symptoms and treatment without guessing at a diagnosis, and correct any mistake in writing.

Should you sign the medical authorization the adjuster sends?

Not as written if it’s open-ended. Under HIPAA’s privacy rule, your doctors and hospitals generally can’t release your health information without your written authorization, unless the rule allows it another way (45 CFR 164.508(a)(1)). The adjuster’s form is that authorization.

What must a valid authorization include?

Under federal rules, it must include, among other things (45 CFR 164.508(c)):

• a specific, meaningful description of the information
• who may release the information and who may receive it
• the purpose
• an expiration date or event
• your signature and the date
• statements that you can revoke it in writing, and that records released may be shared again and lose HIPAA protection

It must be in plain language, and one with a required element left blank isn’t valid (45 CFR 164.508(b)(2), (c)(3)). Never sign a form with blanks.

Can you limit it, or take it back?

Yes. You decide what you sign. Ask to limit it to the providers who treated this injury, dates from the injury forward (or shortly before, if your earlier health is truly at issue), the conditions you claim, and a set end date. Psychotherapy notes, a mental health professional’s separate notes on counseling sessions, need their own authorization (45 CFR 164.501, 164.508(a)(2), (b)(3)(ii)). Keep a copy.

You can revoke an authorization at any time, in writing, except for what a provider has already done in reliance on it (45 CFR 164.508(b)(5)). Send the revocation to each provider named in the form.

A safer option: get your records yourself

You have a right to a copy of your own records (45 CFR 164.524). The provider must act on your request within 30 days, with one extension of up to 30 more if it explains the delay in writing, and it can charge only a reasonable, cost-based fee. Psychotherapy notes and information compiled for a legal proceeding are excluded. With your own copies, you or your lawyer can send the other side’s insurer only what relates to your claim.

Has an adjuster asked for a recorded statement or sent you a form to sign? Get a free case review first. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What should you do with a first offer?

A first offer can come before you’ve finished treatment. You don’t have to answer it on the call. First, make sure you know:

• How badly you’re hurt, and whether you’ll need more care.
• Your full losses: bills, lost pay and other costs so far, plus what’s likely ahead.
• Whether there’s enough coverage. After a crash, if the at-fault driver’s insurance can’t pay all your costs, your own underinsured motorist coverage may help (Texas Department of Insurance).
• Who gets repaid. If Medicare paid bills the settlement covers, it can recover those payments from the settlement money, including from you (42 CFR 411.24(g)). See what comes out of a settlement.
• The basis of the offer. Ask for it in writing. Failing to promptly explain a compromise offer is on the unfair-practice lists described below (NAIC model act, Section 4(L); MCL 500.2026(1)(n)).

If the offer seems low, say why in writing and send the documents that support your number. To see what adjusters weigh, read how insurance companies evaluate injury claims.

What does signing a release do?

A release is a contract in which you give up your right to sue, usually in exchange for payment (Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute). Once you sign, the claim generally ends for good, even if your injury turns out worse than you thought. Read what it covers: some releases reach every claim based on anything that happened before you sign.

A check can do the same. In Michigan, cashing a check that comes with a clear statement that it’s full payment can end a claim that’s disputed or whose amount isn’t fixed (MCL 440.3311). Read everything that comes with a check before you deposit it.

Tell your own insurer before you settle with the at-fault party, so you don’t risk its right to recover what it paid you (Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner). Don’t sign a release just to get your deductible paid (California Department of Insurance).

Do your deadlines stop while you negotiate?

Generally, no. Every state sets a deadline to file an injury lawsuit, called a statute of limitations, and talks with an adjuster don’t pause it. Miss it, and you generally lose the right to sue, however strong your claim (in Michigan, MCL 600.5805(1)). Your policy can also set its own claim deadlines (Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner).

Don’t count on a warning. The NAIC’s model regulation says an insurer shouldn’t keep negotiating with someone who has no lawyer, when a statute of limitations may affect their rights, without written notice of it: at least 30 days ahead for a claim under your own policy, 60 days for a claim against someone else’s insurer. It also says an insurer shouldn’t tell someone claiming against its policyholder that their rights may suffer if they don’t sign a form or release by a set date, unless it’s warning about a statute of limitations (Section 7(D), (E)). But it’s a model, and your state’s rules may differ.

What rules do adjusters have to follow?

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) wrote a model Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act that states can adopt in their own form. Michigan’s Insurance Code has a similar list (MCL 500.2026(1)). Both treat it as unfair to:

• misrepresent facts or policy terms about the coverage at issue
• fail to acknowledge claim communications promptly
• refuse to pay claims without a reasonable investigation
• fail to affirm or deny coverage within a reasonable time
• not try in good faith to settle promptly and fairly once liability is reasonably clear
• fail to promptly explain the basis for a denial or a compromise offer

These laws aim at serious or repeated conduct, not a single slip. The model covers conduct that’s flagrant and in conscious disregard of the law, or frequent enough to show a general business practice (Section 3). Michigan’s covers conduct “other than isolated incidents” (MCL 500.2026(1)). Regulators enforce them. The model says it creates no private right to sue (Section 1), and in Michigan, DIFS can investigate and, after an opportunity for a hearing, order an insurer to stop a prohibited practice and pay penalties (MCL 500.2028, 500.2038).

The NAIC’s model regulation adds timelines, such as acknowledging a claim within 15 days (Section 6(A)), though your state’s may differ.

How do you complain to your state insurance regulator?

If an insurer won’t respond, won’t explain a decision or keeps delaying, your state’s insurance department can investigate for free (NAIC). Regulators ask you to try the insurer or agent first. Then find your state’s department through the NAIC’s complaint guide, and send a detailed, factual timeline with your policy and claim numbers, letters, bills, a log of calls and emails, and the outcome you want.

The department sends your complaint to the insurer, which must explain itself, and decides whether the insurer was fair under your policy (NAIC). It can’t do everything: the Texas Department of Insurance says it can’t make a company pay more than your policy allows, though it can ask the company to justify what it’s paying. A complaint also isn’t a lawsuit, so keep tracking your deadlines.

What to do next

1. Notify your own insurer now, in writing, and keep proof of the date. In Michigan, written notice with your name and address, who was hurt, and the time, place and nature of the injury also protects your PIP claim (MCL 500.3145(1), (4)).
2. Keep calls with the other side’s insurer short. Decline a recorded statement until you’ve had advice, and ask for requests in writing.
3. Get your own medical records, and don’t sign an open-ended authorization.
4. Don’t sign a release or deposit a check marked as full payment until you know how badly you’re hurt and what you’d take home.
5. Get a free case review before your deadlines get close. Get a free case review, or compare Michigan injury lawyers. Get any fee agreement in writing.

What waiting can cost

• The right to sue. Deadlines keep running during talks: three years for most Michigan injury lawsuits, and one year for PIP notice (MCL 600.5805(2), 500.3145(1)).
• Your own words. An early statement stays in the file.
• The whole claim. A signed release generally ends it.

What a good outcome looks like

Your own insurer gets prompt notice and pays what your policy promises, on time. The other side’s insurer gets documents that prove your claim, not an unprepared recorded statement. You weigh any offer once you know how badly you’re hurt, and if you settle, you sign a release you understand, well before any deadline.

More help: our complete personal injury guide, car, truck and motorcycle accident guides and Michigan personal injury law in plain English.

Updated September 25, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.