8 THINGS YOU MUST NEVER DO
View a narrated slide presentation of this material.
The first step is to be alert to the mistakes that so many others, in your situation, routinely make and avoid making those mistakes yourself:
1. Never discuss the facts of your case with anybody but your lawyer. What you tell your lawyer is privileged and confidential. What you tell others, even your best friend, is generally not.
2. Never give the truck line, or its insurance company, or any of their investigators, adjusters or lawyers any kind of written, or recorded, statement. You have no obligation to talk to them at all or to give them any kind of statement. Further, they do not need your statement. They already know what happened. The purpose of that statement is to obtain information from you that can later be used against you.
3. Do not fall for the line that they are only looking for the truth. Do not make the mistake of believing that the truth cannot hurt you! Understand that their "truth" may not be the same as your "truth". The simplest, most straight-forward, and truthful of statements is always susceptible of being distorted by the devil. Answers take their meaning from their questions. A trained professional can always take the most innocent of statements and turn it into a "confession of guilt".
4. You do not have to even talk to the police but if you find yourself helpless to resist stay general and vague. Be truthful but avoid making categorical or detailed statements that may set you up to later being proven wrong. Try to beg-off until some other time when your not so nervous and upset, shaken-up, in pain, or on medication. Try to play for time to see a competent and experienced lawyer.
Note: Any outright refusal to speak to the police until "I've had a chance to talk to my lawyer" will generally subject you to a lot of unnecessary hostility from the police who will write up that refusal in a manner that makes it look like you are a crook who has something to hide!
You generally will have an obligation to cooperate with your own insurance company and provide them with a statement if they want one. Again, try to put them off until you are out of the hospital, off medication, have your wits about you and -- ideally -- have had a chance to talk to a competent personal injury attorney who is experienced in handling truck accidents.
Even then, understand that insurance companies do cooperate, and exchange information, with each other. Do not be surprised if the statement you give your own insurance company ends up in your adversary's file!
5. Never give the truck line, or its insurance company, or any of their investigators, or adjusters, or lawyers any signed medical authorizations, wage information authorizations or general authorizations to obtain information about you, or your accident, or your injuries, or your losses and damages! There is no obligation to provide such authorizations and those you do provide will inevitably be used against you!
6. Never deny, or minimize your injuries! If you are involved in an accident, and conscious, anybody, and everybody, will ask you if you are ok -- even if you are bleeding like a faucet from a hole in your head! It is human nature to ask that question and it is human nature for the injured person to try and reassure those about him that he is ok, ie. not dead but alive and, at least, semi-conscious.
All of those innocent, reassuring, statements that you are ok will, I guarantee, come back to haunt you some day!
7. Do not try to fake, or exaggerate, your injuries. If you have been in any significant truck accident, you will have more than enough real injuries to worry about without trying to invent any or exaggerate those you do have.
8. Never try to match wits with, out-smart or out-talk your opponents. The large truck line and its big insurance company, their investigators, adjusters and lawyers are experienced professionals. The have handled hundreds, if not thousands, of cases just like yours. They have seen it all. They have heard it all.
For you, its your first time. You are playing their game on their turf. You are never going to successfully match wits with them, or out-smart them, or out-talk them. Don't waste your time trying!
You will be better off spending your time simply trying to get your facts straight and in focusing on telling the truth as simply and sincerely as you can. Don't get sucked into an ego-driven tug of war that you cannot win. It is a senseless diversion that will derail your case.