Should I talk to the insurance adjuster after a Florida crash?

Within a day or two of a crash on US-19 or SR-54, your phone rings. The caller is polite. They are "just getting your side of the story" and want to "get your car taken care of." They might mention a check.

That caller is an insurance adjuster, and the call has one purpose: to lock in facts that reduce what the insurer pays. Here is how to handle it.

Two adjusters, two different relationships

Your own insurer. You have a contract with this company. Your policy requires you to report the crash promptly and cooperate. You should report it. You should give the basics: date, time, location, vehicles, the fact that you were hurt. You can, and should, decline a recorded statement until you have spoken with a lawyer, and you can schedule the statement with your lawyer present.

Your own insurer will also handle your PIP claim, which pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages up to $10,000 under Fla. Stat. § 627.736, provided you got care within 14 days. If you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, your own company becomes the adverse party on that claim later. Be honest and accurate from the start.

The other driver's insurer. You have no contract with this company and no duty to it at all. You are not required to give a statement, sign a medical authorization, or discuss your injuries. Everything it learns from you, it learns because you chose to tell it.

What the recorded statement is really for

Adjusters are trained interviewers. The questions sound harmless:

• "How fast were you going?" Any number over the limit becomes comparative fault.
• "When did you first see the other car?" "I didn't see him until he hit me" becomes failure to keep a proper lookout.
• "Were you on your phone at all that day?" A yes, even unrelated to the crash, goes in the file.
• "How are you feeling?" "Fine, a little sore" becomes evidence you were not seriously hurt.
• "Have you ever had back problems before?" A yes becomes a pre-existing condition.

Each answer feeds Florida's modified comparative-negligence rule in Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6). If the insurer can push your share of fault past 50 percent, it owes you nothing. If it can push it to 30, it saves 30 percent. How the 51% rule works.

Statements you make to the police officer for the crash report are protected under Fla. Stat. § 316.066 and cannot be used at trial. Statements to an adjuster have no such protection.

What to say instead

You do not need to be rude. You need to be brief. Something like:

"I'm not able to give a statement right now. Please send any requests in writing. I'll be in touch, or my attorney will."

Then stop. Do not fill the silence. Do not confirm you are "doing okay." Do not estimate speeds or distances. Do not sign anything that arrives in the mail, especially a medical records authorization, which lets the insurer pull your entire medical history.

If the adjuster offers a check, ask them to put the offer in writing and do not accept it. More on that below.

Not sure what you have already said? Call (240) 421-5511. We will assess it honestly and plan around it.

The early offer

Early offers are common and almost always low. The insurer makes them before it has your medical records, which means before it knows what your claim is worth. The offer comes with a release. Once signed, the claim is over, even if an MRI two months later shows a herniated disc.

In Florida, the value of a crash claim depends on things that cannot be known in week one:

• Whether you have a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant scarring, or a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function. Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2) requires one of those to recover pain and suffering from an at-fault driver.
• What your medical bills will total, and how they will be presented. Since HB 837, Fla. Stat. § 768.0427 limits the medical-expense evidence a jury can see to amounts actually paid, or amounts tied to insurance rates, rather than full billed charges.
• Whether the other driver has bodily injury coverage at all, and whether your UM coverage applies.

An offer made before those questions are answered is a guess that favors the insurer.

What HB 837 changed about bad faith, and why it matters to you

For years, Florida's bad-faith law gave injured people leverage: an insurer that failed to settle a claim within policy limits when it reasonably could have was exposed to the full judgment, not just the limits. HB 837, effective March 24, 2023, rewrote parts of Fla. Stat. § 624.155.

The 90-day safe harbor. Under § 624.155(4)(a), a bad-faith action over a liability claim will not lie if the insurer tenders the lesser of the policy limits or the amount demanded within 90 days after receiving actual notice of the claim accompanied by sufficient evidence to support the amount. Insurers now have a defined window to pay, and a strong incentive to use it.

Negligence is not bad faith. Section 624.155(5)(a) states that mere negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith. Slow or sloppy claims handling is not enough on its own.

You owe good faith too. Section 624.155(5)(b) imposes a duty of good faith on the claimant and the claimant's representative in furnishing information, making demands, setting deadlines and attempting to settle. A demand that is incomplete, unreasonable or designed to trip the insurer can be used against you.

What this means in practice: the demand package is now the center of the case. A demand that includes the crash report, complete medical records and bills, wage documentation, photographs and a clear statement of the permanent injury, delivered to the right insurer, starts the 90-day clock. An insurer that tenders within 90 days resolves the claim. One that does not, without good reason, has lost its safe harbor. Building that package, and timing it after treatment has stabilized, is a large part of what we do.

If an adjuster has already made you an offer, do not sign it yet. Call (240) 421-5511 and we will tell you what it is missing.

When your own insurer becomes the adjuster across the table

If the at-fault driver has no bodily injury coverage, which Florida does not require, or too little, your uninsured/underinsured motorist claim under Fla. Stat. § 627.727 is against your own company. Your own adjuster then evaluates your claim the way any defense adjuster would. The same rules apply: do not give a recorded statement without counsel, document everything, and keep the duty of good faith in mind on both sides. Why UM coverage matters.

A short checklist for every adjuster call

1. Confirm who they represent before saying anything else.
2. Give your own insurer the basics; give the other insurer nothing but a request for written correspondence.
3. No recorded statements without a lawyer.
4. No medical authorizations.
5. No accepting checks or signing releases.
6. Write down the adjuster's name, company, claim number and what was said.
7. Keep treating. Gaps in care are used against you as much as anything you say.
8. Remember the deadline: two years from the crash for most negligence claims under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a). Why waiting hurts.

Talk to a Port Richey car accident lawyer today

Once Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers represents you, the calls stop. Adjusters deal with us, and you deal with getting better. Our attorney, Clementine Conde, has practiced in Florida since 1992 and handles every demand personally. We are at 6609 Ridge Road in Port Richey and serve New Port Richey, Hudson, Trinity, Land O' Lakes, Wesley Chapel and all of Pasco County. Call (240) 421-5511 for a free consultation. No attorney's fee unless we win. Learn more about our car accident and personal injury practice.