Do I have to give the insurance company a recorded statement?
- Texas Attorney
- Yale B.A. · University of Houston Law Center J.D.
- Habla español
- Updated October 1, 2026
Not before talking to a lawyer. Recorded statements are used to shrink your claim. Let us handle every call with the insurance company. Once you hire Suerken Law, every call goes through your lawyer.
Tell me what happened
Jimmy reads every request himself and will be in touch with you shortly.
You do not owe the other driver's insurer a statement
No Texas law requires you to give a recorded statement to the insurance company for the person who hit you. You have no contract with them and no duty to help them build their file. When an adjuster says they need your statement "to process the claim," that is a framing, not a requirement.
They can process the claim from the police report, the property damage, and your medical records. What they cannot get anywhere else is you, on tape, saying something useful to them.
What the statement is actually for
Recorded statements are taken by trained adjusters, working from a prepared sequence, while you are usually in pain, on medication, short on sleep, and have not yet had a full diagnosis. The questions sound like small talk. They are not.
"How are you doing today?" Ordinary politeness says "fine, thanks." That becomes a recorded statement that you reported feeling fine after the crash — and it will be quoted back when you later describe serious symptoms.
"Had you been looking at the road the whole time?" Honest people hedge, because honest people are not certain about every second. Hedging becomes shared fault, and in Texas every point of fault reduces what you recover.
"Have you ever hurt your back before?" A decade-old sore back becomes a pre-existing condition argument against your current injury.
None of this requires anyone to lie. It only requires you to talk casually about things you do not yet have complete information about, while someone records it.
Your own insurer is a different question
If you are making a claim on your own policy — UM/UIM or PIP — your policy probably contains a cooperation clause, and a flat refusal can give your carrier an argument to deny the claim.
But cooperating is not the same as submitting to whatever is asked. A statement can be scheduled rather than taken on the spot, it can happen with your lawyer present, and it can be limited to the facts of the collision rather than an open-ended tour of your medical history. Those are normal, reasonable conditions.
What to say instead
You do not have to be rude, and you do not have to argue. "I'm not giving a recorded statement. My attorney will be in touch" ends the call without giving them anything. You are allowed to confirm the basics — that you were involved, and where to send correspondence.
Once you have a lawyer, this stops being your problem. The adjuster calls the office instead of calling you.
Your next steps, and ours
Decline the recorded statement
“I'm not giving a recorded statement. My attorney will be in touch.” You can confirm you were involved and where to send mail.
Call Jimmy
713-600-6233No Texas law requires you to give the other driver's insurer a statement. Call before they try again and we explain your options.
We take every insurer call
Recorded-statement requests and check-in calls come to us. You stop being the one supplying material for their file.
We set reasonable terms
For a UM/UIM or PIP claim, a statement can be scheduled, taken with us present, and limited to the facts of the collision.
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