Should I Give the Insurance Adjuster a Recorded Statement?

Within a day or two of a crash, an adjuster calls. The request sounds routine: “I just need to get your version of what happened, and I’ll be recording this for accuracy.” Most people agree, because they have nothing to hide. Having nothing to hide is not the issue. The issue is that you are being asked detailed questions about speed, distance, timing and your injuries, days after a collision, by a trained professional whose company will pay less if your answers are imperfect. This page explains what the law does and does not require, how a statement is used, and what to do when the call comes.

Do I Have to Give a Recorded Statement?

It depends entirely on whose insurance company is asking.

The Other Driver’s Insurance Company

Nebraska law is clear that the at-fault driver’s insurer is not on your side and owes you no contractual duty. The Supreme Court restated in 2026 that there is “no privity between an injured person and the tort-feasor’s liability insurer,” and it has held that a company’s claims representative “owed no fiduciary duty” to the injured person he dealt with. The reverse is also true. You owe that company nothing but honesty. I have found no Nebraska statute or court decision requiring an injured person to give the other side’s insurer a recorded statement in order to make a claim.

What the insurer does need, and what you can provide without a recording, is limited:

• your name and contact information;
• the date, time and location of the crash;
• the vehicles involved and where yours can be inspected; and
• the name of your own insurer.

Everything else, including how the crash happened, how fast anyone was going, and how you feel, can wait until you have been examined and have had advice. Declining a recorded statement does not forfeit the claim. The insurer still has to investigate: Nebraska’s claims regulation requires it to acknowledge a claim within fifteen working days, to “initiate investigation of any claim presented by a claimant” within the same period, and to answer communications that call for a response.

Nebraska’s 30-Day Statute on Early Statements

The Legislature has recognized that statements taken right after an injury are unreliable. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-12,125, “there shall be a rebuttable presumption that any statement secured from an injured person by an adverse person at any time within thirty days after such injuries were sustained shall have been taken under duress.” A “statement” means “a recorded or written account of the facts out of which an injury arose given by the injured person to a person having an adverse interest.”

This protection is real but narrow, and it should not be relied on.

• It is a presumption, not a ban. The adjuster may still take the statement, and the presumption “may be rebutted by evidence.”
• Three sentences defeat it. The presumption is rebutted as a matter of law if, before taking the statement, the adjuster discloses “(a) whom he or she represents; (b) that the injured person may make the statement in the presence of counsel or any other representative; and (c) that a copy of the statement is available at no cost to the injured person.” That is why a careful adjuster opens the recording with a short script.
• Listen for the second disclosure. When an adjuster tells you that you may have a lawyer present, that is not a courtesy. It is the statute. Take the invitation.
• It does not cover everything. Claim forms, medical authorizations and accident report forms completed without the adverse person present are not “statements” under the law.

How a Recorded Statement Gets Used Against You

Two rules of evidence explain the risk.

• Your own words come in. Ordinarily, out-of-court statements are hearsay. But “a statement is not hearsay if … the statement is offered against a party and is … his or her own statement” (§ 27-801). Anything you say on the recording can be played or read to the jury.
• You may not see it first. In questioning a witness about a prior statement, “the statement need not be shown or its contents disclosed to him at that time” (§ 27-613). A year or two later, at your deposition, you can be asked the same questions before being shown what you said on the phone the week of the crash.

The questions that cause trouble are ordinary ones:

• “How are you feeling?” “Fine” or “okay” is a social reflex. On a transcript it reads as no injury. Neck and back symptoms often start or worsen in the days after a collision.
• “How fast were you going? How far away was the other car?” Nobody measures these in a crash. A guess becomes a fact you are held to, and Nebraska reduces a recovery by your share of fault and bars it at fifty percent.
• “Did you see the other vehicle before the impact?” Either answer is used: yes means you could have avoided it; no means you were not looking.
• “Have you ever had problems with your back or neck before?” A forgotten chiropractor visit years ago becomes an undisclosed prior condition. See pre-existing conditions.
• “Is there anything else you want to add?” Whatever you leave out is later described as something you never complained of.

Your Own Insurance Company Is Different

Do not apply the advice above to your own insurer. Your policy is a contract, and it contains a cooperation clause. A typical one, quoted in a Nebraska Supreme Court opinion, requires that the insured “shall cooperate … disclosing all pertinent facts known or available to him,” and assist in “securing and giving evidence.”

• Report the crash promptly and answer your insurer’s reasonable questions. Coverage for your car, your medical payments benefits and your uninsured or underinsured motorist claim all run through that policy.
• A breach is not automatically fatal, but do not test it. The Nebraska rule is that where “it is not shown that the insurer has been prejudiced in its handling of the claim,” a breach of the cooperation clause “is not a defense.” An insurer that can show your refusal actually hurt its handling of the claim has a defense.
• An examination under oath can be required only if the policy authorizes it. The regulation provides that “no insurer shall request or require any insured to submit to … examination under oath, unless authorized under the applicable insurance contract.”
• Your insurer can still be your opponent. When you make an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim, your own company is the one that pays, and its interest in the size of your injury claim is the same as any other insurer’s. Cooperate, but have a lawyer with you when the questions turn to your injuries. See underinsured motorist coverage.

Medical Authorizations: The Other Thing You Will Be Asked to Sign

Along with the statement comes a form authorizing the insurer to obtain your medical records. I have found no Nebraska rule that limits how broad a form the other driver’s insurer may ask for, so the limit has to come from you. A blanket authorization can reach every provider you have ever seen, for any condition, with no end date.

Federal privacy rules describe what a valid authorization must contain, and they are a useful checklist. It must include “a description of the information to be used or disclosed that identifies the information in a specific and meaningful fashion,” the persons authorized to disclose and to receive it, “a description of each purpose,” and “an expiration date or an expiration event.” And an individual “may revoke an authorization … at any time, provided that the revocation is in writing.” You are entitled to decline a blanket form, to limit one to the providers and dates that relate to the crash, or to have your lawyer gather and produce the relevant records instead.

What to Say When the Adjuster Calls

• Get the caller’s name, company, phone number and claim number, and ask which driver the company insures.
• If it is the other driver’s insurer, say: “I am not going to give a recorded statement. You can send me any questions in writing.” You do not need to give a reason.
• If it is your own insurer, report the basic facts. If you are injured, say you would like to schedule the detailed statement after you have spoken with a lawyer.
• Do not guess. “I don’t know” is a complete and truthful answer to a question about speed or distance.
• Do not describe your injuries as minor or resolved. Say you are still being evaluated.
• Do not agree to a settlement or sign a release on the same call. See should I accept the first settlement offer.
• Keep notes. Write down the date, the person and what was said. Nebraska is a one-party consent state, so it is not unlawful for you to record a call you are a party to (§ 86-290).

If You Already Gave a Statement

It is not the end of the claim. Three things help.

• Ask for a copy now. If the adjuster made the statutory disclosures, a free copy was promised. Request it in writing.
• In a lawsuit, you are entitled to it. Under the discovery rules, “any party or other person may, on request and without making the showing required … obtain the person’s own previous statement about the action or its subject matter” (Neb. Ct. R. Disc. § 6-326(b)(3)(C)).
• If it was taken in the first thirty days without the three disclosures, the presumption of duress applies.
• Tell your lawyer exactly what you said, including anything you now think was wrong. A mistake can be explained; a surprise at trial cannot.

What About the Police and the State Accident Report?

These are not insurance statements, and the rules differ.

• At the scene, the law requires a driver to stop and give identifying information: name, address, and license and vehicle information. Cooperate with the officer and be truthful.
• What you tell the officer is not protected. A police report is “open to public inspection,” and the insurers will have it.
• The driver’s own report to the State is protected. When a crash involving injury, death or $2,000 or more in damage is not investigated by an officer, the driver must send a report to the Department of Transportation within ten days. That report “shall not be open to public inspection,” and no part of it “shall be admissible in evidence for any other purpose in any trial, civil or criminal” (§ 60-699).

The full sequence is in what to do after a car accident in Nebraska. If you were hurt on the job, the rules for a workers’ compensation adjuster are different again; see recorded statements in a workers’ compensation claim.

Statutes, court rules, regulations and cases quoted on this page were read at their sources on October 3, 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice about your situation.

Your Attorney

Frank Younes

Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company?

No. You have no contract with that company, and no Nebraska statute requires it. You can decline and provide basic claim information only.

Do I have to give one to my own insurance company?

Usually yes. Your policy’s cooperation clause requires you to disclose the facts. If you are injured, involve a lawyer before the detailed statement.

Can a recorded statement be used against me?

Yes. Your own statement is not hearsay when offered against you, and it can be played or read to a jury.

What is Nebraska’s 30-day rule?

A recorded or written statement taken by an adverse party within thirty days of the injury is presumed to have been taken under duress, unless the person taking it first made three specific disclosures.

Will refusing a statement hurt my claim?

Not with the other driver’s insurer, which must still investigate. With your own insurer, an unjustified refusal can put coverage at risk.

Should I sign the medical authorization?

Not a blanket one. Limit it to the providers and dates related to the crash, or have your lawyer provide the relevant records.

Can I record my call with the adjuster?

Yes. Nebraska permits a person to record a conversation he or she is a party to.