Win With Nguyen
Quick answer: Insurance adjusters are not neutral evaluators. Their job is to reduce or deny your claim while sounding friendly. Common tactics include requesting recorded statements, offering quick low-ball settlements before medical treatment is complete, requesting broad medical authorizations, delaying claim responses to wear you down, disputing injury causation, misrepresenting policy coverage, and using your own words against you. Every tactic has a standard counter — usually starting with not talking to them directly and routing communication through an attorney.
Within hours of the crash, the at-fault driver's insurance company calls. The adjuster is warm, sympathetic, professional. They apologize for the crash. They say they just want to "get the facts" so they can "move things along." They ask if it's okay to record the conversation.
What's actually happening: The recording creates a permanent record of whatever you say in the first chaotic days after a crash, when you're injured, medicated, still processing events, and probably don't know the full extent of your injuries yet. Anything you say — "I didn't see them coming," "I'm feeling okay actually," "I might have been going a little fast" — will be used months or years later to attack your credibility and reduce your claim.
How to respond: You are not legally required to give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurance company. Decline politely. Tell them you'll respond in writing through an attorney. Even if you don't have an attorney yet, delaying the recorded statement protects you.
Note: Your own insurance company may require cooperation under your policy. That's different — but still, it should be coordinated with an attorney if injuries are serious.
Within days or a couple of weeks, the adjuster calls back with an offer. "We've evaluated your claim and we'd like to resolve this for you. We can cut you a check for $5,000 today if you'll sign a release."
What's actually happening: Medical treatment is still ongoing. You don't know yet whether you'll need physical therapy, imaging, surgery, or ongoing pain management. You don't know whether the injury is permanent. The adjuster does know that injury claims typically grow in value as treatment continues and knows that closing the case now locks in the smaller number forever.
How to respond: Never accept a settlement before you know the full extent of your injuries and have completed the recommended medical treatment — or at least reached maximum medical improvement. A release signed today means you cannot come back in six months when your injury is worse than expected. The "generous" offer is generous to the insurance company, not to you.
Texas demand letters in serious injury cases typically are not sent until 3–6 months after the crash at the earliest, once medical treatment is more complete. Quick offers before that point are almost always low.
The adjuster sends you a medical authorization form to sign — "so we can get your medical records and pay you more quickly." The form authorizes release of all medical records from all providers for an unlimited time period.
What's actually happening: The adjuster is looking for prior medical issues, pre-existing conditions, unrelated treatments — anything they can point to argue your current injury isn't from the crash. Back pain from 15 years ago. A knee injury from high school. A prior emergency room visit that had nothing to do with this crash.
How to respond: Do not sign a broad medical authorization. Your own providers can release only the records relevant to the crash, directly to your attorney. If you need to authorize release, limit it to specific providers and a specific date range tied to the crash.
You send a letter. No response for three weeks. You call. The adjuster isn't available. You leave a message. Your call is returned a week later with a request for more documents. You send the documents. Silence. You call again.
What's actually happening: Delay is deliberate. Insurance companies know that victims get tired, run out of money, and become more willing to accept low offers as time drags on. Medical bills pile up. Wages are lost. Rent comes due. Eventually, a $10,000 offer looks acceptable to someone with $50,000 in medical bills who has been unemployed for four months.
How to respond: Create a paper trail. Document every communication. If the insurance company is unreasonably delaying, Texas Insurance Code Chapter 542 (the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act) creates potential liability for bad-faith delay. An attorney can leverage this — often dramatically accelerating response.
The adjuster argues that your neck pain was pre-existing. Your back problems existed before the crash. You already had arthritis. The injury isn't really from this crash.
What's actually happening: Texas law actually favors injury plaintiffs on causation when pre-existing conditions are involved. The "eggshell skull" rule holds that a defendant takes the plaintiff as they find them — a person with pre-existing vulnerabilities who is injured more seriously because of those vulnerabilities is still entitled to full recovery.
Similarly, the "aggravation of a pre-existing condition" rule is well-established. If you had a bad back before the crash and the crash made it dramatically worse, the aggravation is recoverable even if the underlying condition was not caused by the crash.
How to respond: Prior medical records often help in this situation — showing what you were like before the crash and how dramatically things changed after. A treating physician or medical expert explaining the aggravation is often decisive.
Your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn accounts are reviewed carefully. Any photo of you smiling, any video of you moving normally, any post about travel or activities — all are collected.
What's actually happening: The insurance company is building a file of images to argue you're not really hurt. A photo at a family wedding becomes "plaintiff was dancing just three weeks after claiming back injury."
How to respond: Assume everything you post on social media will be used against you. Lock privacy settings, but assume locked content can still be obtained through subpoena once suit is filed. The safest practice is no posts about activities, travel, or physical condition while the case is pending.
You call your own insurance company to ask about your uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. The representative says "you don't need to worry about that; the other driver has insurance."
What's actually happening: Your UM/UIM coverage is yours. Even if the other driver has some coverage, your UIM stacks on top when the other driver's limits are inadequate for your damages. Your own insurer has a conflict of interest — if you use your UIM, they pay out.
How to respond: Request a declarations page from your insurer and review it yourself. UM and UIM coverage should be listed if you have them. An attorney can identify every available coverage source.
Insurance adjusters are paid to close claims for as little as possible. Most are not bad people — they're doing their jobs within a system that rewards minimizing payouts. A good adjuster can sound genuinely helpful while systematically working to reduce your claim.
The single most effective counter to every tactic above is representation. Once an attorney is involved, insurance companies cannot contact the victim directly. Recorded statements are coordinated. Demand letters replace open-ended calls. Bad-faith delays become actionable. Settlement offers get evaluated against actual case value, not against how tired the victim is.
No. You have no legal obligation to give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurance company. Decline politely. If the insurance company tells you it's required, they're wrong — it's not.
Not without understanding your full injury picture. Quick offers before medical treatment is complete are almost always low. A signed release closes the case permanently, so a small mistake early can be a very large financial mistake long-term.
Not a broad one. You can authorize release of only specific records from specific providers — tied to the crash. Broad authorizations let the insurance company search for anything in your medical history they can use to dispute the claim.
Document everything in writing. Under Texas Insurance Code Chapter 542, unreasonable delays in claim handling can trigger bad-faith liability. An attorney can pressure the insurer far more effectively than an individual can, and the Prompt Payment Act gives leverage.
Yes. Public content is fair game. Private content can be obtained through subpoena once a lawsuit is filed. Assume every post, photo, and video you share while the case is pending could be used against you.
This guide is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for your specific case. Every case has different facts. For a free case-specific review, call (713) 842-9442 or start an online case review.
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