In California, you generally are not required to provide a statement to the other driverโs insurance company after a car accident. In fact, doing so can potentially hurt your claim.
An injured personโs duty to cooperate with an insurance company is limited to your insurance company, not the other partyโs. However, when an accident first occurs itโs normal for both parties to exchange their insurance information. Before doing this you need to remember you are only sharing necessary basic identifying information โ nothing more. You are under no obligation to volunteer your opinion of who is at fault or even the details of your injuries or your personal medical history.
This article explains your legal obligations when dealing with the other driverโs insurer, the purpose behind requests for recorded statements, the limits on what you should disclose if contacted, the extent to which insurers communicate with one another, and the circumstances in which contacting the other driverโs insurer yourself is advisable.
The skilled legal professionals at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers will guide you through completing your claim forms and will help you to quickly and confidently resolve your claim.
Table of Contents
- Are You Legally Required to Talk to the Other Driverโs Insurance Company?
- Why Does the Other Driverโs Insurance Adjuster Want a Recorded Statement?
- What Can You Safely Say if the Other Driverโs Insurer Calls You?
- Do Insurance Companies Talk to Each Other?
- Should You Call the Other Personโs Insurance Company Yourself?
- Talk With a California Car Accident Lawyer Before You Call the Adjuster
Are You Legally Required to Talk to the Other Driverโs Insurance Company?
Under California law you are under no legal obligation to provide a statement or answer questions from the at-fault driverโs insurance company. However, there are separate reporting requirements specified by the state of California under the California Vehicle Code section 16000. These legal requirements mean that you must submit an SR-1 report to the DMV within 10 days of any motor vehicle crash where there is bodily injury to any person (regardless of how minor), death or property damage which exceeds $1,000.
An SR-1 Report is an official driverโs accident report form by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) which documents vehicle collisions and verifies insurance coverage. This is the first piece of insurance paperwork you will encounter after a car accident in California. You, or your insurance agent, broker or legal representative must complete this form and send it to the DMV within 10 days of the accident. This report is in addition to any other reports made to the police, California Highway Patrol (CHP) or your insurance company.
Shortly after a car accident you will provide basic identifying information to the other party, any law enforcement officers who attend the scene and your insurance provider. At this initial stage, itโs important to understand that declining a recorded statement carries no penalty and will not delay your claim.
Why Does the Other Driverโs Insurance Adjuster Want a Recorded Statement?
In the days (or even hours) following a car accident, you may be contacted by the other driverโs insurance adjuster seeking your recorded statement which can be used later to dispute fault or the severity of either partyโs injuries. When you are first contacted by the other partyโs insurance adjuster they may use reassuring language suggesting that they will be helping you finalize your insurance claim to your advantage. This is not the case. The other driverโs insurance company will be acting in the best interests of their client โ the other party โ not you. They will be calling you with a specific objective in mind, to minimize their clientโs (and their) exposure to any insurance payout.
The kinds of questions they will ask will be around estimates of speed, distance or timing. They may revisit statements you made after the accident, including remarks you may have made to attending police officers on the accident scene, such as, โIโm okayโ, as a simple example.
The other partyโs insurance adjuster will also ask questions around any possible medical treatment gaps or delays where it can be alleged that your injuries came from something else and not the car accident. Understanding this level of detail is important because California applies pure comparative negligence, which means that every percentage point of fault assigned to an injured driver will reduce your insurance recovery by that share.
And the financial stakes around percentage points of fault translate to significant dollar values. Bodily injury claim severity data collected by ISO and Verisk showed that claims rose from an average of $19,151 in 2019 to $28,278 in 2024. The California Department of Insurance also recorded 1,786 justified complaints across 50 auto insurers in its 2025 Automobile Complaint Composite Report, up from 1,388 the prior year. These figures show not only increased consumer litigation but reflect driversโ dissatisfaction with claims handling. So for these reasons, you need to understand what you can safely say if the other driverโs insurer calls you.
What Can You Safely Say if the Other Driverโs Insurer Calls You?
If you receive a call from the other driverโs insurer, in the first instance, only confirm identifying facts such as your name, contact information, the date, time and location of the crash, the vehicle involved and the name of your insurer. State clearly that you are not giving them a recorded statement and that further questions can be directed to your attorney.
Information which you must absolutely withhold from the other driverโs insurance company includes the following:
- Descriptions of injuries, symptoms, pain levels or medical treatment
- Estimates of speed, following distance or road position
- Opinions about who caused the crash
- Signed medical authorizations or acceptance of any payment
When you take the call from the insurance adjuster, ask for the adjusterโs full name, the claim number and their direct line. Then politely end the call. Insurance adjusters will often call within hours of a traffic accident, even well before a comprehensive medical evaluation has been undertaken. If in doubt, remember your personal injury lawyer and your insurance company and are your most reliable sources of information because they are acting in your best interests.
Do Insurance Companies Talk to Each Other?
Insurance companies routinely communicate with each other โ principally to exchange information directly during the initial stages of the liability investigation, exchanging policy details, coverage limits, liability positions and repair or valuation figures. Insurers will also check industry claimsโ databases which catalog previous claims history across companies.
Because the insurance companies communicate so effectively, there is rarely any practical reason why you would need to talk to the other partyโs insurance company. Talking to the other driverโs insurance company after a California crash can weaken your claim. Any information you volunteer to the other partyโs insurance company can surface to benefit the other partyโs case. This is particularly the case in crashes involving big rigs where several insurance carriers will review the same material because the potential financial payouts in commercial trucking claims are often substantial.
Should You Call the Other Personโs Insurance Company Yourself?
Following a car accident, particularly if this is your first insurance claim, you may wonder whether your claim will be expedited if you contact the other personโs insurance company directly. The best course of action is to first report the crash to your insurer and then let your personal injury lawyer manage your case including placing the at-fault driver on notice. A direct phone call to the other partyโs insurance company is only reasonable in very specific circumstances, for example, if thereโs only minor property damage (less than $1,000), no one is injured and thereโs no dispute over fault and no legal representation has been obtained. However, once an attorney notifies the insurer of representation, insurance adjusters will step in to contact counsel and direct contact should stop.
If the at-fault driver is uninsured or their policy limits donโt cover the damages to your vehicle, your own insurance may cover some or all of the remaining loss depending on the coverage you purchased. In this case, your wisest course of action is to rely on advice from your personal injury lawyer. They can also help you if thereโs any suspicion that your insurance company may be acting in bad faith and where you have sustained injuries requiring long-term care and disability insurance and they are denying your claim.
In some cases, early offers of settlement may be made where signing a release form will close the insurance claim in perpetuity โ including your future medical costs. In California, the Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 allows up to two years for most injury filings. This gives you enough time to consider your best course of action, which starts with getting expert legal advice.
Talk With a California Car Accident Lawyer Before You Call the Adjuster
The first thing you should do after a serious car accident is to reach out to the skilled legal professionals at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers. You should do this well before you speak to the insurance adjuster for either partyโs insurer.
Our firm will also help families who lost someone in a crash and our wrongful death attorneys have prosecuted over 100 wrongful death settlements and lawsuits in California since 1990.
You can start by using our free consultation by calling us at (800) 718-4658 or by filling in our online contact form to discuss your potential claim. We offer a free consultation with no upfront charge for our services.
