One of the things you may do after an accident is get witness information from anyone who saw your accident occur. You may want these witness statements to help tell your story and help in your pursuit of compensation.
Before you move forward, it’s vital to know that while you want to ensure you have these resources, insurance companies are still looking to protect profits. As such, there are times when insurance adjusters are less willing to use the testimony of a witness, and there are a few ways they diminish these statements.
Questions of Credibility
Insurance companies may review your list of witnesses and reach out to them for their statement regarding your accident. However, they may try to use certain factors to question the credibility of that statement, such as whether the witness actually saw the accident, if there were any distractions nearby, and more.
One way they try to discredit a witness’s statement is by saying the witness only turned to look at the accident after hearing it occur. In this situation, the insurance adjuster may claim that the witness was relying solely on someone else’s statement.
Insurance companies may also try to use character flaws to discredit a witness’s statement regarding your crash.
Contradicting Statements
If the insurance company reaches out to multiple witnesses and the statements are much different than the others, they’ll try to discredit the witnesses you have provided. Contradicting statements from your witnesses can make it so insurance companies diminish or deny your claim.
Your witnesses should tell the truth, but when you want to ensure they say everything that happened.
At Briggle & Polan, PLLC, we’ll work with you to help determine what your rights are if insurance companies try to diminish the value of your witnesses. Our Austin car accident lawyers go above and beyond to safeguard your rights throughout the entire process.
To schedule a free consultation, call our firm at (512) 400-3278 today.
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