What's the deal with this "recorded statement"?

It’s pretty common for an adjuster to ask you to give a recorded statement. Understand that everything you say can, and will, be used against you. Also understand that many adjusters use the recorded statement as way to deny the claim by asking questions phrased a certain way and having you agree to them. Remember, the adjuster is not here to help you. It is her job to make the insurance company profitable – by not spending any money unnecessarily. If you haven’t given a recorded statement yet we encourage you to talk to an attorney first just to go through what points are likely to be critical to your case.

The other thing to note is that a recorded statement may be only as good as whoever transcribed it. We saw a recorded statement taken by Builders Mutual one time where the claimant “admitted” that he’d been drinking. The transcript showed that he said, “I had been drinking for some time.” This was pretty damaging and the claim was denied. Except for the fact that actual audio recording of the claimant was “I had not been drinking for some time.” It’s amazing the difference one word can make. While this is a particularly spectacular example of bad transcribing the truth is that many recorded statements have significant errors in them.