Latest / The Art of Adjusting® Podcast / Episode #98: How Insurance Adjusters Get The Full Story With Recorded Statements

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Episode #98: How Insurance Adjusters Get The Full Story With Recorded Statements · The Art of Adjusting® Podcast

• 0:06
  William Auten: Hello, I'm Bill Auten of Auten Claims Management.
• 0:09
  Chantal Roberts: I'm Chantal Roberts of CMR Consulting, and welcome to the Art of Adjusting Podcast.
• 0:14
  William Auten: Today we're going to talk about life as an insurance adjuster from the perspective of property, auto, liability, or workers' compensation adjusters.
• 0:22
  William Auten: Our goal is to bring interesting topics in the world of claims adjusting to people who are working as an adjuster now and to people who are considering a career as a claims adjuster.
• 0:31
  William Auten: Hey Chantal, how are you?
• 0:33
  Chantal Roberts: Hi, I'm fantastic.
• 0:35
  Chantal Roberts: How are you doing?
• 0:36
  William Auten: Doing good.
• 0:36
  William Auten: We are uh just past summer now, and uh weather's good.
• 0:41
  William Auten: We're finally out of the winter, and I'm happy for that.
• 0:44
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, you know, it's so funny.
• 0:45
  Chantal Roberts: Um, I still haven't adjusted coming up to Kansas City so much uh because it is the the summer does start a little bit later than in Jul or in Arkansas because our spring starts in February, you know, and uh it's so fun because I, you know, everyone's like, yeah, summer's like halfway over.
• 1:06
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm like, oh babe, it doesn't end until September.
• 1:09
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but that's from the south, and and so I'm still trying to get used to that.
• 1:14
  Chantal Roberts: But yeah, absolutely.
• 1:15
  Chantal Roberts: I'm loving it.
• 1:16
  Chantal Roberts: Um, it's been raining a lot here in Kansas City, though.
• 1:20
  Chantal Roberts: Um nothing is growing really here for me, but that's not what we're here to talk about.
• 1:24
  Chantal Roberts: We're not here to talk about my my garden and how everything is is dying and how I can't plant anything.
• 1:29
  Chantal Roberts: Right.
• 1:30
  Chantal Roberts: Um, because that would be a whole nother podcast.
• 1:33
  Chantal Roberts: We are here to uh talk about recorded statements, and we've actually done an episode on this before you reminded me, and so I went to go look it up.
• 1:45
  Chantal Roberts: It is episode 33 if you're interested in listening to that one.
• 1:49
  Chantal Roberts: And we've we talked about how to master that skill.
• 1:54
  Chantal Roberts: And so I thought it would be a good refresher course to to master, because one of the things that I'm kind of passionate about is that even though we become maybe experienced adjusters, there's no harm, no foul in us learning or or relearning things or being reminded of things because there's stuff that we forget, talking it out.
• 2:17
  William Auten: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:18
  William Auten: I have one question for you.
• 2:20
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 2:20
  William Auten: Do you understand that this uh podcast is being recorded?
• 2:23
  William Auten: And is it being recorded with your permission?
• 2:25
  Chantal Roberts: I do understand, and yes, it is being done with my permission.
• 2:29
  William Auten: So that's how we open up our recorded statements.
• 2:33
  Chantal Roberts: Absolutely, yes, and and so we're gonna talk about that.
• 2:36
  Chantal Roberts: And before we do that, be sure to like, subscribe, share, comment.
• 2:40
  Chantal Roberts: We did have a comment the other day.
• 2:42
  Chantal Roberts: I think it was a troll, but that's okay.
• 2:44
  Chantal Roberts: Um, I'll take them, quite frankly.
• 2:46
  Chantal Roberts: Because yeah, because you know, it like puts you up in the algorithm.
• 2:50
  Chantal Roberts: So any trolls out there, I mean, didn't we just ask for a troll?
• 2:54
  Chantal Roberts: I think we asked for a troll.
• 2:55
  William Auten: I think we might have, yeah.
• 2:56
  Chantal Roberts: We might have asked for a troll.
• 2:57
  Chantal Roberts: So I mean, yay us and yay you for coming through.
• 3:02
  William Auten: Be the troll.
• 3:03
  Chantal Roberts: Yay the troll.
• 3:04
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so anyway, um, yeah, so that helps us, you know, pull things up and everything like that.
• 3:10
  William Auten: But and if you agree with the troll, go and comment on what they said, or if you disagree with them and support us, go for that too.
• 3:17
  Chantal Roberts: Go for it.
• 3:18
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, absolutely.
• 3:19
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so anyway, a recorded statement, I think, is one of the most valuable tools in the adjuster's tool belts.
• 3:27
  Chantal Roberts: And a lot of times we don't do it anymore uh for a lot of reasons.
• 3:32
  Chantal Roberts: And um I so I thought we'd talk about a before we hit record, um, before we start off with the is this, you know, recording made with your knowledge and ask permission and and that sort of thing.
• 3:47
  Chantal Roberts: We'd talk about like what we need to do to prepare before we hit record.
• 3:52
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 3:53
  William Auten: Um, I think some thought needs to go into whether or not you want to take a recorded statement.
• 3:59
  William Auten: Um, there is some philosophies out there that um maybe maybe you know what they're going to say and you don't really want that on the record.
• 4:10
  William Auten: And we don't really engage in that here.
• 4:14
  William Auten: If I'm working with a defense attorney, sometimes I'll get that vibe where they're like, ask them this, but don't ask them this, you know, that kind of thing.
• 4:22
  William Auten: And we're not wired that way.
• 4:24
  William Auten: We've never been trained to do things that way.
• 4:27
  William Auten: We've been trained to just find out everything we can because um a decision has to be made.
• 4:33
  William Auten: And if there's some hidden little thing that we don't want to talk about because it's gonna hurt the case, I think you need to get it out there because that's gonna help you make the right decision eventually.
• 4:45
  William Auten: It's gonna come out anyway, you know.
• 4:47
  Chantal Roberts: That was the point that I was just getting ready to make is look, ask those hard questions.
• 4:53
  Chantal Roberts: And this may be one of those advanced kind of techniques because I know that newer adjusters, I I was this way.
• 5:00
  Chantal Roberts: Um, when I was a new adjuster and a rookie, I was always scared to ask those hard questions because I was either afraid that someone was going to yell at me or or it might be bad for the case.
• 5:13
  Chantal Roberts: But you have to remember as an adjuster, what your job is is to pay the covered claim.
• 5:19
  Chantal Roberts: And you can't do that if you don't know what really happened.
• 5:24
  Chantal Roberts: And and so if you have some bad information, you need to get it out in the open and decide what to do with it.
• 5:34
  William Auten: I think, I think so, and I think most carriers uh would agree.
• 5:39
  William Auten: I think there is um, like I say, defense attorneys, they're in kind of a different bucket.
• 5:45
  William Auten: Exactly.
• 5:46
  William Auten: They uh their job is to minimize the damage as much as possible.
• 5:51
  William Auten: So I get that approach, um, but they're litigating this, so their their mindset's a little different.
• 6:01
  William Auten: Yeah, we are fact gatherers, um exactly primarily.
• 6:05
  Chantal Roberts: So I would I would say too, if we are in litigation, we usually don't take a recorded statement right in in that instance, because that is when the attorneys are going to do depositions, and that is something completely different, although also a great podcast to talk about.
• 6:27
  Chantal Roberts: However, uh, this is more of a formal, informal kind of deal.
• 6:34
  Chantal Roberts: Um, you're not trying to catch someone in and for those new adjusters out there, you've got to know that there is a lot of misinformation about what statements are.
• 6:47
  Chantal Roberts: And uh people will always say, Oh, don't give a recorded statement to the to the insurer.
• 6:53
  Chantal Roberts: They're just trying to to to trick you to admit to things and to um uh catch you lying.
• 7:01
  Chantal Roberts: And and if you go back and you add things, then that's indicative of fraud and blah, blah, blah.
• 7:07
  Chantal Roberts: This is clearly not true.
• 7:09
  Chantal Roberts: And we can talk about it, but you know, this is why statements matter is that you're trying to understand what happened.
• 7:17
  Chantal Roberts: You need to preserve the evidence because if you go to court, it is in like two years from now, three years from now, whatever.
• 7:26
  Chantal Roberts: And so people's memories change over time, and it preserves the evidence.
• 7:32
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, and that's kind of what you what you want.
• 7:34
  Chantal Roberts: You're we're not trying to catch anybody, we're not trying to trick anybody.
• 7:40
  William Auten: No, I I I mean, on both sides, both the insured side and the claimant side, yeah.
• 7:46
  William Auten: The idea is that you well you've heard the phrase give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves, right?
• 7:54
  William Auten: That is probably uh a really negative way to characterize this, but what it the at the heart at the heart of that is that you're getting to the bottom of it.
• 8:06
  William Auten: You know, you're really trying to find out the full facts so that you know whether this is gonna go in one direction or another, um, and you know whose fault it's gonna be.
• 8:19
  William Auten: That's what you're really trying to figure out.
• 8:21
  William Auten: And if it's your insured's fault and everything they say uh leads to that, then that's where you stand, you know.
• 8:29
  William Auten: Right.
• 8:29
  William Auten: I've had insureds admit to me in the statement, this was completely my fault.
• 8:34
  William Auten: This was totally my fault.
• 8:35
  William Auten: This was all my fault.
• 8:37
  William Auten: Okay, all right, great, you can say it three times, five times, that that's thank you.
• 8:41
  William Auten: So now we know right now we know this is a claim to pay, not a claim to necessarily defend.
• 8:47
  William Auten: Right.
• 8:48
  William Auten: And then after the uh, you know, after the damages are evaluated and it appears to be a policy limits case or excess case, uh the insured changes their story real quick.
• 8:59
  unknown: Right.
• 9:00
  William Auten: Uh so there's that.
• 9:02
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and and remember, we're not conducting uh an interrogation.
• 9:06
  Chantal Roberts: Uh it's like what you said, we're following the facts.
• 9:09
  Chantal Roberts: We aren't following our theory, we're not following the insured's theory.
• 9:14
  Chantal Roberts: And and we're we're kind of talking as if this is only done in third-party claims.
• 9:19
  Chantal Roberts: It's not necessarily, I mean, we can do a a recorded statement in a first party claim, but it's usually done with the uh a third party.
• 9:34
  Chantal Roberts: You and and so you would talk to the insured, the claimant, and then any witnesses.
• 9:39
  Chantal Roberts: And that's who you would get your um uh facts from.
• 9:44
  Chantal Roberts: And usually I start off in exactly kind of that order.
• 9:48
  Chantal Roberts: I start off with the insured, then I go to the claimant, and then I go to the witnesses, or sometimes I'll start with the insured, then go to the witnesses, and then go to the claimant.
• 9:55
  Chantal Roberts: It just depends on who I can get, but it I usually try to get the insured first.
• 10:00
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 10:00
  William Auten: The standing rule on on property claims is if it's a fire or theft or vandalism, we always would get a statement.
• 10:07
  William Auten: And the the reason for those is that they are um, I guess, rape for fraud.
• 10:13
  William Auten: So um we we do kind of want to tie the insured into what they are saying happened early so that that doesn't change later on.
• 10:25
  Chantal Roberts: Right, exactly.
• 10:26
  Chantal Roberts: And again, this is all about what you're trying to sworn.
• 10:30
  Chantal Roberts: And we've got a roadmap.
• 10:32
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, although I know a lot of insurers, and even I, when I was at a third-party administrator, I had a I did have a list of questions that I would ask.
• 10:43
  Chantal Roberts: And now again, being a rookie, it it helps you out.
• 10:46
  Chantal Roberts: But the issue is you can't just follow that script.
• 10:53
  Chantal Roberts: You've got to be listening and hear what the people are saying, and then sometimes you go off and you know, left field or whatever.
• 11:02
  William Auten: You probably should.
• 11:03
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, you absolutely should if they ask you something weird.
• 11:06
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and I I have a note down later about like what to do when we're wrapping up or you know, something like that.
• 11:14
  Chantal Roberts: So um the other thing that I would say in preparing yourself for the recorded statement is of course, know your file, know what's been listed.
• 11:27
  Chantal Roberts: Um you know, the insured says they rear-ended me or um they slammed on their brakes and I rear-ended them, but it wasn't my fault.
• 11:37
  Chantal Roberts: You know, be sure to know that idea or that concept or or whatever, so that when you go in, you know what kind of questions to ask, what kind of thing that you're looking for.
• 11:52
  William Auten: Um another thing you can do to prepare is um, and I've done this a lot, is to have photographs of whatever you're talking about, um, and label them as exhibit A, B, C, whatever.
• 12:05
  William Auten: Um, and in a statement, discuss what that depicts and slide it across the table to the person that you're talking to, and give them a red pen so that they can make an X where something happened, or they can describe the distance, um, and then they can sign that and date it.
• 12:24
  William Auten: And that becomes then part of the the claim evidence and the claim file.
• 12:28
  Chantal Roberts: That's great.
• 12:29
  Chantal Roberts: That's a good piece uh of advice there.
• 12:32
  Chantal Roberts: I have taken before, and this um kind of goes to when I don't understand something that is that the that someone is saying to me uh and I'm doing a recorded statement like in person or something.
• 12:47
  Chantal Roberts: I've taken this happened to be when I was out in the field, I was doing uh semi-tractor trailer rig accidents with cars and things like that, and I didn't understand how the claimant was describing the accident.
• 13:01
  Chantal Roberts: I took out my little toy truck and my little toy car and and I would position them like the claimant was saying and try to match the damages and be like, okay, so help me through this, walk me through this because I'm not understanding this.
• 13:18
  Chantal Roberts: And and you shouldn't be afraid to to say those sorts of things, like just to kind of stop it and and go, okay, uh hold on, I'm I'm not quite grasping what you're saying.
• 13:31
  Chantal Roberts: Let's let's like write this out or or use toys.
• 13:36
  William Auten: Right.
• 13:36
  William Auten: Um you notice sometimes to someone my favorite statings from my wife is um let me test my understanding here and then repeat back what you think they are saying so that they can correct you or validate, you know, what your perspective is.
• 13:52
  Chantal Roberts: I love that saying.
• 13:53
  Chantal Roberts: Can you say it again?
• 13:54
  William Auten: Yeah, allow me to test my understanding of what you just said.
• 13:58
  Chantal Roberts: I love that.
• 13:58
  Chantal Roberts: That is that is very, very good.
• 14:01
  Chantal Roberts: I was going to suggest adjusters say something similar, which uh is just okay, I uh I'm typing in that you said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 14:11
  Chantal Roberts: Is that correct?
• 14:12
  Chantal Roberts: And and they can say yes or no.
• 14:15
  Chantal Roberts: Um, let's talk about preparing a person for for giving the statement, whether it's the claimant or the insured.
• 14:25
  Chantal Roberts: I usually explain why we're doing the recording.
• 14:29
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, and by the way, just FYI, I never say recorded interview because I have always been told that that people are nervous with interviews.
• 14:39
  Chantal Roberts: You go on job interviews, you don't know, you know, the police interview you or whatever.
• 14:44
  Chantal Roberts: And and so interview kind of has this nervousness, but if you're just taking a statement or um something to that effect, it might help calm people down.
• 14:56
  William Auten: So Yeah, the word statement kind of sounds like a punch in the nose, too.
• 15:00
  William Auten: Um does.
• 15:01
  William Auten: If you want to soften it even more, and I've not done this, but you could say uh we're gonna have a recorded conversation about what happened.
• 15:09
  Chantal Roberts: I don't think there's anything wrong with saying we're gonna have a recorded conversation, or I'm gonna record the conversation that we're gonna have.
• 15:15
  Chantal Roberts: I'm gonna ask a lot of questions.
• 15:17
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and before again, I hit record, and this is just me, is I explain why we're doing the recording, you know, and I point blank say, okay, I'm gonna start off with a couple of name, rank, and serial number questions.
• 15:33
  Chantal Roberts: And even if I'm in person, out not, you know, over the phone or whatever, I'm going to ask you some name, rank, and serial number questions.
• 15:42
  Chantal Roberts: This just proves to me that you are who you say you are.
• 15:45
  Chantal Roberts: I'm gonna ask you for your driver's license number, your social security number.
• 15:49
  Chantal Roberts: I know that some people aren't comfortable doing this.
• 15:52
  Chantal Roberts: We've talked about that social security number with our CMS uh podcast.
• 15:57
  Chantal Roberts: If you want to give me the last five, that's fine.
• 16:01
  Chantal Roberts: And if you need to go get those information, go ahead.
• 16:04
  Chantal Roberts: One of the things that I always ask for, and I started asking for it when I was working as a third-party administrator, is I ask for an alternate contact.
• 16:15
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, I ask for like someone who can get in contact with you if you were to move and change numbers and change addresses, and I need to get in touch with you.
• 16:24
  Chantal Roberts: Is this gonna someone's not gonna move with you?
• 16:27
  Chantal Roberts: Like a mother, a brother, an aunt, an uncle, a best friend, something like that.
• 16:31
  Chantal Roberts: Who who's going to be able to get you information?
• 16:34
  Chantal Roberts: Because again, remember, we may need this witness or something five years from now.
• 16:40
  William Auten: Right.
• 16:41
  Chantal Roberts: And we never know what's gonna happen.
• 16:43
  Chantal Roberts: And people insist, oh, I'm never gonna change my number, blah, blah, blah.
• 16:46
  Chantal Roberts: You say that, but then you know, I got to go do, like, I don't know, a credit check or something, try to find you or whatever.
• 16:52
  Chantal Roberts: Anyway, it just it just helps.
• 16:56
  William Auten: Exactly.
• 16:57
  William Auten: And uh preparing yourself is one thing, but also you may want to prepare the environment that you're gonna do this in.
• 17:02
  Chantal Roberts: Absolutely.
• 17:03
  William Auten: Um, you want it quiet, uh, no distractions.
• 17:07
  William Auten: You don't want the kids coming in asking mommy for you know, a glass of milk or something.
• 17:13
  William Auten: Um so those yeah, you have to kind of control those um scenarios.
• 17:19
  William Auten: Uh, one of the things that annoys me the most and has been the hardest to uh prevent is when the spouse is in the background and you don't know and they decide to chime in.
• 17:30
  William Auten: Usually that happens over the phone because you don't realize someone else is in the room.
• 17:35
  Chantal Roberts: Right.
• 17:35
  William Auten: And then um before you know it, there's a whole conversation with three or four people going on, and you're like, okay, everybody's gotta just be quiet having a conversation with one person here.
• 17:46
  Chantal Roberts: And and this is a good point.
• 17:48
  Chantal Roberts: Uh because I've had that happen before where the spouse will will say something in the background, and you can hear him or her because they're yelling into the phone, and you kind of have to stop and identify who that other person is.
• 18:05
  Chantal Roberts: Like, is that your husband?
• 18:07
  Chantal Roberts: Is that your wife?
• 18:08
  Chantal Roberts: What's their name?
• 18:09
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, and it especially becomes confusing for a claimant, for example, or someone who's also been involved in the accident, because you're going to talk to them, you know, because you want to talk to everybody in the accident.
• 18:24
  Chantal Roberts: And and so they think they maybe are being helpful, but you got to say, no, wait, stop.
• 18:29
  Chantal Roberts: You know, please tell your spouse to wait until I speak with them to tell me what they're they're telling you, right?
• 18:38
  Chantal Roberts: You know, and but you do need to identify them.
• 18:40
  Chantal Roberts: You as the adjuster do need to say, okay, Mr.
• 18:42
  Chantal Roberts: Smith, um, that was Mr.
• 18:44
  Chantal Roberts: Smith yelling to Mrs.
• 18:45
  Chantal Roberts: Smith what what he wanted to say, and that was blah blah blah blah blah.
• 18:49
  Chantal Roberts: Is that it was a Chevy, not a Ford.
• 18:51
  Chantal Roberts: Exactly, you know, and and um because we've got to again kind of preserve the record, and that sounds like when I say preserve the record, it sounds like, oh, that's not a conversation, that's a you know, interview that's a again it's a formalized conversation, yeah.
• 19:09
  William Auten: It's a formalization.
• 19:09
  William Auten: It is for record keeping purposes and potentially evidence, right?
• 19:16
  Chantal Roberts: One of the things again that I I I do tell claimants and insureds for that matter, uh when I get ready to to turn the recording off before I turn the recording off, is like, look, if if you've got something that you remember, as soon as I hang up the phone with you, call me back and and tell me what it is.
• 19:38
  Chantal Roberts: The people are always nervous talking with us.
• 19:42
  Chantal Roberts: Um and and so they may not remember everything, and it may come back later.
• 19:51
  Chantal Roberts: A statement while it's formalized isn't necessarily carved into stone, not like a deposition is, not like an examination under oath or an EUO is, and someone may remember something, and that doesn't mean that they're being fraudulent or or something to that effect.
• 20:09
  Chantal Roberts: And I've seen adjusters fall into that.
• 20:13
  Chantal Roberts: Now, sometimes it is, don't get me wrong.
• 20:15
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, there's always the exclusion or the exception to the rule, but I'm just letting you know that sometimes people remember, oh yeah, I did blah, blah, blah.
• 20:25
  William Auten: You know, so I had a witness in here the other day who was very nervous about the statement process.
• 20:32
  William Auten: And her questions were uh, you know, I I don't want to do this wrong.
• 20:38
  William Auten: I thought there's no wrong, just answer questions, you know.
• 20:41
  William Auten: And if you don't know the answer to a question, just say I don't know.
• 20:45
  William Auten: And um it took a little bit to build rapport there to where she was like, Oh, okay, this is gonna be a lot easier than she probably had thought.
• 20:56
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 20:56
  Chantal Roberts: So and rapport is a very important word because I actually had in an expert witness uh, I guess it was a rebuttal to to my case, where the opposing expert witness had said that adjusters are trained to um build rapport and lure people into uh divulging information.
• 21:24
  Chantal Roberts: And I want to talk about that real quick, just real quick.
• 21:28
  Chantal Roberts: Um we do have to build rapport with people because again, like you said, they're nervous that they they don't want to tell us wrong, and they are afraid that what they say, quote, on the record, end quote, is gonna end up damaging their claim or whatever.
• 21:47
  Chantal Roberts: And so you got to put them at ease.
• 21:49
  Chantal Roberts: And by doing this, you explain the process, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 21:52
  Chantal Roberts: However, even in our books, uh, you know, our CPCU books, our associate and claims books, AIC.
• 21:59
  Chantal Roberts: Um books.
• 22:00
  Chantal Roberts: It says we got to establish report.
• 22:02
  Chantal Roberts: This is part of the process of taking a recorded statement.
• 22:06
  Chantal Roberts: Identify ourselves, explaining the process, removing the mystery.
• 22:11
  Chantal Roberts: So that it doesn't look like I'm really coming at them.
• 22:30
  Chantal Roberts: You know, I'm trying to give them a sense of power over this.
• 22:34
  Chantal Roberts: And I point blank tell them, just like you did, you can say you don't know.
• 22:38
  Chantal Roberts: Do not make up an answer for me.
• 22:40
  Chantal Roberts: You know, and and giving these people these tools are very important.
• 22:47
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 22:47
  William Auten: Um it's, you know, building rapport is just a human thing to do too.
• 22:52
  William Auten: It's not um, it's not trickery and it's not um, you know, some kind of subterfuge.
• 22:58
  William Auten: It's just like making someone comfortable in the environment so they're not you know, like who wants a nervous person next, you know, exactly in front of them that they have to talk to?
• 23:08
  William Auten: Nobody.
• 23:09
  Chantal Roberts: Nobody.
• 23:10
  William Auten: So um, yeah, just be like a person and and have a conversation.
• 23:15
  Chantal Roberts: I and yeah, I and I think that's that's also a really important part.
• 23:19
  Chantal Roberts: And and then we get into where um we may be in person and and maybe there's an attorney present, like the um claimant has an attorney, and the attorney has already said, I'm not gonna let you ask these sorts of questions, you know, and and you may be wondering if you're new, who do I address the questions to?
• 23:42
  Chantal Roberts: You address them to the claimant, to the to the person who has been in the accident, not to the attorney.
• 23:50
  William Auten: Yeah, I would introduce the attorney in the beginning and say that also present is attorney, XYZ, whatever.
• 23:56
  William Auten: Um, but yeah, I've had uh I've had statements start out where every question you ask, and the claimant does one of these over to his attorney to double check if they can answer.
• 24:06
  William Auten: And the attorney's look just answer the questions.
• 24:09
  William Auten: If he asks something that I don't want you to answer, I'll let you know.
• 24:13
  William Auten: Exactly.
• 24:13
  William Auten: Rarely ever happens.
• 24:15
  Chantal Roberts: Uh very, very rarely.
• 24:16
  Chantal Roberts: It usually is about with we have when we have the attorneys present, it is usually about the bodily injury.
• 24:22
  Chantal Roberts: They they don't want the people talking about bodily injury, and again, that's fine.
• 24:28
  Chantal Roberts: Um, here are some statements that you can let again, both the claimant and the attorney know because might as well keep everybody on the same page, which is when you well, first you said introduce the attorney.
• 24:44
  Chantal Roberts: I make sure that I get the attorney also allowing, acknowledging that I'm recording the conversation and allowing that recording to happen.
• 24:54
  Chantal Roberts: So, you know, Mary Smith, do you realize that I'm recording this conversation?
• 24:57
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 24:58
  Chantal Roberts: Do I have your permission to do so?
• 24:59
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 24:59
  Chantal Roberts: Also present is attorney John Doe.
• 25:03
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, he represents Mary Smith.
• 25:05
  Chantal Roberts: Attorney Doe, do you realize that I'm recording this conversation?
• 25:08
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 25:09
  Chantal Roberts: Do I have your permission?
• 25:10
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 25:10
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, great.
• 25:11
  Chantal Roberts: And then you go.
• 25:12
  Chantal Roberts: And if I say, okay, Mary, can you tell me what your injuries are?
• 25:17
  Chantal Roberts: And the attorney goes, No, she can't.
• 25:20
  Chantal Roberts: Then while we're still recording, I will say, that's fine.
• 25:25
  Chantal Roberts: I don't have a problem with that, but I gotta let you know that if you don't tell me, um, while I'm trying to res preserve all of this evidence, I'm gonna have to make the decision based on the information that's in my file.
• 25:41
  Chantal Roberts: And that's all you got to say.
• 25:43
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 25:43
  Chantal Roberts: Because attorneys understand that.
• 25:46
  Chantal Roberts: And the claimant, Mary, may not understand it immediately, but attorney can explain that to them.
• 25:54
  Chantal Roberts: Anyway, the point being is that you've addressed those issues and and uh you will you keep the tone professional.
• 26:03
  Chantal Roberts: If the attorney wants to turn this into some kind of deposition and contest everything, you do have the right to get up and leave.
• 26:12
  William Auten: Um, and you know if you're not getting the information you need, there's no reason to really uh keep going.
• 26:19
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 26:19
  William Auten: Um, but that I I don't think I've had that happen very often.
• 26:23
  William Auten: I have to um I may have had it happen on the first party side where there was some sketchy stuff going on and they just didn't want to.
• 26:31
  William Auten: And by the way, uh to all the attorneys listening, um, you know, I I would say about 50% of our cases, the attorney will allow a statement.
• 26:40
  William Auten: It might be less than 50.
• 26:42
  Chantal Roberts: Oh, yeah.
• 26:42
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 26:42
  William Auten: Um, and the rest will say, no, never, we never allow that.
• 26:45
  William Auten: You know, nobody ever allows that.
• 26:47
  William Auten: And that's not true.
• 26:48
  William Auten: Um, when when the attorney starts with, we never allow statements, or we're not going to allow you to take a statement.
• 26:57
  William Auten: In my mind, I instantly think, well, you must not have a very good case then, because if your case was very good, um, your client will tell me everything that I need to know to make a decision to pay the claim.
• 27:12
  William Auten: So uh that's that's my philosophy.
• 27:15
  William Auten: I don't know what they all talk about on the plaintiff's side uh when they get together.
• 27:20
  William Auten: Right.
• 27:20
  William Auten: Uh, but um if they're conspiring to avoid these statements for some tactical reason, I want to let you know that it puts a different, you know, kind of thought in our head than than you might be thinking.
• 27:36
  Chantal Roberts: So yeah, it is it is kind of a red flag for for for an adjuster because we start wondering, well, why why wouldn't you want to give us information?
• 27:42
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, and and the other aspect would be that I have heard attorneys say, I will let you talk to my claimant if I can talk to your insured.
• 27:55
  William Auten: That's a that's an interesting um counter.
• 27:57
  William Auten: And I've not I've not had that.
• 28:00
  Chantal Roberts: I have, I've had it it happen quite a few times, and I'm like, well, you know, I I can't do that.
• 28:05
  Chantal Roberts: Um, I'm not going to arrange that.
• 28:09
  Chantal Roberts: Um and and because the insured is not attorney represented.
• 28:15
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, I suppose the attorney could reach out to the insured and talk to them.
• 28:21
  Chantal Roberts: But again, my job is to investigate the claim.
• 28:26
  Chantal Roberts: I don't care who's right.
• 28:28
  Chantal Roberts: And it could be uh he said she said case.
• 28:31
  Chantal Roberts: All right.
• 28:32
  Chantal Roberts: Again, then you need to prove up your case, Mr.
• 28:35
  Chantal Roberts: or Mrs.
• 28:36
  Chantal Roberts: Attorney.
• 28:37
  Chantal Roberts: I but I have had those come up.
• 28:40
  Chantal Roberts: I will not let you talk to my client until I talk to your insured.
• 28:45
  Chantal Roberts: And again, this the same answer is that's fine, no problem, but recognize that I'm going to make my liability decision based off of what's in my file.
• 28:56
  Chantal Roberts: And if I only have statements from the insured, uh, and and documentation that supports their point of view, such as damage or the police report or whatever, then that's what I'm going to make my decision based off of.
• 29:13
  Chantal Roberts: And and we can go from there.
• 29:16
  William Auten: Uh I think so there's a couple of thoughts that come to mind though, when when the idea of that tit for tat kind of um proposal comes up, the dynamics are different on both sides.
• 29:29
  William Auten: One person is defending themselves against allegations.
• 29:33
  William Auten: What we're doing is trying to find out what the allegations are in as great a detail as we can.
• 29:39
  William Auten: Um and the I think the burden of proof is more on the claimant than the than the defendant.
• 29:48
  Chantal Roberts: It is.
• 29:49
  William Auten: So I'd be inclined to argue that that I don't think we're going to allow that because we're on the defense here.
• 29:55
  William Auten: You're trying to make you're trying to say that this is an injury or situation of significant value, and we want to hear that first.
• 30:05
  Chantal Roberts: I agree.
• 30:06
  Chantal Roberts: I totally agree.
• 30:07
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but again, I don't know why they say that.
• 30:13
  Chantal Roberts: Uh again, it might be a a plaintiff bar kind of issue, but I again I've not, you know, I I've not had it come up.
• 30:25
  William Auten: And uh I will know if any of uh the attorneys we work with listen to this podcast if it happens in the next month or so.
• 30:34
  Chantal Roberts: This is true.
• 30:35
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but anyway, let's start off with our recording.
• 30:38
  Chantal Roberts: So, you know, we've already introduced ourselves, asked if we have permission to record it.
• 30:44
  Chantal Roberts: They've said yes.
• 30:45
  Chantal Roberts: I then generally let the claimant go.
• 30:51
  Chantal Roberts: Please tell me in your own words what happened.
• 30:54
  Chantal Roberts: Start as broad as I can uh and I don't interrupt and I don't try to jump ahead or anything, I just let them talk.
• 31:05
  Chantal Roberts: And and by the way, guys, we haven't mentioned this.
• 31:08
  Chantal Roberts: I tend to take the notes as the recording is going.
• 31:13
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, some people handwrite it, but I'm usually typing it into the file.
• 31:18
  Chantal Roberts: Uh so we gotta take notes because we can't rely on our memory and do it like afterwards.
• 31:25
  Chantal Roberts: So either handwrite it or type it in as it's going along.
• 31:30
  William Auten: Yep.
• 31:30
  William Auten: Um of the things that happens with every recorded statement is that you you hit the stop button, you exchange your pleasantries, and you get in your car to drive back to the office and you think about 15 different questions that you should have asked.
• 31:50
  Chantal Roberts: Absolutely.
• 31:51
  Chantal Roberts: Happens every time.
• 31:52
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 31:53
  Chantal Roberts: Happens every time.
• 31:54
  Chantal Roberts: Don't worry about it.
• 31:55
  Chantal Roberts: You know, these are things that you can find out again a little bit later because they may be sitting there thinking, oh, I should have told them about XYZ as well.
• 32:02
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, it's not like the last time you are ever going to have that conversation or a conversation.
• 32:09
  Chantal Roberts: And if these questions are really important, you can do another recorded statement.
• 32:14
  William Auten: Yep.
• 32:15
  Chantal Roberts: You know, I I don't know if I ever have, but um you can do one.
• 32:22
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, absolutely, it's not that big of a deal.
• 32:25
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, and again, remember if if we unfortunately do go to litigation, um, our defense attorney is going to be able to request a deposition and ask these questions as well.
• 32:40
  Chantal Roberts: So uh don't worry too much.
• 32:44
  Chantal Roberts: But um sometimes, you know, what we're what we're doing is we're sitting there, we're being quiet.
• 32:52
  Chantal Roberts: Silence is okay.
• 32:54
  Chantal Roberts: It's okay to be quiet during the the immediate aftermath of I wouldn't say aftermath, the the immediateness after someone has has given a a sentence, like this is what happened, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 33:10
  Chantal Roberts: And just be quiet.
• 33:13
  Chantal Roberts: See if they volunteer any information.
• 33:15
  Chantal Roberts: Um I do warn my people that I'm taking recorded statement from, especially over the phone because they can't see me.
• 33:25
  Chantal Roberts: I will tell them, hey, um, I may ask some questions twice in different ways, and that's just to make sure that I understand what you've said.
• 33:36
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, so it's not me trying to trick you.
• 33:38
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, I point blank say it, not me trying to trick you.
• 33:41
  Chantal Roberts: I'm just asking it a couple of different ways to make sure that I understand so that I get it down in the notes correctly.
• 33:46
  Chantal Roberts: You may hear a silence after you've spoken.
• 33:49
  Chantal Roberts: That's just me hunting and pecking for the keys because I'm taking notes as we're going along.
• 33:54
  Chantal Roberts: You know, and again, it it sets these expectations that okay, there is some silence, and maybe I'm not hunting and pecking for the keys.
• 34:05
  Chantal Roberts: Maybe I'm just waiting to see if they're going to volunteer something.
• 34:07
  Chantal Roberts: But these are words and phrases that you can use that help ease some of the transition, ease some of the fear, uh, and and build rapport with the person that you're taking the recorded statement from.
• 34:21
  William Auten: And when you um when you get into more serious accident claims involving serious consequences, um, you might want to have a box of tissue handy for the person that you're interviewing because uh it can be traumatic to relive some of those experiences.
• 34:39
  Chantal Roberts: And and while uh we should never say I'm I'm sorry for the accident or what have you, because a lot of times uh plaintiff counsel will say, Oh, you've just admitted to this fault because you're sorry for it or whatever.
• 35:00
  Chantal Roberts: I I I don't believe that.
• 35:02
  Chantal Roberts: I think that we can be human and and and say, I'm sorry that you're going through this.
• 35:08
  Chantal Roberts: This is this is terrible, especially, and I've had to take these recorded statements, they are horrible when someone's spouse has died in the car accident and they survived.
• 35:20
  Chantal Roberts: And you're like, I have to take that recorded statement.
• 35:23
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, this is horrible.
• 35:26
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, I gotta ask, I gotta ask, but I gotta ask these questions, and it's something that I gotta know.
• 35:33
  Chantal Roberts: Um and and be a human, you know.
• 35:37
  Chantal Roberts: This is part of building rapport too.
• 35:40
  William Auten: Um you're better off saying, I'm sorry this happened to you than saying it's not that bad.
• 35:46
  Chantal Roberts: Oh god, yes, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
• 35:48
  Chantal Roberts: Or I understand how you feel.
• 35:50
  Chantal Roberts: Well, unless you've been in an accident where someone's spouse has died and that's what has happened, you don't.
• 35:55
  Chantal Roberts: Um so um empathize.
• 35:58
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, you know, clarify your timelines, clarify the sequence of events, and and usually the way that I do that is so what happened, what happened afterwards, you know, and and then what happened then?
• 36:13
  Chantal Roberts: Uh and again, I may re-ask the same questions a couple of different times.
• 36:21
  Chantal Roberts: And as we said earlier, if I don't understand, I will kind of pause the interview or statement and say, okay, help me out because I don't understand how did X lead to Y.
• 36:33
  William Auten: Right.
• 36:34
  William Auten: Your your notes here have um a phrase, ask what happened next.
• 36:38
  William Auten: I do that constantly during a okay, what happened next?
• 36:42
  William Auten: Okay, and then what?
• 36:43
  William Auten: And then what?
• 36:44
  William Auten: And you know, because they'll they'll say, I fell and I hit the floor.
• 36:50
  William Auten: Okay, what happened next?
• 36:52
  William Auten: Right.
• 36:52
  William Auten: I got up.
• 36:53
  William Auten: Okay, what happened next?
• 36:55
  William Auten: You know, but and you have to do that sometimes because they're giving you just little short answers, and there are some people that are wired that way, not because they don't, not because they're trying to avoid giving you too much information, it's just that they just think in short little bursts and you know, the way that that's how they communicate, and um, you've got to kind of pull the information out of them again, not to trick them, not to lead them down the path that you know it's open-ended.
• 37:25
  William Auten: What happened next?
• 37:26
  William Auten: You know, not then you were fine, you know, you're not gonna be able to do that.
• 37:30
  William Auten: Exactly.
• 37:30
  William Auten: That's a leading question.
• 37:32
  William Auten: Right.
• 37:32
  Chantal Roberts: So um, you know, here's a fun little factoid that you can use, not use.
• 37:39
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, my husband, what he likes to do is he likes to watch the um police show 48 hour hours.
• 37:47
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and the one that's that follows the police detectives around, uh, I not like the movie or anything like that, but the one where um we're following police detectives in homicide in the homicide unit, because it's a great way to see how they ask questions and what they key in on to learn how to do follow-up questions.
• 38:16
  Chantal Roberts: So he said, if I ever run a team again, I would ask that all of my adjusters actually watch this show because it's really good.
• 38:27
  Chantal Roberts: And you could even start, once you start watching it, you can even start identifying when the police ask leading questions.
• 38:34
  Chantal Roberts: Like, so you were fine then, and then you got up and you walked off, you know, or then you put the gun down or whatever.
• 38:42
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but yeah, that uh you gotta ask your open-ended questions.
• 38:48
  Chantal Roberts: You don't assume that you already know the answer.
• 38:51
  William Auten: And yeah, that'll get you in trouble.
• 38:53
  William Auten: Yeah, um, I mean, uh when I say it'll get you in trouble, what it will do is it it's going to blind you to other things that may have been going on that you won't be thinking about, which you should be.
• 39:05
  William Auten: Because um, you know, if if your goal is to just defend the insured and just say, look, our insured is totally in, they didn't do anything.
• 39:15
  William Auten: I know they didn't do anything, but they did.
• 39:18
  William Auten: But you're not asking about that.
• 39:21
  William Auten: You're trying to steer the conversation to help the case, you're gonna get a uh um you're gonna get a muddied picture of what actually happened.
• 39:31
  William Auten: And when it does eventually come out in depositions, right?
• 39:35
  William Auten: A claim that you thought was worth $25,000 is now worth $750,000 and you're gonna look like a dum-dum.
• 39:43
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, exactly.
• 39:43
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:44
  Chantal Roberts: Because remember, again, we're supposed to be unbiased.
• 39:48
  Chantal Roberts: You know, uh, I know a lot of people don't think that.
• 39:51
  Chantal Roberts: I was just talking to my students about uh this, you know, the claims adjuster, we're supposed to be by unbiased.
• 39:58
  Chantal Roberts: We only work off of what the policy is, you know, and the policy tells us how much to pay, when to pay, da-da-da-da-da.
• 40:04
  Chantal Roberts: Now we could disagree with how much to pay, but you know, no, we're that's all we're supposed to be doing.
• 40:11
  Chantal Roberts: Um, so every claim is a fresh investigation, even though all you do is liability auto, let's say, you know, and it's a rear-end accident.
• 40:24
  Chantal Roberts: Don't just assume that it's a low-end accident or rear end accident.
• 40:31
  Chantal Roberts: So I don't need to talk to the insured or, you know, whatever, or it's fraudulent if it's rear end or something like that.
• 40:38
  Chantal Roberts: You got to go in with fresh eyes every single time, and you got to slow down to hear something new.
• 40:45
  Chantal Roberts: If anything is new, I you know, whatever.
• 40:48
  William Auten: And I'm sure there's gonna be people that might listen to this and and think that we're we're being dishonest or disingenuous here about the approach that we have to take as adjusters to not be biased, right?
• 41:01
  William Auten: Because I think there's a this this theory that all the insurance companies are evil and they train all their people to be evil, and it's just evil, evil, deny, defend, whatever.
• 41:10
  William Auten: Right, right, right.
• 41:11
  William Auten: And in my experience, that's not the case.
• 41:16
  William Auten: I mean, we don't want to pay claims that shouldn't be paid.
• 41:20
  William Auten: Um so there's that, and that's there's nothing wrong with that, uh, because not every claim should be paid.
• 41:26
  William Auten: Exactly.
• 41:28
  William Auten: Um, but on the flip side, if it's a legitimate claim that needs to be paid, we need to get there.
• 41:34
  William Auten: You know, we need we need the claimant to help us get there and help us figure out what actually happened.
• 41:42
  Chantal Roberts: And you said something earlier, and I believe that it's really important, is that when we're talking about liability aspects of claims, it is the third party, it's the claimant's job to prove their damages.
• 41:57
  Chantal Roberts: And it's not only because we're defending the insured, but you know, the we're supposed to indemnify and protect the insured in case that they were legally liable.
• 42:09
  Chantal Roberts: It's just the same as if it were in court.
• 42:13
  Chantal Roberts: You if if we all went to court, the claimant still has to prove their damages.
• 42:19
  Chantal Roberts: They would be the plaintiff at that time.
• 42:21
  Chantal Roberts: And so again, it sounds like we're gearing up to deny this claim, and it's not, it's just the way this system is set up.
• 42:31
  Chantal Roberts: And that is something that I don't think a lot of people understand, and and adjusters may not understand, especially if you're new.
• 42:39
  Chantal Roberts: But the the claimant does have to give us all of their information.
• 42:43
  Chantal Roberts: We can help the claimant uh if they're not attorney rep by getting their medical bills, you um doing some things for them, getting their lost wages information, that sort of thing.
• 42:56
  Chantal Roberts: That is our job.
• 42:57
  Chantal Roberts: But also they have to prove up their claim.
• 43:00
  Chantal Roberts: So if they don't give us any information, then again, the only thing we can base our inf our our decisions off of is what we have in our file, which would be what the insured tells us.
• 43:11
  William Auten: Right.
• 43:12
  Chantal Roberts: Because the insured has to cooperate with us.
• 43:14
  William Auten: Yes, yes, they they have to in theory, but do they always tell the truth?
• 43:20
  William Auten: No, they don't know.
• 43:22
  Chantal Roberts: No, but again, there are ways, even before we get to litigation of again making the insured give us the information that we need, you can send out a reservation of rights letter, or if you're in you're in New York, you don't call, you don't do a reservation of rights letter, you know your area, your jurisdiction, but you can quote the policy language to that person.
• 43:44
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and if push comes to shove where you really need the information, uh you can demand uh an examination under oath from the insured, which actually an adjuster could do.
• 43:57
  Chantal Roberts: I never recommend it.
• 43:58
  Chantal Roberts: I always recommend that.
• 43:59
  Chantal Roberts: A an attorney does the examination under oath, it's not a deposition.
• 44:04
  Chantal Roberts: Um, it's kind of like a step down from a deposition, but it is recorded by a court reporter.
• 44:10
  Chantal Roberts: So, I mean, it's very formal and it is a duty by the insured.
• 44:15
  Chantal Roberts: And if the insured does not live up to that duty, then you can start looking into uh we're gonna like void the policy, which is way and whole nother podcast, or deny the claim outright because he's not um cooperating with us or whatever.
• 44:31
  William Auten: Again, whole nother podcast hardly ever happens, but so EUOs are interesting though, um, because there's a um there's there's a requirement to give one to the insurance company when they request it under the first party property side, but there is no similar obligation under the liability side.
• 44:52
  Chantal Roberts: Really?
• 44:53
  Chantal Roberts: I did not know that.
• 44:53
  Chantal Roberts: I just I've just always demanded it.
• 44:57
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 44:57
  William Auten: Um about that.
• 44:59
  Chantal Roberts: Uh you learn something new every day.
• 45:01
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 45:01
  William Auten: Well, and it depends on the forms.
• 45:03
  William Auten: I mean, I guess the forms that we we have been working with here lately um do not have, you know, it's not a condition of coverage to give an EUO on a third-party claim.
• 45:15
  Chantal Roberts: Um, yeah, I think I've always seen it under like general conditions, like or general rules or you know, duties of the insurance, you know.
• 45:26
  William Auten: And so if you look at a homeowner's policy or even a commercial policy, it's one form with that in it.
• 45:32
  William Auten: The forms that we work with with a lot of our small mutuals, um the there's uh there the forms are in different packages.
• 45:41
  William Auten: So yeah, there is a um there's a general provisions coverage form, but then there's a separate coverage form for the property and a separate one for the liability.
• 45:50
  William Auten: Okay.
• 45:51
  William Auten: So a little different.
• 45:53
  William Auten: So read your forms, people.
• 45:55
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, also what we always say read your forms, know your policy, know your jurisdiction, all of that kind of stuff.
• 46:01
  Chantal Roberts: Um, wrapping up, I think one of the most important lessons that I've ever learned is to close out, or before I close out, the statement is again asking a very open-ended question.
• 46:18
  Chantal Roberts: Is there anything I didn't ask you that you think is important?
• 46:23
  Chantal Roberts: And you would be amazed.
• 46:25
  Chantal Roberts: So I'm I've gotten some good nuggets.
• 46:27
  Chantal Roberts: Like and sometimes point blank, though the the claim will go, yes, I think your insured is is at fault because of XYZ.
• 46:33
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm like, that's a pretty good thing.
• 46:35
  Chantal Roberts: Let's discuss it.
• 46:36
  Chantal Roberts: And then we discuss it, and because I thought I was finished, but I'm obviously not.
• 46:40
  Chantal Roberts: And then we go back to wrapping it up again.
• 46:43
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, anything else that you think is important that you want to clarify or you want to tell me about?
• 46:49
  Chantal Roberts: And again, they can think about it after I hang up with them.
• 46:52
  Chantal Roberts: That's fine.
• 46:53
  Chantal Roberts: Um, I'm gonna explain uh I'm gonna say again, do you realize I'm recording it?
• 46:58
  Chantal Roberts: Did I have it with your permission?
• 46:59
  Chantal Roberts: Blah, blah, blah.
• 47:00
  Chantal Roberts: And I usually begin with the dates, um, the starting time and the ending time again, you know, whatever.
• 47:07
  Chantal Roberts: And once I hit stop, this is when I explain the next steps.
• 47:11
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, I've got to do um three other interviews.
• 47:15
  Chantal Roberts: I've got to find the witnesses, I've got to talk to them.
• 47:17
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, then I've got to wait for the appraiser to get the estimates back to me, and then I'll make a decision.
• 47:25
  Chantal Roberts: We're probably looking at two or three weeks.
• 47:28
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, it just depends on how soon I can get in touch with everybody when the adjuster gets me the information, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 47:34
  Chantal Roberts: I thank them for their time.
• 47:35
  Chantal Roberts: And the point is, is that again, we've talked about it so many times, Bill, is we're setting that expectation.
• 47:44
  William Auten: Right.
• 47:44
  William Auten: Right.
• 47:45
  William Auten: Um, a comment about the last question that you asked.
• 47:49
  William Auten: Um, is there anything else that we that we you would like to discuss that we haven't talked about that you think might be important?
• 47:55
  William Auten: When we have that phrase, there have been times, not often, but sometimes the conversation after that question goes longer than the main statement did.
• 48:07
  Chantal Roberts: I've had that happen too, because what the claimant feels is important may not be what you think is important.
• 48:15
  William Auten: Right.
• 48:16
  Chantal Roberts: And and I've gotten, like I said, I've gotten some nuggets from from that.
• 48:20
  Chantal Roberts: And when I say nuggets, it doesn't mean that I was able to deny the claim.
• 48:25
  Chantal Roberts: It meant uh I found liability for that, you know.
• 48:31
  William Auten: Um in most cases, when that happens, though, what I found is that it is more of a listening session, more of a of someone who has experienced something bad and they they want someone to listen to them describe what kind of misery they're going through and all the problems that they've had, and they just want to unload.
• 48:54
  William Auten: And that's fine too.
• 48:56
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, yes.
• 48:58
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but it's it's also interesting because sometimes when this happens, when when they're talking about what kind of misery that they're having, while we ask them, what doctor are you seeing?
• 49:10
  Chantal Roberts: You know, are you going to physical therapy?
• 49:12
  Chantal Roberts: Are you missing work?
• 49:13
  Chantal Roberts: Or, you know, how has this affected your normal daily living?
• 49:16
  Chantal Roberts: You know, can you take a shower or whatever?
• 49:19
  Chantal Roberts: Um, we don't understand how painful or whatever that is.
• 49:23
  Chantal Roberts: And so when you say, Is there anything else that you feel is important that you want to let me know about, that gives them permission.
• 49:32
  William Auten: It's a genuine question.
• 49:33
  Chantal Roberts: It it it is a very legitimate question.
• 49:36
  Chantal Roberts: And I recommend everybody to to use it.
• 49:39
  Chantal Roberts: That's why I'm mentioning it here.
• 49:42
  William Auten: And and even if even if it is just a listening session like I've described, uh, that doesn't minimize the value of that information.
• 49:50
  Chantal Roberts: So I still write all of that information down in my claim notes.
• 49:54
  Chantal Roberts: You know, claimant um started to say that she couldn't dress herself or blah blah blah blah blah, and she was worried about this, and you know, da da da these sorts of things.
• 50:05
  Chantal Roberts: So again, you know, the recorded statement isn't about proving anybody wrong.
• 50:10
  Chantal Roberts: We're not out here to catch someone or say gotcha.
• 50:13
  Chantal Roberts: We're not leading questions, none of that.
• 50:15
  Chantal Roberts: You you ask open-ended questions, you say, What's next?
• 50:19
  Chantal Roberts: What's next?
• 50:20
  Chantal Roberts: What's next?
• 50:20
  Chantal Roberts: What's next?
• 50:21
  Chantal Roberts: Kind of like what happened next.
• 50:24
  Chantal Roberts: Like our next episode will be on Thursday, July 16th.
• 50:28
  Chantal Roberts: Kind of like that.
• 50:29
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 50:30
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 50:30
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 50:31
  Chantal Roberts: You know, so um it's about giving um a claimant and the insured and all of the witnesses the the opportunity to tell you what happened so that you can can make the correct decision.
• 50:44
  Chantal Roberts: Because I always uh I like to to kind of mess with my students and say, um how many sides of a coin are there?
• 50:54
  Chantal Roberts: And and invariably they'll say two.
• 50:56
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm like, no, there's three.
• 50:58
  Chantal Roberts: And it'd be like um, because there's this the side of it, you know, there's the head, the tail, and then the the side that you can, you know, do the little the edge.
• 51:08
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, the edge, thank you.
• 51:09
  William Auten: So anyway, um, I don't think we know what we're gonna do for July 16th yet, but I'm working on a comprehensive list of topics for the next six months.
• 51:23
  Chantal Roberts: Oh my gosh, yeah, yes.
• 51:25
  Chantal Roberts: So that'll take us all the way through December.
• 51:27
  Chantal Roberts: Woo! Yeah, okay.
• 51:28
  Chantal Roberts: So uh be sure to like, subscribe, please troll us.
• 51:32
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, we love that.
• 51:33
  Chantal Roberts: And it it helps the algorithm.
• 51:37
  Chantal Roberts: Um, pick us up and all of that sort of fun things.
• 51:40
  Chantal Roberts: So thank you.
• 51:41
  William Auten: And Chantal, before we break here, I have one question.
• 51:44
  William Auten: Is there anything else you'd like to talk about that you think might be important?
• 51:49
  Chantal Roberts: Uh no, I believe I've said everything.
• 51:51
  Chantal Roberts: Thank you.
• 51:52
  William Auten: Right on.
• 51:52
  Chantal Roberts: Thank you.
• 51:53
  Chantal Roberts: Hey, have you realized that this has been recorded?
• 51:56
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 51:56
  Chantal Roberts: And was it done with your permission?
• 51:58
  William Auten: Nope.
• 51:59
  Chantal Roberts: Oh, okay.
• 52:00
  Chantal Roberts: Well, then I guess I'm gonna sign off now.
• 52:02
  William Auten: Okay.
• 52:03
  Chantal Roberts: Bye.
• 52:03
  Chantal Roberts: Bye-bye.
• 52:04
  William Auten: Thanks for joining us on the Art of Adjusting Podcast, where we talk about life as an insurance adjuster.
• 52:10
  William Auten: Hit that subscribe button real quick and tell all of your adjuster friends to check this out as well.
• 52:14
  William Auten: For independent adjusting services, go to www.autin.claims.
• 52:19
  William Auten: And for anyone interested in working as an independent liability adjuster, go to the contact us tab to join our roster.
• 52:27
  Chantal Roberts: So this wraps up another Art of Adjusting podcast.
• 52:31
  Chantal Roberts: If you enjoyed this podcast or this episode, please give us five stars and a review.
• 52:36
  Chantal Roberts: It does help the algorithm pick us up.
• 52:39
  Chantal Roberts: In the meantime, you can contact me at theartofadjusting.com for consulting and training purposes.