It’s not small talk. It’s on the record. When the adjuster opens every call with “So, how are you feeling?” and sounds like they genuinely want to know, understand what is happening on the other end of the line. A trained claims professional is asking a question whose answer will be typed into a file the moment you hang up, and that file is the insurance company’s case against your claim.
We see this in almost every Las Vegas injury case we handle. A client was rear-ended on the 215 near Henderson, or hit in a crosswalk on Sahara, and within 48 hours a warm, polite voice from the other driver’s carrier is checking in on them. The client thinks the company is being decent. Weeks later, at the negotiating table, the adjuster reads their own words back to them.
If you take nothing else from this page, take this. Talking to an insurance adjuster after an accident is a formal step in your claim, even when it feels like a chat.
What the Adjuster Is Actually Paid to Do
An adjuster is an employee or contractor of the insurance company. Their job has two halves. The first is to find out what happened and what it will cost. The second is to close the claim for as little as the company can defend. Every fact the adjuster gathers is a fact that can be used to measure, and then to lower, the value of what you are owed.
That is not a personal failing of the person on the phone. Adjusters carry heavy caseloads and are evaluated on how quickly files close and how payouts compare to the reserves the company set aside. A friendly manner is a tool of the trade because people say more to someone they like.
So when you hear “How are you doing?”, translate it. The adjuster is asking a work question. Are you still hurt? Are you still treating? Is there anything in your answer that lets us close this file cheaper?
Every Word Goes into the Claim Notes
Insurance companies run claims on software. Each contact with you gets a dated entry in the claim notes, often called the activity log or the diary. The adjuster types a summary of the conversation, written for the people who decide what your case is worth and for the defense lawyers who will read it if you file suit.
The notes do not capture tone. They capture words. “Claimant states she is feeling much better” does not record that you said it out of politeness, or that you said it before a rough night, or that you had a headache while you said it. It records that you said it.
Those notes survive. If your case goes to litigation in Clark County District Court, or into Nevada’s court-annexed arbitration program for injury cases, the defense will have the claim file, and the phrases you gave the adjuster in week two become exhibits in month eighteen.
How “I’m Doing Better” Gets Quoted Back to You
Three phrases do more damage than any other. “I’m doing better.” “I’m back at work.” “It’s not that bad.” Each one is a normal thing to say to another human being. Each one is also a sentence the adjuster can put in the notes as evidence that your injury is resolving, that your lost wages have stopped, or that your pain is minor.
The problem is that recovery is not a straight line. A person with a shoulder injury has good days and bad days. Someone with a concussion can feel clear on Tuesday and lose words on Thursday. In traumatic brain injury claims in Henderson we see this constantly, because brain injury symptoms fluctuate and often worsen before they are properly diagnosed. If you told the adjuster you were “pretty much fine” during a good week, that sentence follows you into every later negotiation.
“Back at work” is its own trap. Many people return to work because they cannot afford not to, and they do it with restrictions, in pain, on reduced hours, or in a lighter role. The claim notes will read “claimant returned to work” and nothing else. The financial part of your claim is then argued against that one line.
The Friendly Check-In Call
Here is the pattern. A few days after the crash, the adjuster calls. They ask how you are. They say they want to get this handled quickly for you. Then come a few small questions. Where were you going? Had you seen the other car? What did the doctor say? Are you still going to physical therapy? Are you still off work?
None of those questions is casual. Where you were going speaks to whether you were rushed or distracted. Whether you saw the other car speaks to fault, and under Nevada’s comparative negligence rule any percentage of fault assigned to you comes straight off your recovery. What the doctor said becomes the insurer’s version of your diagnosis. Whether you are still in therapy sets a date the company will argue your treatment should have ended.
The calls repeat. Every two or three weeks, the same voice, the same warmth, the same question. Each call is another dated entry, and each entry is another chance for you to say something the file can use. The friendliness is real in the sense that the person means no harm. The purpose is still the file.
The Recorded Statement and the Blanket Medical Release
Two requests usually arrive early. The first is for a recorded statement. The adjuster will explain it as routine, a way to get your side of the story on tape so the claim can move. You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. A recording locks you into a single version of events, given before you have seen the police report, before your injuries are fully diagnosed, and before you understand what matters.
The second request is a medical authorization. The form the company sends is usually a blanket release. It lets the insurer pull your medical records from any provider, for any date range, for any condition. Sign it and the adjuster can go through a decade of your history looking for the back complaint from 2017 or the sports injury from college, and then argue that your current pain is old.
The insurer is entitled to records that relate to the injury it is being asked to pay for. It is not entitled to your whole medical life. We provide the relevant records ourselves, with the dates and providers limited to the crash, and we decline the blanket form. You can do the same by declining to sign until a lawyer has read it.
If you are dealing with your own insurer on a first-party claim, your policy may require some cooperation, and its language controls. Even then, cooperating does not mean answering open-ended questions about how you feel without preparation.
Your Social Media Is Being Read
The check-in call is not the only place the adjuster gathers your words. Insurance companies and the defense firms they hire look at public social media as a matter of routine. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, a public Strava account, a public Venmo feed that shows you splitting a dinner tab on the Strip. If it is visible, it can be captured, dated and placed in the file next to your “how are you doing” answers.
The photos do not need to show you doing anything strenuous. A picture at a family dinner in Summerlin, smiling, the week after you told the adjuster you were in constant pain, will be presented as proof that you were not. A post that says “finally back at the gym” does not include the part where you lasted ten minutes and went home.
The practical rule is simple. While your claim is open, post nothing about the crash, nothing about your injuries, nothing about your recovery, and as little as possible about your activities. Set every account to private and do not accept new follow requests from people you do not know. Do not delete existing posts without asking us first, because removing evidence after a claim is made can create its own problem.
The Plain Script for Talking to an Insurance Adjuster After an Accident
You do not have to be rude, and you do not have to be silent. You have to be brief. Here is what to give the adjuster and what to hold back.
- The facts of the crash, and only the facts. Date, time, location, the vehicles involved, the police agency that responded. If the collision happened at Boulder Highway and Tropicana, say that. Do not describe speeds, distances, what you were thinking, or whose fault it was.
- Your treatment status in one sentence. “I am under a doctor’s care and treatment is ongoing.” That is the whole answer to “How are you doing?” It is true, it is complete, and it gives the file nothing to work with.
- Everything else through counsel. Questions about your injuries, your pain, your work, your prior medical history, your recorded statement, and any release form get the same reply. “Please direct that to my attorney.” Then give the firm’s name and number.
Say no to the recorded statement. Do not sign the medical authorization. Do not estimate or guess. Do not fill silence, because adjusters are trained to leave a pause and let you talk into it. If a question makes you want to explain, that is the moment to stop.
Write down the date and time of every call, the adjuster’s name, and what was asked. You are keeping your own log to match theirs.
Nevada’s Unfair Claims Rules Are the Backstop
The adjuster does not get to do whatever produces the lowest number. Nevada law lists the practices an insurer is not allowed to use when it handles a claim. NRS 686A.310 names them, and several of the items on that list apply to “insureds or claimants”, which means they protect you when you are dealing with the other driver’s carrier and not only when you are dealing with your own.
Under that section it is an unfair practice for an insurer to misrepresent to a claimant the pertinent facts or the policy provisions that relate to the coverage at issue. It is an unfair practice to fail to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly on communications about a claim, or to fail to adopt and implement reasonable standards for prompt investigation. It is an unfair practice to fail to make a prompt, fair and equitable settlement once the insurer’s liability has become reasonably clear. It is an unfair practice to advise a claimant not to seek legal counsel, and it is an unfair practice to mislead a claimant about the statute of limitations that applies to their claim.
Read that list against the friendly call. An adjuster who tells you that you do not need a lawyer for something this simple is doing something the statute names. An adjuster who suggests there is plenty of time and no rush to act, when the deadline is closer than you think, is doing something the statute names. When your own insurer is the one handling the claim, the statute goes further. Subsection 2 makes an insurer liable to its insured for any damages the insured sustains as a result of any of those practices.
The Nevada Division of Insurance is the state agency that licenses and regulates insurers doing business in Nevada, and it accepts complaints from consumers about how a claim has been handled. The rules work best in the hands of someone who knows how to invoke them, and the best protection is not to hand the adjuster the material in the first place.
What Changes When We Take the Calls
The moment you retain us, the adjuster stops calling you. Every contact goes through our office. The “how are you doing” question gets answered by your medical records, your treating doctors, and a demand package built once your condition has stabilized, not by a sentence you gave on a Tuesday afternoon while trying to be polite.
That matters most in serious cases. In catastrophic injury cases, the gap between “I’m doing okay” in week two and the real long-term picture can be the difference between a claim that covers a lifetime of care and one that does not. The insurer knows that, which is why the check-in calls come faster and warmer when the injuries are worse.
Every case turns on its own facts, and the strength of yours depends on what is in the file, so control what goes into it from the first day. If an adjuster has already been calling and you are not sure what you have said, tell us what you remember. We have seen it before, and the sooner the calls stop, the less there is to manage.
You can reach us through our contact page and we will take it from there.
1-800-870-8910