Jarred Marks A recorded statement
You are not required to give one to the other driver's insurer. It is taken early, while your symptoms are still developing, and it fixes your account of the collision and your injuries before either is complete.
Utah Injury Claims · Dealing With Insurers
You are dealing with two insurers after a Utah collision, and your obligations to them are not the same.
The short answer
Your own PIP carrier is a company you have a contract with, and that contract obliges you to cooperate with its handling of your claim. The other driver's liability insurer is an opponent, and you owe it nothing.
Most of the trouble on this subject comes from treating the second like the first.
Your own insurer
Report the collision, give the information your policy requires, and submit your medical bills so PIP pays them. Benefits are payable monthly as expenses are incurred, and are overdue if the insurer does not pay within 30 days of receiving reasonable proof under U.C.A. § 31A-22-309(5).
If your own insurer is refusing to pay benefits that are due, that is a claim in contract, and the statute provides for interest at 1.5% per month plus your attorney fee if the insurer has to be sued for them.
The other driver's insurer
You are not required to give one to the other driver's insurer. It is taken early, while your symptoms are still developing, and it fixes your account of the collision and your injuries before either is complete.
A general release opens your entire medical history rather than the records from this collision, which is how a pre-existing condition becomes the defence.
An offer made before treatment ends is priced on an incomplete record, and accepting it closes the claim at that value permanently.
Utah bars recovery once your share of fault reaches half, so how you describe your own driving is worth real money.
What to give
Identify yourself, confirm the date, location and vehicles, and give your insurance information. That is what the exchange requires. You do not have to characterise how the collision happened, estimate speeds, or say that you feel fine.
Saying that you will follow up once you have finished treating is a complete and accurate answer, and it is the one most people wish they had given.
Related
How Utah's no-fault PIP system works, what PIP pays, and the six statutory ways to cross the threshold and claim pain and suffering from the at-fault driver.
A straight answer on when a Utah car accident claim needs a lawyer and when it does not, including the fault rule that bars recovery at an even split.
What actually determines the value of a Utah car accident claim: medical expenses, lost income, general damages, insurance limits, comparative fault and liens.
A case review costs nothing and takes about 15 minutes. If the claim does not need a lawyer, we will say so.