Five documents an adjuster sends in the first two weeks Sign none of them without a lawyer.

Five documents show up in the first two weeks: a recorded statement consent, a blanket medical authorization, a property damage release, a general release, and a wage and employment authorization. You are not required to sign any of them for the other driver’s insurance company. Each one has a narrower version that gets the adjuster what the claim needs without handing over the rest.

What a release and an authorization do

The five documents side by side

1. The form letting them record you

The call comes within a few days and the adjuster is pleasant. What they want is your account of the crash and your injuries, recorded, before you have seen a doctor who can tell you what is wrong. Two months later, when your shoulder turns out to be torn, the recording of you saying “I’m okay, just sore” is in the file. You have no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s carrier, meaning its insurance company.

Your own insurer is a different relationship. That policy contains a cooperation clause, and refusing outright can put your own coverage at risk, so the answer there is to cooperate on the facts and stay off the medical questions until you know the answers. Insurance Code section 790.03(h)(14) also lists directly advising a claimant not to obtain the services of an attorney among the unfair claims settlement practices.

2. The form opening your whole history

This is the form that does the most damage. Signed as written, it lets the carrier request records from any provider, for any period, for any part of your body. What comes back is not your crash treatment. It is the back complaint from 2019, the physical therapy after a skiing trip, and every note that can be used to argue that your neck was already like this.

California sets rules for these forms. Civil Code section 56.11 requires a valid authorization to be handwritten or in type no smaller than 14 point, to be separate from other language on the page and signed only for the authorization, and to state the specific uses and limits on the information disclosed. It must name who may disclose and who may receive the information, carry an expiration date or event no more than one year out in most cases, and advise you of your right to receive a copy. A one line form that says “any and all medical records” is not the narrowest thing you can sign; it is the broadest.

The alternative is simple and adjusters accept it every day: you request the records yourself and send them, limited to the treatment for this crash. If the carrier insists on its own form, cross out the open ended scope, write in the body parts and the date range, initial the change, and keep a copy.

3. The release for the car repair

Two weeks in, you want your car back. The adjuster sends a check for the repair or the total loss value and a release to sign first. If that release is limited on its face to property damage, signing it is ordinary business. If it is drafted as a release of “all claims arising out of the accident,” you have been handed an injury release with a car sized number on it.

Read the form for two things. First, the scope line: does it say property damage, or does it say all claims? Second, whether it waives Civil Code section 1542, which provides that “a general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement.” A 1542 waiver in a car repair document is not boilerplate; it is the point of the document.

4. The release that ends your claim

The general release ends the claim. Every carrier requires one to settle, and there is nothing improper about it; the problem is timing. An offer that arrives before treatment is finished is a negotiating position, not a valuation, and the release attached to it is permanent. Once it is signed, a herniation that declares itself in month four belongs to you alone.

Watch the check as well as the paper. Language on the back or in the endorsement line that describes the payment as full and final settlement can be argued to do the same work as the release. Before agreeing to any number, ask for the release language in writing and read the scope line first. Our post on dealing with insurance after an accident covers what the adjuster is required to do while you take that time.

5. The form opening your work records

If you are claiming lost income, the carrier is entitled to proof of it. What the standard form requests is broader: your personnel file, your full earnings history, and often permission to speak with your employer. That produces attendance records and performance notes that have nothing to do with a crash and everything to do with a defense theory.

Offer the proof instead of the access. A letter from human resources stating your position, your rate of pay, and the dates you missed, plus the pay stubs bracketing the crash, documents a wage loss claim completely. If the claim is large or the work is self-employed, that is the moment to have someone build the presentation properly, because lost earnings and lost earning capacity are separate items with separate proof.

What to send back instead

None of that is hostile and none of it slows the property claim down. It is the difference between giving the carrier what the claim requires and giving it everything it asked for.

When this does not apply

• Your own insurer, on your own claim. First party coverage, meaning coverage under your own policy, including uninsured motorist and MedPay, comes with a duty to cooperate. The approach there is to give the facts and keep the medical questions accurate rather than to decline.
• A narrow property damage release. If it says property damage only and reserves the injury claim, sign it and get your car back.
• No injury at all. If you walked away, treated once, and feel fine two weeks later, a general release for a fair repair number ends a matter that has nothing else in it.
• A deadline is close. Protecting information matters less than protecting the claim itself. The dates are in our post on every California injury deadline.
• You already signed one. Signing is not always the end of the analysis. Bring the document to an attorney before you decide it is.

What is safe to sign

Nothing that ends a claim, and nothing that opens your history. Confirm the facts in writing, send the crash treatment records yourself, hand over an employer letter for the wage loss, and take the property damage payment only on a release that says property damage. It costs you nothing with the carrier.

If the forms are already in front of you, photograph every page, including the back of any check, before you decide anything. We handle the recorded statement and the paperwork for our clients so the adjuster is talking to us while you are treating. Our Los Angeles car accident lawyer page explains how a claim runs from there, our post on handling insurance companies after an injury covers the conversations, and there is no fee unless we recover.