General Info

Accidents
(except MVAs)

Types of Injury

Motor Vehicle Accidents

 

 

Statements to Insurers Discoverable - Iwamoto

Insurers often refuse to produce statements made to them by their insureds on the basis that they are "attorney-client" privileged or "made in anticipation of litigation". This position is contrary to existing case law, but the insurers nonetheless often refuse to abide by controlling precedent. In the case of Iwamoto v. Hirata, 49 Haw. 514, 516, 422 P.2d 99, 100 (1966) the Hawaii Supreme Court upheld a motion to compel the production of an insured's statement made to the insurance carrier "soon after the accident" and considerably before plaintiff had counsel and filed suit. Statements taken under such circumstances have been consistently found to have 'good cause' for their production. Standard discovery requests - and the right questions of an insured in a deposition - may be sufficient to set up a Motion to Compel and for Sanctions. In this and many other ways, claimants must vigilantly seek to counteract insurance company secrecy and wrongful practices.