Duty to Cooperate Clause: It is a clause within your policy that forces you to help your insurance company.

It does not say how! You could deny recorded statements.

The Duty to Cooperate clause is in every insurance policy out there. It puts the insured in the position of having to provide whatever information, or help the insurance company requests. Not only the information has to be provided, but it also has to be provided in a timely manner.

There are not many restrictions in what information the insurance company can acquire to adjust a claim. The only real limitation is that the information requested must relate to the claim being made.

However, insurance carriers can very often justify the need for any information. If you have a property damage claim only, it will not be necessary to see your medical records.

They can request very intrusive information, like who lives with you, your relationships, your habits, or whatever they feel like is necessary to investigate a loss. They can look at medical records, financial data, legal documents, personal documents, when investigating a claim.

They will provide you with medical authorization forms so they can request your medical history. They will also give you employment forms so they can contact your employer (or clients), look at your taxes, vacation status, sick leave, and anything else they need.

They can ask you to give declarations under oath, appear in court, and work with their attorney. Failure of complying with any of this could result in denial of coverage. Note that insurance companies will ask for your statement and they will quote the �Duty to Cooperate�.

You are obligated to give your statement and explain your version of events, but you are not required by state law or the policy to do it in any specific manner. This means that you could do it in writing, verbally or in a recorded statement (read more on recorded statements), but you can decline to be recorded without jeopardizing coverage. Duty to Cooperate does not mean you have to give a recording.

It is important to mention that most insurance companies do not actually deny coverage based on the duty to cooperate clause alone. They have a duty to protect your interest, and by denying coverage because of cooperation can put them in a bad position in front of judge.

If they want to do this, the claim would have to be documented very well. They would have to request the information that you want several times (in writing), and would have to give you a good faith chance to respond.

The second thing that must happen is that they could not obtain the information from anywhere else. For example, if you do not want to give your statement (sometimes accident can be horrible and you just simply do not want to go over it again), then the insurance company needs to seek the information they seek from the police report.

If the police report sheds light in the information they need, then there will be not need for your statement and therefore they cannot deny coverage on the grounds of �Duty to Cooperate�.

The Duty to Cooperate is Complemented by the Subrogation of Rights clause. Here you are required to help the carrier go after the responsable party. Read more.

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