The right to remain silent may be a mainstay of American jurisprudence but—as a recent appellate opinion attests—it may be costly to exercise that right when your insurance company wants to discuss your burned-down house.  

Upholding a trial judge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said that a man whose homeowner’s policy required him to be examined under oath blew it when he instead sat silent, apparently upset over assertions by an Allstate Insurance lawyer that he had been ducking the interview.