Road traffic accidents are the more common cases of personal injury claims. We at The Injury Lawyers don’t half see a lot of them!
Road accidents are common; and no matter how big or small the incident, the injuries a victim of a negligent driver can suffer can be sometimes be quite serious.
Here are some common examples of where you may stand should you be injured in an accident:
- Rear end shunts: These really are no brainers, and are as straight forward as can be! If someone collides with the rear of your vehicle, they are at fault! You have a claim for compensation.
- Pulling out of a side road: another normally clear cut example of a straight forward case; if another driver pulls out of a side round and collides with you on the main road, it’s more than likely you have a claim for compensation.
- Bus accidents: We have seen a lot of these lately. The bus driver and service provider have a duty of care to ensure you are safe on your journey. If you are injured due to the negligent driving of a bus driver, you may have a claim for compensation!
- Passengers: If you are a passenger in a road traffic accident, you definitely have a claim for compensation! There is obviously nothing you could have done to have prevented or contributed to the accident – you are therefore entitled to claim for any suffering!
Generally road traffic accidents are straight forward in nature. The reason is that there is the majority of the time always someone at fault – liability is not usually difficult to establish!
The most common injuries from these types of accidents generally involve some form of whiplash – whiplash injuries can last from a few weeks to longer than a year. So it’s important to get the right representation and advice for your whiplash claim for compensation.
So who should you choose to deal with your claim for personal injury?
We suggest an independent expert personal injury solicitor such as ourselves. Only an independent specialist solicitor with many years of personal injury experience behind them is best placed to represent you for your claim.
Who to avoid: Insurance companies and claims management companies!!! Insurance companies will the majority of the time sell the details of your claim on to another solicitor who is actually willing to pay for the rights to have your claim! So not only do you not get the choice of who to instruct, but they have already paid up to £800 (which is the base running cost for a claim anyway) just for the rights to have your claim. That means they’ve spent up already, and have less to spend on winning your claim! And who knows what kind of solicitor you could end up with…
Claims management companies: Avoid them! – you will more often than not get an unqualified and inexperienced claims handler to deal with your claim, what you need is a professionally qualified solicitor to represent you if you are to get the maximum compensation you are entitled to.
There is also something else to be weary of – offers form insurance companies! The third party insurers may offer you a quick lump sum to settle your claim, usually £1000. Your claim is likely to be worth more than this; they just want you to settle early so they can save money and get you off their books! It’s impossible to fully value your claim without medical evidence – so how do the insurers know how much it’s worth without it???
The ugly truth is… they don’t!
JSB Guidelines (which is what we and Judges use to value claims together with medical evidence) show that statistically the average payout for a minor whiplash claim is around £2,500 – with a bracket of up to £5,000.
So don’t get stung! Look around for who can offer the best advice, and make sure you get an independent specialist personal injury solicitor to represent you!
